Here come the Friday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Humble Store has a new sale with games from publisher Hypetrain Digital featuring up to 90% discounts during 6 days. There are keys for Steam, GOG (1) and EGS (1): https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/hypetrain-publisher-sale/.

Fanatical has a new Star Deal: Eliza, 60% off during 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/eliza

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Here is how you can use AMD FSR 2.1 in games that support NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 & AMD FSR 2.0
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/here-is-how-you-can-use-amd-fsr-2-1-in-games-that-support-nvidia-dlss-2-0-amd-fsr-2-0/
Yesterday, AMD announced and detailed FSR 2.1, a new version of its AI upscaling tech. And, from the looks of it, this version is compatible with 2.0, meaning that PC gamers can replace the DLL files and enable its latest version.
For all games that support AMD FSR 2.0, all you have to do in order to enable FSR 2.1 is replace the older DLL files. Those interested can download the compiled FSR 2.1 DLLs from here.
Similarly, for games that support NVIDIA’s DLSS, PC gamers can use a trick in order to force/enable AMD FSR 2.1. All you have to do is follow this guide. Modder ‘PotatoOfDoom’, creator of the Cyberpunk 2077 AMD FSR Mod, has already updated it to support AMD FSR 2.1, meaning you won’t have to do any additional installation steps.
>> You'll have to check the article to get the links.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Dark Souls Remastered gets a 35GB AI-enhanced 4K Texture Pack
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/dark-souls-remastered-gets-a-35gb-ai-enhanced-4k-texture-pack/
Modder ‘Jack McKracKen’ has released a 4K Texture Pack for Dark Souls Remastered that enhances all of its environmental textures. This is a must-have Texture Pack for all those playing the first Dark Souls game, so be sure to download it.
In order to enhance the game’s textures, the modder used AI techniques. As such, these new upscaled textures retain the art style and aesthetics of the original ones.

GAMING NEWS

Steelrising’s Ultra Textures require more than 13GB of VRAM, even at 1080p
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/steelrisings-ultra-textures-require-more-than-13gb-of-vram-even-at-1080p/
Nacon has just released its new Souls-like game, Steelrising, on PC. And, surprisingly enough, Steelrising is one of the few games that comes with some ridiculously high VRAM requirements for its Ultra Textures.
>> Ridiculous.

Friday news, part two:

Football Manager 2023 gets a release date and physical edition that lacks anything physical
https://www.pcgamer.com/football-manager-2023-gets-a-release-date-and-physical-edition-that-lacks-anything-physical/
Sports Interactive’s Football Manager 2023 will arrive on November 8 on PC, with those who pre-order being granted early access about two weeks before that date. The press release promises that this iteration "thrusts fans closer to every aspect of the beautiful game", which sounds like a HR complaint waiting to happen.

Crystal Dynamics officially owns Tomb Raider again
https://www.pcgamer.com/crystal-dynamics-officially-owns-tomb-raider-again/
Four months after its acquisition (opens in new tab) by sleeper videogame behemoth Embracer Group, Crystal Dynamics has formally announced that it once again owns Tomb Raider.

Battlefield is getting a 'narrative campaign' from Halo co-creator's new studio
https://www.pcgamer.com/battlefield-is-getting-a-narrative-campaign-from-halo-co-creators-new-studio/
Despite the well-documented troubles with Battlefield 2042, Electronic Arts said today that it remains "all-in on Battlefield," and announced that a new studio called Ridgeline Games, headed by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto, will be developing an all-new campaign "set in the Battlefield universe."

Overwatch 2 will lock new heroes behind the battle pass and fans aren't happy
https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-2-will-lock-new-heroes-behind-the-battle-pass-and-fans-arent-happy/
Anyone who's played Overwatch will know how hero flexibility can make or break a match. Reinhardt isn't going to have much fun swinging his hammer at a troublesome Pharah 30 feet in the air, but switch to Roadhog mid-match and you can chuck your hook at her and bring her tumbling to the ground for an easy kill. So why oh why is Overwatch 2 planning to lock new heroes behind its battle passes?
>> Talking about Overwatch 2's heroes...

Overwatch 2 new hero cinematic leaks: Meet Kiriko
https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-2-new-hero-cinematic-leaks-meet-kiriko/
An unfinished version of what appears to be the cinematic for Overwatch 2's upcoming support hero has leaked onto YouTube.
Update: The original YouTube upload of Kiriko's unfinished short has been copyright claimed by Blizzard and taken down. We've removed it from the story and replaced it with a tweet about it below. (...)

This Paper Mario-inspired indie looks like a GBA classic time forgot
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-paper-mario-inspired-indie-looks-like-a-gba-classic-time-forgot/
There sure are a lot of those "wholesome" games out there, so much so that any prospective cutesy adventure has its work cut out setting itself apart with all the adorable frogs and spooky witches taking gaming by storm. Luckily for Paper Animal RPG, its classic Game Boy Advance charm and gameplay really help it shine.

WoW Classic servers are on fire and Blizzard is trying to put them out
https://www.pcgamer.com/wow-classic-servers-are-on-fire-and-blizzard-is-trying-to-put-them-out/
World of Warcraft Classic, in the weeks before the launch of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, is overflowing.
As players slam the US and EU servers, Blizzard is trying to reduce hours-long queue times before original WoW's most pivotal expansion re-releases in WoW Classic later this month. Players will no longer be able to create new characters or transfer existing ones to the most packed servers, known colloquial in the community as "megaservers," until the populations decrease.

CDPR's big Cyberpunk event also included some extensive new mod tools
https://www.pcgamer.com/cdprs-big-cyberpunk-event-also-included-some-extensive-new-mod-tools/
In addition to the big changes to Cyberpunk 2077 like transmog, plans to overhaul police, and an upcoming expansion pack, CD Projekt Red has also introduced official modding tools to the game. The REDmod tool is available for download on Steam and CDPR's website, and is required both to make and play a new category of mod.

Let's finish the news checking what new deals are available at GOG and Steam during this weekend:

+GOG

• The first Deal of the Day is Stellaris: Nemesis, 30% off during 70 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/stellaris_nemesis
• The second DotD is Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus - Omnissiah Edition, with a 75% discount until Monday: https://www.gog.com/en/game/warhammer_40000_mechanicus_omnissiah_edition
• The third and last DotD is BATTLETECH - Mercenary Collection, 76% off until September 12: https://www.gog.com/en/game/battletech_mercenary_collection
• And there's also the Weekend Sale, with up to 85% discounts on trun-based games during three days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20220909_weekend_sale

+Steam

• The daily deal is NARUTO TO BORUTO: SHINOBI STRIKER, 90% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/633230/NARUTO_TO_BORUTO_SHINOBI_STRIKER/
• The first Midweek Madness deal is Planet Coaster, 75% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/493340/Planet_Coaster/
• The Hypetrain Digital Weekend Publisher Sale features up to 90% discounts until September 12 (but some will last until the 15th): https://store.steampowered.com/sale/hypetrainpublishersale
• Eastward is going to be 30% off until September 15: https://store.steampowered.com/app/977880/Eastward/
• STAR WARS: Squadrons gets a 75% discount until the 15th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1222730/STAR_WARS_Squadrons/
• The Focus Entertainment Weekend Publisher Sale features up to 87% discounts until Thursday 15: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/FocusPublisherWeekend
• And there's a last Weekend Publisher Sale with Bohemia Interactive, featuring discounts that range from 15 to 80% until September 22: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/bohemia2022

Enough with the news. Until next week, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.

Alleged GeForce RTX 4090 GPU runs at 3.0 GHz, scores 20K points in TimeSpy Extreme

https://videocardz.com/newz/alleged-geforce-rtx-4090-gpu-runs-at-3-0-ghz-scores-20k-points-in-timespy-extreme

Hot damn if true!

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4090 cards now listed in Australia

https://videocardz.com/newz/gigabyte-geforce-rtx-4090-cards-now-listed-in-australia

Oh no if true. Although as the article mentions, most likely just a placeholder. Ampere also had crazy prices that were just place holders as well before launch.

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X tested in Cinebench R23 with AMD Core Performance Boost disabled

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-ryzen-5-7600x-tested-in-cinebench-r23-with-amd-core-performance-boost-disabled

So the patterns so far seems to be... Either you get the scores you are expecting but with 90+C temps even under AIOs or you get the temps you are expecting but the scores being low. Hopefully review days will be better.

Intel reveals Arc A-Series desktop GPU specs, A770 with 32 Xe-Cores and up to 16GB 17.5 Gbps memory

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-reveals-arc-a-series-desktop-gpu-specs-a770-with-32-xe-cores-and-up-to-16gb-17-5-gbps-memory

Good old Raja bait and his pairing high vram with slow GPUs.

Intel confirms Core i5-13600 CPU and below are based on Alder Lake die

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-confirms-core-i5-13600-cpu-and-below-are-based-on-alder-lake-die

Kind of shitty but expected out of CPU manufacturers at this point

Here is a sneak preview for the RTX 4090 and RTX 4090 Ti:

"We need a bigger boat"

Impressive they are able to get it down to so low. That cpu has 8 Zen 3+ cores 16 threads and 12 RDNA 2 CUs! Steam Deck really was a wake up call for all these companies.

I also think those RTX 4090 prices are placeholders... or a test to see if crypto arseholes buy them at that price. Lwt's hope for the former.

The 7600X scores with CPB on and off are a bit odd. With it turned off, it's almost on par with the 5600X in the single-core test, but a fair bit faster in the multi-core one.

Some 13th Gen Intel processors using Alder Lake is a disappointment, but given that AMD has nothing anounced in that segment, Intel can do whatever they want and get away with it.

Nvidia RTX 30-Series Ranks First in Latest Steam Survey

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-rtx-most-popular-according-to-steam

Took them long enough but Ampere finally dethroned Pascal.

It's impressive given how expensive the cards were during most of its lifetime, and it's quite easy to see how the recent price drops have done wonders for it.

They are bandwidth starved.
Infinity cache actually makes more sense for APU's than any other part in theory...

In practice it adds a significant cost.

Maybe the end goal is for 3D cache to scale down in cost where they can merge that with APU's to benefit both the CPU/IGP as a single pooled resource. One can dream.

Thankfully we are also transitioning from DDR4 to DDR5... Which has been the absolute largest bottleneck to integrated graphics performance, hence why AMD has kept CU counts relatively static for years and just played with clockrates.. And hoped that the increase in bandwidth as their chips went from DDR4 2400mhz to 3200Mhz will offer enough of a tangible increase.

I have a Ryzen 2700u and 4700u notebook with DDR4 2400mhz/3200mhz respectively both with integrated graphics... And recently bought a new notebook with a Geforce RTX 3060... All because the increase in IGP capability hasn't kept up with gaming, the 6000 series is slow to come to market in designs... But it will offer the biggest leap since the 2700u.