I'm actually expecting a "normal" 7800X to come; the main difference between the 7700X and 7800X being the TDP: 105W for the former and 170W for the latter.

Also, later down the road I'm expecting versions without the X, which drop the TDP one tier (so 170W -> 105W -> 65W)

I don't think the gap between the 7700X and the 7900X is big enough to make room for a regular 7800X and a 7800X3D, but we'll see.

Also, the non-X versions have already appeared in the latest CPU-Z update. Maybe OEM only?

The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Mafia for free is an offer you can't refuse
https://www.pcgamer.com/mafia-for-free-is-an-offer-you-cant-refuse/
2K's golden goose is the Grand Theft Auto series, but in one of those quirks of fate the publisher also ended up eventually acquiring one of the only series that did a good job of offering an alternative. The original Mafia, released in 2002, was an early GTA competitor and many would say the best by a country mile: set in Illinois in the 1930s, the game followed the story of Tommy Angelo as he rose through the ranks of the Salieri mafia family.
(...)
Publisher 2K has announced that, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the game's release, it will be making players an offer they can't refuse: Mafia will be free to all on Steam from September 1 to September 5.
>> Remember, it's from tomorrow, September 1st, not from today.

GOG doesn't have new deals, but they have a new contest to win 3 prizes consisting of Mad Catz peripherals and a GOG Bundle. Learn more here: https://www.gog.com/en/news/take_the_chance_to_win_gaming_essentials_and_superb_gog_bundles.

Steam has two new deals:

• The new daily deal is Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit, 25% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1125910/Crowns_and_Pawns_Kingdom_of_Deceit/
• And Revita also gets a 25% discount, but until September 6: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1175460/Revita/

And Fanatical has two new deals and a bundle:

• The new Star Deal is Warhammer: Chaosbane - Slayer Edition, 85% off during 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/warhammer-chaosbane-slayer-edition
• SNK puts its games up to 75% off during the next 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/snk-corporation
• And the bundle is the BYO Strategy Bundle 3, with16 titles to choose from for your 3, 5 or 7 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-strategy-bundle-3

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Nothing-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This Doom 2 mod is crammed so full of effects it challenges modern PCs
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-doom-2-mod-is-crammed-so-full-of-effects-it-challenges-modern-pcs/
In a just world, I could just tell you that Doom: The False Angel stars a character called "Victoria Noire," and that'd be the end of it. Everyone would rush to download it, sending it skyrocketing to the top of the mod charts off the back of its ridiculously cool protagonist name.
But we live in this world, not a just one. So instead I will tell you that Doom: The False Angel is a mod for Doom 2 whose mission is to bring the mobility and breakneck pace of Doom: Eternal and the garish cool of Devil May Cry to the sprite-filled halls of Doom 2. And it looks like something I'd have drawn up in the back of a school notebook when I was 13.
>> There's a video in the article, in case you need help imagining it.

New graphics overhaul mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/new-graphics-overhaul-mod-for-red-dead-redemption-2-available-for-download/
Razed Mods has released a graphics overhaul mod for Red Dead Redemption 2, called Visual Redemption. And, in case you weren’t aware, Razed Mods is the man behind the amazing NaturalVision Evolved Mod for GTA 5.
According to its description, Visual Redemption (VisualR) currently improves the shadow distance in each weather, reduces the intensity of heat haze, and fixes bloom render on lights. Additionally, it improves water reflections, fixes moon positioning and more.

There's a Castlevania mod that turns Doom into a ghoul-whipping platformer and nobody told me
https://www.pcgamer.com/theres-a-castlevania-mod-that-turns-doom-into-a-ghoul-whipping-platformer-and-nobody-told-me/
One of the things about the modern internet, the part of it we tend to use most in our day-to-day lives, is that it's now a very curated space. There's more information and hashtag content out there than ever before, but the vast majority of it will never be seen by more than a few people, and what breaks the surface is a total crapshoot.
In the last few days a tweet went viral, featuring a short gameplay clip from a GZDoom mod called Simon's Destiny. This is a full remake of the first-ever Castlevania title on NES, and as you can see captures the look of the series perfectly.
The more impressive aspects of Simon's Destiny are how it recreates the verticality of the 2D Castlevania games, with plenty of staircases and platform-hopping, and how well it translates the basic whip-cracking, holy water-chucking action into a snappy 3D combat system. All the iconic upgrades and castle elements are included, and it's just a great love letter to one classic series bound-up in another one. IT's also pretty tough!

GAMING NEWS

Official PC requirements for the Souls-like “Pinocchio” game, Lies of P
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/official-pc-requirements-for-the-souls-like-pinocchio-game-lies-of-p/
NEOWIZ and Round8 Studio have revealed the official PC system requirements (via Steam) for their upcoming Souls-like game, Lies of P.
According to the devs, PC gamers will at least need an AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or Intel Core i5-7500 with 8GB of RAM and an AMD Radeon RX 560 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti.

New The Last of Us Remake vs Remastered Video Graphics Comparison
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-the-last-of-us-remake-vs-remastered-video-graphics-comparison/
Yesterday, Sony released a new gameplay video for The Last of Us Part I Remake, showcasing some gameplay from Bill’s Town. And today, YouTube’s ‘Cycu1’ released a comparison video between this upcoming remake and its remastered PS4 version.

Rocksmith+ releases on PC on September 6th with over 5000 songs
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/rocksmith-releases-on-pc-on-september-6th-with-over-5000-songs/
Ubisoft has announced that Rocksmith+ will release on PC on September 6th, and will have over 5000 songs at launch. And, in case you did not know, Rocksmith+ will be an interactive music learning subscription service. So yeah, pay attention to that “subscription service “.

Open Beta for the Unreal Engine 4-powered action RPG, Torchlight: Infinite, begins on September 5th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/open-beta-unreal-engine-4-action-rpg-torchlight-infinite/
XD GAMES has announced that the open beta phase for the next part in the Torchlight series, Torchlight: Infinite, will begin on September 5th. This beta will be available to everyone and will last until September 18th.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 single-player campaign gameplay footage leaks online
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-single-player-campaign-gameplay-footage-leaks-online/
It appears that some new gameplay footage from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s single-player campaign has been leaked online. In the following video, we get to see almost two minutes of gameplay footage. However, this is off-camera footage so yeah, don’t expect anything particularly impressive from it.

The news, the sequel:

Paradox Interactive's 'ultimate society simulator' arrives in October
https://www.pcgamer.com/paradox-interactives-ultimate-society-simulator-arrives-in-october/
It took more than a decade for Paradox Interactive to announce a follow-up to its epic 19th century grand strategy game Victoria 2, but it won't take much more than a year to get from there to release: Paradox dropped a new Victoria 3 trailer today showing off some gameplay and—this is the important bit—revealing that it will launch on Steam on October 25.

Assassin's Creed Mirage will be revealed in September, according to a new leak
https://www.pcgamer.com/assassins-creed-mirage-will-be-revealed-in-september-according-to-a-new-leak/
It's been almost two years since the release of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the most recent addition to the series, which means we're definitely due for another—and it looks like we might get our first look at what's next at the upcoming Ubisoft Forward event in September.

The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection will be out next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-zachtronics-solitaire-collection-will-be-out-next-week/
Earlier this year, Zachtronics, the indie studio dedicated to making puzzle games that teach you programming languages or entire new ways of thinking, announced it was making its final new game. That game was Last Call BBS, an anthology that includes an excellent model-robot-assembly simulator and another of the Solitaire variants that have become the studio's hallmark. Although Zachtronics isn't backing down on the "no more new games" part of the deal, the studio always planned to follow Last Call BBS with a compilation of all its Solitaire variants as a kind of epilogue. It's now announced The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection will be released on Steam next week.

Developer suspects negative Steam reviews were written by vengeful scammers
https://www.pcgamer.com/developer-suspects-negative-steam-reviews-were-written-by-vengeful-scammers/
Indie beat 'em up Brok the InvestiGator, released this week on Steam, wasn't on my radar until its official Twitter account pointed out something strange about the reviews coming in from Steam curators. In a thread posted on Sunday, developer Cowcat claimed that it was targeted by fraudulent curators who wrote bogus reviews after not even playing the game.

Chinese tech titan NetEase acquires Detroit: Become Human dev Quantic Dream
https://www.pcgamer.com/chinese-tech-titan-netease-acquires-detroit-become-human-dev-quantic-dream/
NetEase, the Chinese games and tech company best known in the west for partnering with Blizzard to bring games like World of Warcraft and Diablo to China, has bought French studio Quantic Dream for an undisclosed amount.
>> Ryuu96 has made a thread about it.

FromSoft looks set to publish its own games after share deal with Sony and Tencent
https://www.pcgamer.com/fromsoft-looks-set-to-publish-its-own-games-after-share-deal-with-sony-and-tencent/
FromSoftware parent company Kadokawa Corporation has announced that it's issuing 3179 new FromSoft shares to Sixjoy Hong Kong and Sony Interactive Entertainment. Sixjoy is a subsidiary brand of Tencent, whom you'll know from having a slice of seemingly every pie known to humankind, and Sony Interactive Entertainment is, well, Sony.
>> And again, Ryuu96 has a thread about this.

AMD Ryzen 7950X3D, 7900X3D and 7800X3D tipped for CES 2023 launch

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-ryzen-7950x3d-7900x3d-and-7800x3d-tipped-for-ces-2023-launch

Its Greymon so take it with a grain of salt. He claimed 5800X3D was supposed to launch last year but we know that didn't happen.

JPR: Q2’22 GPU shipment decreased -14.9% from last quarter: AMD: -7.6%, NVIDIA: -25.7%

https://videocardz.com/press-release/jpr-q222-gpu-shipment-decreased-14-9-from-last-quarter-amd-7-6-nvidia-25-7

AMD’s 5nm Dragon Range “Zen 4” High-Performance Mobility CPUs Would Offer A Monumental Performance & Efficiency Leap Over Zen 3

https://wccftech.com/amd-5nm-zen-4-dragon-range-phoenix-point-cpus-monunmental-performance-efficiency-increase-over-zen-3/

If there's one area where Zen 4 is exciting, it's certainly on their upcoming laptops.

Chinese-Built Loongson 3A6000 CPUs Achieve 68% Faster Single-Core Performance, Will Be Able To Rival Zen 3 & Tiger Lake

https://wccftech.com/chinese-built-loongson-3a6000-cpus-achieve-68-percent-faster-single-core-performance-will-rival-amd-zen-3-intel-tiger-lake/

Remember kids, every Chinese tech product comes with a backdoor to their government

Take it with a massive grain of salt

While surprisingly high, that temp is not out of the realm of what's possible.

The Anandtech article about the reveal remind people that while the TDP of the chips is 170W, the "Power Package Tracking" (PPT), which is the max power the chips can use, is 230W, almost right on par with Intel's 12900K. So, if he was using a 7950X or 7900X and stressed all its cores for a while, those kinds of temps could be possible.

That brings another question for Raptor Lake: if 230W do that, how will people be able to cool the 13900K when it uses more than 300W? With a 480mm proper liquid-cooling setup?

I was looking at the most recent patch notes for Spider-Man Remastered and I noticed this part. Has this type of feature been implemented before??? That's insane that you can force these kinds of aspect ratios if your monitor is only 16:9! Or......4:3?

Well, I remember some games having a "strech to fill" option, but I don't remember a game forcing that aspect ratio itself. They usually just update the game to support the resolution or people do it with mods or some third party software.

This is a really nice addition then! That's pretty awesome of Nixxes to go out of their way to enable such a feature. 

It would have been awesome if they had added native support for those aspect ratios, not just let you force them .

But who knows, it's likely a quicker, cheaper and easier way to do it and, depending on how many people use it, they may add the proper support for them in a future update.