Unless you care about ray tracing. I still remember that Digital Foundry video you posted where they showed that the CPU matters when it comes to the RT performance on some resolutions.

Then again, I doubt someone that buys a 3090 or the future 4090 will go and skimp on the processor.

Yea but if I remember correctly, that might have been ST heavy

cant wait for the p2 for the DF vid of Control of these things in 8k

345W...

I wonder how long the Mobo will last with so much power running through them. And how long the CPU will survive running at this setting!

First you'll need to be able to cool it. This is from a follow up article at Videocardz (sorry for stealing your news, Yuri):

Core i9-13900K breaks 40K points in Cinebench R23 with unlimited power and 5.8 GHz clock
https://videocardz.com/newz/core-i9-13900k-breaks-40k-points-in-cinebench-r23-with-unlimited-power-and-5-8-ghz-clock
(...)

The same Intel CPU has been tested by ECSM, but using different tools. This sample was tested with AIDA64 Stability Test, while HWiNFO window was recording behavior of each core. It shows that 2 out of 8 available Raptor Cove cores reached 5.8 GHz at some point throughout the test. The remaining Performance cores were running at 5.5 GHz while all 16 Efficient cores reached a stable 4.3 GHz clock.

For this test 360mm AIO liquid cooler was used while the CPU package reached 90°C temperature and 314W consumption, suggesting that this CPU as well was tested with unlimited power.

Either he's using a crappy 360 AIO cooler, or this thing will be very difficult to keep cool.

By the way, we've gone past the fact that even in limited mode, this beast uses more than the unlocked 12900K's 241W. Those efficiency cores don't seem to be very efficient to me.

The Monday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam's Top 10

Activision Blizzard earned more on mobile games last quarter than PC and consoles combined
https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-blizzard-earned-more-on-mobile-games-last-quarter-than-pc-and-consoles-combined/
We don't often report on strictly business-related matters here at PC Gamer, but there's an interesting little tidbit stashed away in Activision Blizzard's recent Q2 2022 financial report: Over the three months ending June 30, more than half of the company's total revenues came from mobile games—more than PC and console games combined.
Activision Blizzard earned $332 million on the PC during the quarter, and $376 million on combined console sales. That's a lot of money! Under the "mobile and ancillary" category, however—which Activision Blizzard said "primarily include revenues from mobile devices"—the company pulled in a whopping $831 million for the quarter. It earned a further $105 million in revenues for the quarter in the "Other" category, which includes revenues from its distribution business and the Overwatch and Call of Duty Leagues, but even if you add that amount to PC and console revenues, it's still not enough to surpass the mobile revenue total.

GOG has a total of 6 new sales/deals:

• The first Deal of the Day is Lumencraft, still in development, 25% off during 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/lumencraft
• The second DotD is Dying Light: The Following – Enhanced Edition, 67% off until Wednesday: https://www.gog.com/en/game/dying_light_the_following_enhanced_edition
• And the third, and last, DotD is Dying Light: Definitive Edition, 75% off until August 10th: https://www.gog.com/en/game/dying_light_definitive_edition
• The CDPR 20th Anniversary Sale comes will last 6 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20220808_cdpr_anniversary
• That's not all, because to celebrate the anniversary, they are giving away a series of goodies during the next 70 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/cdpr_goodies_collection
• Given the success of Stray, GOG has put together a Sale with games that feature cats with up to 75% discounts until August 15: https://www.gog.com/partner/cat_games
• The Weekly Sale comes with up to 90% discounts until next Monday: https://www.gog.com/promo/20220808_weekly_sale

Steam has two new daily deals:

• The first one is Chorus, that has a demo, 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1153640/Chorus/
• The second one is NORCO, also 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1221250/NORCO/

We find three sales at Humble:

• Humble Bundle has a Final Frontier Bundle, featuring up to 7 games during the next 11 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/final-frontier-bundle
• The Humble Store has two sales:
  • The Rockstar Publisher Sale brings up to 65% discounts during 4 days. There are keys for Steam, EGS and the Rockstar thing: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/rockstar-publisher-sale/
  • The Indie Hits Sale features up to 90% discounts during 4 days. There are keys for Steam. GOG and EGS: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/indie-hits-sale/

And Fanatical...

• The Summer Sale is on! Check it out here
• There are five "new" bundles: The Jackbox Quintpack, Rimworld with all expansions, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Complete Bundle, Batman: Arkham Collection and The Dark Pictures Anthology - Triple Pack
• And ,as with all big sales, there are rewards for spending. Check them out here: https://www.fanatical.com/en/blog/summer-sale-free-games-spending-sprees-and-rewards

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Steam finally adds support for Nintendo Joy-Con controllers
https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-finally-adds-support-for-nintendo-joy-con-controllers/
Good news for anyone who wants to use Nintendo Joy-Con controllers on their PC: The devices are now officially supported by Steam.
Joy-Cons have actually been functional on PCs for years now: French site Nintendo Actu first figured out how to make them work back in 2017. But that was a limited implementation, with only one of the two controllers usable at a time in singleplayer games. The official Steam support is much more robust, however, making them usable "both individually as a mini-gamepad and combined into pairs," and—according to user comments—with remappable buttons.
>> They only in the last Beta build.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Half-Life Source: Remastered V2 available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/half-life-source-remastered-v2-available-for-download/
Modder “Stane” has released a brand new version of the Half-Life Source: Remastered Collection Mod Pack. This pack features numerous mods that aim to improve the graphics of Half-Life Source.

Star Wars Jedi Knight Mysteries of the Sith Remastered 2.0 available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/star-wars-jedi-knight-mysteries-of-the-sith-remastered-2-0-available-for-download/
Back in May, we informed you about a must-have mod for Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, Star Wars Jedi Knight Remastered. And today, modder GeneralTantor released a new version that supports its expansion, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith.
Star Wars Jedi Knight Mysteries of the Sith Remastered 2.0 features JKGXMOD v0.3.0 beta, Mysteries of the Sith Neural Upscale Texture Pack, Jedi Knight Neural Upscale Texture Pack and Enhancement Mod for JkGfxMod (MotS Edition) 0.40.
JKGXMOD generally improves performance in certain scenarios and brings numerous quality of life improvements. For instance, it has HUD scaling and hardware-accelerated window mode. Additionally, the mod adds support for 32-bit color, Bloom, Ambient Occlusion and Parallax Mapping.

GAMING NEWS

Tower of Fantasy gets two new short gameplay trailers
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/tower-of-fantasy-gets-two-new-short-gameplay-trailers/
Level Infinite and Hotta Studio have released two new trailers for Tower of Fantasy, their upcoming free-to-play open-world MMORPG. These two trailers highlight the creative options open for players as well as showcasing multiplayer action in the game.

New Diablo 4 Alpha leaked screenshots show off character customization
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/new-diablo-4-alpha-leaked-screenshots-show-off-character-customization/
Diablo IV currently has a “Friends and Family” Alpha phase testing, and several screenshots have surfaced from it. These screenshots give us a glimpse at the game’s character customization, game creation, and difficulty selection.

The First Descendant is a new third-person co-op action RPG shooter, powered by Unreal Engine 5
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-first-descendant-is-a-new-third-person-co-op-action-rpg-shooter-powered-by-unreal-engine-5/
Nexon has just announced a new third-person co-op action RPG shooter that will be using Unreal Engine 5, called The First Descendant. In order to celebrate this announcement, the company released the game’s first in-engine trailer that you can find below.

New FATAL FURY/GAROU and Tekken games revealed at EVO 2022
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/new-fatal-fury-garou-and-tekken-games-revealed-at-evo-2022/
At EVO 2022, SNK and Bandai Namco revealed new entries to their FATAL FURY/GAROU and Tekken series, respectively. Unfortunately, though, and aside from a teaser trailer, these companies did not reveal much about them.

Call of Duty Moden Warfare 2 Open Beta phase begins on September 24th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/call-of-duty-moden-warfare-2-open-beta-phase-begins-on-september-24th/
Activision and Infinity Ward have announced that the Open Beta phase for Call of Duty Moden Warfare 2 will begin on September 24th. This Open Beta will allow you to experience/test the game’s multiplayer, and will support crossplay between PC and consoles.

Monday news, part two:

PUBG owner begins active development on lavish adaptation of Korea's biggest fantasy novels
https://www.pcgamer.com/pubg-owner-begins-active-development-on-lavish-adaptation-of-koreas-biggest-fantasy-novels/
PUBG owner Krafton announced last year it had acquired the rights to the popular Korean fantasy novels, The Bird The Drinks Tears, and today revealed it has moved into full production on the title and launched an official website with a bunch of concept art and background information.

Zenless Zone Zero's first beta shows off its roguelike city
https://www.pcgamer.com/zenless-zone-zeros-first-beta-is-showing-off-its-roguelike-city/
Hoyoverse's free-to-play action follow up to Genshin Impact is a game whose combat looks nearly identical but is set in a vastly different structure and world. Zenless Zone Zero is an anime action game where you collect characters (presumably with gacha systems to be revealed at a later date), but instead of an open world game, it's a room-based roguelike.

Tiny MMO Book of Travels lays out big plans for the future
https://www.pcgamer.com/tiny-mmo-book-of-travels-lays-out-big-plans-for-the-future/
Associate editor Lauren Morton chose Book of Travels as her personal pick for game of the year in 2021, but she also acknowledged that its unusual ways—it's "distinctly inconvenient," as she put it—might put some players off. That appeared to be the case in December 2021, when developer Might and Delight laid off a large portion of its staff, although it vowed to continue development of the game.
To its credit, Might and Delight has stuck with it. Earlier this week it posted a new early access development roadmap, and today it dove deeper into what it all means, and what players can expect in the future.

Valorant dev tackles smurfing paranoia: 'smurfs are less common than players think'
https://www.pcgamer.com/valorant-dev-tackles-smurfing-paranoia-smurfs-are-less-common-than-players-think/
Bam! You're dead. It was a headshot from far away with the same gun you're using. Dang, they're pretty good. Maybe even too good. Could they be smurfing?

The Ascent's DLC adds glowing neon melee weapons
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-ascents-dlc-adds-glowing-neon-melee-weapons/
Cyberpunk action RPG The Ascent's got a big DLC on the way, called Cyber Heist, that'll add a journey to a whole new cyberpunk arcology for your mercenary for more cooperative shootin and—in a whole new twist—slashin. The Cyber Heist DLC will add melee weapons to The Ascent, like a big sword, or a big hammer, which naturally have neon on them because if it doesn't fit the aesthetic why bother.

Clever KBRD is a breakout where you bounce balls with your keyboard skills
https://www.pcgamer.com/clever-kbrd-is-a-breakout-where-you-bounce-balls-with-your-keyboard-skills/
I'm a big fan of breakout-style games. You know, ones where you hit a little ball with a paddle and it breaks the blocks? I like those. They are good. One of the first games I ever remember buying was Super Break Out on the Game Boy.
Enter developer Connor Aitken, a fairly new game design graduate, who had an oddly clever idea and made a prototype for us all to enjoy: KBRD. The basic idea is that you've got a little pixel ball, but instead of a paddle you make a paddle using any combination of two keys on your keyboard. So you might stretch between Q and P for a big wide paddle bounce, or broadly redirect using something like P and Z, or W and C for a perfect angle towards a block. New blocks pop up over time, as do little yellow bonus balls.

PC screenshots of Spider-Man Remastered have leaked
https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-screenshots-of-spider-man-remastered-have-leaked/
If you can't wait until August 12 to see how Spider-Man Remastered will look on PC, a handful of screenshots from the review build have leaked via Twitter and Reddit. Here's a look at the display settings and key-mapping menus, and here's some screenshots taken on an ultrawide monitor (though not at high settings). Actually, here's a couple more.
>> You'll have to check the article to see the screenshots.

Multiversus is getting a coop arcade mode "very soon" in Season 1
https://www.pcgamer.com/multiversus-is-getting-a-coop-arcade-mode-very-soon-in-season-1/
Surprise hit platform fighting game Multiversus is picking up steam, with an announcement of what's to come in its Season 1 update at this week's EVO fighting game tournament. Most of it was known: A ranked mode, new cosmetics including skins of bugs bunny as Brünnhilde the Valkyrie, some icons and such, alongside new characters like actual real world basketball player LeBron James, or the decidedly-fictional Rick and Morty.
Perhaps most surprising was an unexpected play mode, a singleplayer and coop Classic Arcade Mode. If that's anything to go on it'll be a mode of successive battles against the AI, like classic arcade fighting game machines. Leakers and rumors say it'll be available either solo or in Multiversus' signature 2v2 mode cooperatively, will have several difficulty settings, and up to 10 stages.

Dragon Ball FighterZ and Samurai Shodown are getting rollback netcode
https://www.pcgamer.com/dragon-ball-fighterz-and-samurai-shodown-are-getting-rollback-netcode/
Annual fighting game tournament EVO returned as an in-person event for the first time since 2019 this year. As well as the competitions, including the first MultiVersus tournament, EVO 2022 included some welcome quality-of-life announcements from Bandai Namco and SNK: rollback netcode is coming to both Dragon Ball FighterZ and Samurai Shodown.

Street Fighter 6 shows off new fighter Kimberley and the return of Juri
https://www.pcgamer.com/street-fighter-6-shows-off-new-fighter-kimberley-and-the-return-of-juri/
As another riveting Evo comes to a close, the fighting game community has been treated to a bunch of neat teasers and announcements. Among them were two character announcements for Street Fighter 6: new fighter Kimberley and the return of fan favourite Juri.

'Epic has been great for many indies', says X-COM and Phoenix Point creator
https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-has-been-great-for-many-indies-says-x-com-and-phoenix-point-creator/
Epic's strategy of timed exclusives helped make it an established source of videogame deals, but not without inspiring quite a bit of vitriol—some from folk with understandable grievances, but a lot of it from Steam stans. This vitriol often gets directed towards the developers who accept these deals, too, as it did when Phoenix Point (opens in new tab) studio Snapshot Games teamed up with the store. This has not, however, soured CEO and X-COM creator Julian Gollop on the strategy.
"When we did our Epic exclusive—this was the very early days of the Epic store promotion—yeah, there was a lot of hostility. And also a lot of conspiracy theories about it. The whole Chinese spyware and all the rest of it. Obviously, that's settled down a bit, and Epic has been great for many indies, in fact. It was another avenue to get funding, of course, which is very, very difficult to get with an indie studio. So overall, it was very positive for Phoenix Point itself. We had extra money that would go into making the game, which we didn't have otherwise. So it really did help the quality of the game itself, helped us get it released sooner rather than later and enabled us to put more content in so it was good."

Micron’s Blazingly Fast 24 Gbps GDDR6X Memory Enters Mass Production, Coming To A Next-Gen NVIDIA GPUs Soon!

https://wccftech.com/micron-24-gbps-gddr6x-memory-enters-mass-production-coming-to-next-gen-nvidia-gpus/

With two suppliers making 24Gbps GDDR6X modules, the Vram prices in theory should go down compared to last time where only Micron was making GDDR6X exclusively for Nvidia but we will see.

ASRock Intel Arc A380 Challenger ITX Graphics Card Benchmarked in Games & 3DMark

https://wccftech.com/asrock-intel-arc-a380-challenger-itx-graphics-card-benchmarked-in-games-3dmark/

Intel Core i9-12900K & Core i9-10980XE CPUs Now Longer Available In Custom Packaging

https://wccftech.com/intel-core-i9-12900k-core-i9-10980xe-cpus-now-longer-available-in-custom-packaging/

NVIDIA announces weaker Q2 gaming GPU sales, now working with channel partners to adjust prices

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-announces-weaker-q2-gaming-gpu-sales-now-working-with-channel-partners-to-adjust-prices

Like the rest of the industry, Nvidia has also been going down

I bought Norco... very good fit for my Steam Deck, it even has several options for text size and fonts.

SteamDB rating 89.12%, MetaScore 88, PC exclusive

Latest data from Valve’s Steam Survey shows that Quest 2 now makes up the majority of headsets on the platform at 50.32% (+1.3%).

https://www.roadtovr.com/meta-quest-2-majority-vr-headset-on-steam/

Pity they'll be raising the price of it soon, it is great standalone and PC VR - I'm currently hoping to find some time to play Moss 2 and waiting eagerly for Red Matter 2.