The prices kinda shocked me tbh
https://www.eurogamer.net/falling-gpu-prices-are-thing-of-the-past-nvidia-says

At the top end, the RTX 4090 will cost an eye-watering $1599. The RTX 4080 16GB will cost $1199, while the RTX 4080 12GB will cost $899.

Afraid to see what a gaming laptop with a mobile version of one of those is going to cost :/

The Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Epic Store gives away two games:

• ARK: Survival Evolved: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/ark
• Gloomhaven: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/gloomhaven

Next week, they'll give away The Drone Racing League.

Steam has two new deals:

• The daily deal is Shenmue III, 80% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/878670/Shenmue_III/
• And Moonlighter will be 80% off until September 28: https://store.steampowered.com/app/606150/Moonlighter/

There's a new Humble Bundle: The Serious Sam Bundle, with up to 17 games and DLCs during the next 13 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/serious-sam-bundle.

And Fanatical has a couple things for us:

• The BYO Triple Pack 2 comes with 9 titles to choose your 3 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-triple-pack-2
• And there's another Wishlist & Win Contest, with a chance to win one of the 25 $10 spending sprees. Learn more here: https://www.fanatical.com/en/blog/wishlist-and-win-conte">st-spending-sprees-to-be-won-2022

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD (Radeon) Software Adrenalin 22.9.1
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-22-9-1
Support for:

• Support for Call of Duty : Modern Warfare II Open Beta.

Fixed Issues

• Enhanced Sync may cause an intermittent black screen to occur during gameplay and video playback using extended displays and toggling Enhanced Sync.

Known Issues

• Radeon Super Resolution may fail to trigger after changing resolution or HDR settings on games such as Nioh 2.
• Oculus dashboard menu and rendered controllers may appear bouncing/wobbly on Oculus Quest 2 with some AMD Graphics Products such as the Radeon RX 6800 XT Graphics.
• GPU utilization may be stuck at 100% in Radeon performance metrics after closing games on some AMD Graphics Products such as Radeon 570.
• While previewing the timeline in VEGAS Pro, some colors may appear inverted.
• Display may briefly show corruption when switching between video and game windows on some AMD Graphics Products such as the Radeon RX 6700 XT.
• When Vertical Refresh Sync is set globally to Always Off, system stuttering or driver timeout may occur during video playback using Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs.
• Users may encounter dropped frames during video playback using hardware acceleration in browsers on Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Take-Two has shut down the Grand Theft Auto IV Definitive Edition Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/take-two-has-shut-down-the-grand-theft-auto-iv-definitive-edition-mod/
The team behind the Definitive Edition mods for the first four Grand Theft Auto games have revealed that the mod for GTA IV has been taken down. (...) Interestingly enough, GTA IV Ultimately Beautiful Edition has also been taken down. Now I don’t know the reasons why this particular mod is no longer available. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if Take-Two is also responsible for this. After all, the company has shut down A LOT of mods for its classic Grand Theft Auto games.
>> Now the question is, are Take-Two/Rockstar doing this just for the sake of being d*cks, or they're d*cks because they'll launch a GTA IV remaster/remake/Definitive Edition and don't want to give people other (maybe even better) options? We'll see.

GAMING NEWS

Microsoft Flight Simulator Update 10 released, adds DLSS support, improves DX12, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/microsoft-flight-simulator-update-10-released-adds-dlss-support-improves-dx12-full-patch-notes/
Microsoft and Asobo have released the tenth major update for Microsoft Flight Simulator. According to the release notes, this new update adds support for NVIDIA’s DLSS tech. Moreover, it brings a number of DX12 improvements.

NVIDIA’s Racer RTX will be available for download in November 2022
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidias-racer-rtx-will-be-available-for-download-in-november-2022/
Yesterday, NVIDIA showcased an incredible racing game, called Racer RTX, that used real-time Ray Tracing, DLSS 3, and PhysX. And today, we are happy to report that this playable tech demo will be available for download this November.

Judgment and Lost Judgment now both support AMD FSR 2.1
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/judgment-and-lost-judgment-now-both-support-amd-fsr-2-1/
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has released a new patch for Judgment and Lost Judgment that adds support for AMD FSR 2.1. AMD FSR 2.1 is the latest version of AMD’s upscaling tech, which aims to improve image quality and performance over its previous 2.0 version.

The second part of the Thursday news:

The DHS is spending $700,000 on researching counterterrorism in games
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-dhs-is-spending-dollar700000-on-researching-counterterrorism-in-games/
The United States' Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is devoting almost $700,000 of funding to a research project aimed at countering terrorist recruitment via games like Roblox, Ars Technica reports.
The grant totals an incredibly specific $699,763, and will go to research aimed at the "development of a set of best practices and centralized resources for monitoring and evaluation of extremist activities".

Holy cow, Dark Souls 3 PC servers are offline again
https://www.pcgamer.com/holy-cow-dark-souls-3-pc-servers-are-offline-again/
After seven months of silence, Darks Souls 3 PvP servers on PC finally roared back to life at the end of August. It was fun while it lasted, but it didn't last long, because a month later they're offline again.

Saints Row's disappointing launch won't derail the future of the series
https://www.pcgamer.com/saints-rows-disappointing-launch-wont-change-plans-for-the-future-of-the-series/
The head of Deep Silver parent company Embracer Group admitted today that the recent Saints Row reboot didn't meet his expectations, but said that his long-term view of the series remains unchanged.

Project Cars 2 is gone from Steam forever
https://www.pcgamer.com/project-cars-2-is-gone-from-steam-forever/
Slightly Mad Studios announced a month ago that Project Cars 2, one of the best racing sims ever, was being removed from Steam on September 21. I hope you were able to grab it if you wanted it, because today is the day and sure enough, it's gone.

Dark fantasy strategy game Gord looks like a Diablo town manager
https://www.pcgamer.com/gord-first-gameplay-video/
Remember the crappy little starting town in Diablo 2? It's an encampment, technically: A few tents and wagons with a wall to keep out skeletons. Now imagine that instead of a hero passing through on their way to fight the devil, you're the mayor of that awful place. That's the scenario in upcoming strategy game Gord, more or less.

Star Citizen now has over half a billion dollars in crowdfunding
https://www.pcgamer.com/star-citizen-now-has-over-half-a-billion-dollars-in-crowdfunding/
Despite almost a decade of development with no full release, Star Citizen continues to rake in money from people putting faith in the controversial space sim. As of September 20, the game has managed to accrue over half a billion dollars in crowdfunding, solidifying itself as the most expensive game to date.

Spelunky 2 just achieved its last 'major goal' for online, so now you can pratfall with friends across platforms
https://www.pcgamer.com/spelunky-2-just-achieved-its-last-major-goal-for-online-so-now-you-can-pratfall-with-friends-across-platforms/
Almost exactly two years after it first released, Spelunky 2 has been updated with crossplay between players on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, so you can now die ingloriously in front of your console-bound friends in the game's Arena and Adventure modes.

Overwatch 2 will make hero swapping a bigger deal despite locking them behind battle pass
https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-2-will-make-hero-swapping-a-bigger-deal-despite-locking-them-behind-battle-pass/
Many Overwatch players were frustrated that heroes in the sequel won't be free for everyone like they are in the first game, limiting your ability to swap heroes mid-match. Blizzard's reasoning for the change was that most people don't swap and that the game is designed so that you don't have to as often. Despite this, a new ability that encourages you to change heroes suggests that it will remain an important part of the game.
>> Oh, and they've bumped the frame cap limit to 600fps.

PUBG permabans Steam chargeback fraudsters
https://www.pcgamer.com/pubg-permabans-steam-chargeback-fraudsters/
Player Unknown's Battlegrounds is at the moment enjoying a second wind. Following a nonsensical name change last year (to PUBG: Battlegrounds) it followed-up by going free-to-play in January, a belated recognition that the genre it popularised risked leaving the game behind. It worked too, with the game picking up more than 80,000 users per day since the switch, and owner Krafton reporting a 20% bump in revenue.
There's still a lot of money in PUBG, in other words, and so it's a target for all kinds of fraud attacks. It seems that one has met with temporary success before being noticed, and Krafton's now stamped down on it.

YouTuber Dunkey now has an indie publishing label
https://www.pcgamer.com/youtuber-dunkey-now-has-an-indie-publishing-label/
After 11 years of making YouTube videos, Dunkey (aka videogamedunkey) is breaking into the indie publishing world, setting up BigMode with his wife Leah.
He announced his new label in the five-minute video "My Indie Game Publishing Company," in which he claims he's "sick of waiting on the sidelines waiting for great games to appear," instead wanting to get involved in making them happen.
>> TallSilhouette has made a thread about it.

Nice to see DLSS 2,0 added already before the new cards and 3.0 support and I'll keep an eye out for some benches to see how good a boost it ends up with.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Runs At Up To 2850 MHz at Stock Within 50C Temps In Cyberpunk 2077, DLSS 3 Cuts GPU Wattage By 25%

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4090-runs-up-to-2850-mhz-at-stock-50c-temps-in-cyberpunk-2077-dlss-3-cuts-gpu-wattage-by-25-percent/

Very impressive temps considering the clocks its running. Should be able to OC above 3Ghz easily.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, 4080 16 GB, 4080 12 GB Custom Models Listed By OCUK, Prices Range From £949 To £1999

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4090-4080-16-gb-4080-12-gb-custom-models-listed-by-ocuk-949-1999-prices/

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X CPU Overclocked To 7.2 GHz On 1-Core, 6.5 GHz Across All Cores Using LN2 Cooling

https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-9-7950x-cpu-overclocked-to-7-2-ghz-on-1-core-6-5-ghz-across-all-cores-ln2-cooling/

‘Moore’s Law’s dead,’ Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says in justifying gaming-card price hike

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/moores-laws-dead-nvidia-ceo-jensen-says-in-justifying-gaming-card-price-hike-11663798618

“We are very, very specifically selling into the market a lot lower than is what’s selling out of the market, a significant amount lower than what’s selling out of the market,” Huang said. “And I’m hoping that by Q4 time frame, sometime in Q4, the channel would have normalized, and it would have made room for a great launch for Ada.” To critics, Huang said he feels the higher price is justified, especially since the cutting-edge Lovelace architecture is necessary to support Nvidia’s expansion into the so-called metaverse. “A 12-inch [silicon] wafer is a lot more expensive today than it was yesterday, and it’s not a little bit more expensive, it is a ton more expensive,” Huang said.

Personally, I don't think it's a good enough reason but I do think more and more that RDNA 3 will be just as costly but we will see.

AMD Radeon RX 6000 “RDNA 2” GPUs Get Official Price Cuts Prior To Radeon RX 7000 “RDNA 3” Launch

https://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-rx-6000-rdna-2-gpus-official-price-cuts-prior-to-radeon-rx-7000-rdna-3-launch/

Around 20% decrease for most GPUs. Some higher some lower.

Well supposedly, the reason they didn't is because it was too laggy on Ampere/Turing as the instruction sets on Ampere wasn't fast enough to compute. The tensor core was the biggest improvement this gen going from 320 Tensor ops from Ampere (3090Ti) to 1400 in Ada (Eventual 4090Ti). So I don't think they are totally lying. I am sure if you go down the stack low enough with like a 4050, that could have similar tensor performance as 3080/3090. But they can't just support a few GPUs, they would have to support all the way down to a 3050 which then would get bottlenecked.

So while I don't like it, I can see the reasoning if its legit. The good thing is that DLSS 2 will be supported in every game that has DLSS 3 so Ampere/Turing users will continue to get DLSS support. They are also going to continue to improve DLSS 2 as it directly affects DLSS 3 as well and any improvements to DLSS 2 will apply to Ampere/Turing users.

GN raging about the sheer size and weight of Ada Lovelace Graphics Cards (All take over 3 slots). And the increasingly absurd names of those cards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGARjRBJRX8

JayZ 2 Cents railing against the 4080 12GB and NVidia's history of doing such things in the past:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7TRFK3lCOQ

DLSS 3 marketing dissected:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFMSgzJlzFI

Yea that guy is one of the biggest AMD shills out there. Lets not go down to his level...

Possibly (never seen any videos of him before), but when NVidia claims zero latency and input lag with him explaining that that's impossible since it needs to wait for the next frame to calculate the frames in between, he's not exactly wrong there.