The smart move is to wait for the inevitable 2nd gen X3D processors. A 7700X with 3D cache and limited to 65W should be stupidly efficient.

From the rumors, there wono't be a 7700 with 3D cache. Only 7800, 7900 and 7950 were mentioned, tho back then we still thought we would have a regular 7800X processor so well, who knows.

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has two deals:

• There's a new Deal of the Day: Succubus, 27% off during 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/succubus
• The Nihon Falcon Sale brings up to 75% discounts during 6 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20220927_nihon_falcom_sale

Steam has three new deals:

• Hokko Life will be 33% off until October 3rd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/824000/Hokko_Life/
• Townscaper gets a 40% discount until October 10th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1291340/Townscaper/
• And the Multiplayer & Fun Week features up to 70% discounts until the 10th of October. Keep in mind that the sale seems focused on the Chinese market, with some titles only available in that language: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/multiplayerweek

The Humble Store has the new Team 17 Publisher Sale, with up to 90% discounts during the next 6 days. All the keys are for Steam, and some are available to download: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/team-17-publisher-sale/

And Fanatical has two new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Partisans 1941, 88% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/partisans-1941
• The BundleFest has a new bundle: the Savior Bundle with 8 games with a 96% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/savior-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Steam is dropping Lunar New Year sales and adding a big new Spring Sale
https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-is-dropping-lunar-new-year-sales-and-adding-a-big-new-spring-sale/
Valve is making some changes to its seasonal Steam sales that will see Lunar New Year sales dropped, and a new, major Spring Sale event added in its place.
Steam has traditionally had major sales in summer, fall (paired with Black Friday), and winter, but spring has always been a little different. Rather than a traditional sale, the passing of winter has brought us a "Spring Cleaning Event" over the past several years, which was more of a "let's do something about your ridiculous backlog before the Summer Sale kicks off" kind of thing than a regular, seasonal sale. There was actually no spring-specific event at all this year: Instead, we had the Going Rogue event in the first week of May, and the Racing Fest in the last week.
Under this new system, the second-best season of the year will finally take its proper place amongst the Steam sale big boys. Valve said the new Spring Sale will be similar to the other seasonal sales, and that developers can expect similar levels of support from Steam in making it happen.
>> I like this move. The Lunar New Year Sale was too close to the Winter one to make a lot of sense... tho the same can be said about the Autumn and Winter ones.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This Skyrim mod gives the Dragonborn their greatest challenge: A desk job
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-skyrim-mod-gives-the-dragonborn-their-greatest-challenge-a-desk-job/
One of the nice things about a game like Skyrim is that you can safely ignore the main questline for, well, as long as you like. You're the Dragonborn, but you don't technically need to act like it. Some mods, like Alternate Start - Live Another Life, help out by letting you skip the original introductory sequence and begin the game as just another citizen of Skyrim instead of the fabled Dragonborn.
And here's yet another way to shirk your duties as a legendary dragonslayer and direct your efforts toward another equally noble pursuit: a desk job. The 9 to 5 Office Job Mod for Skyrim Special Edition lets you trade in your sword and shield for a pen and parchment. This may be a fantasy world, but that doesn't mean there isn't paperwork to be done.

GAMING NEWS

Here are 16 minutes of gameplay from the open-world action roguelite game, Ravenbound
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-16-minutes-of-gameplay-from-the-open-world-action-roguelite-game-ravenbound/
IGN has shared a video, showcasing 16 minutes of gameplay footage from the upcoming open-world action roguelite game, Ravenbound. This video shows off some aerial and combat gameplay, a town, a dungeon, and much more.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the first game that supports Intel’s XeSS
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider-is-the-first-game-that-supports-intels-xess/
Nixxes Software has released a new patch for Shadow of the Tomb Raider that adds XeSS graphics support for DX12-compatible systems. As such, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the first game that supports Intel’s upscaling tech.

Project GRAY is an impressive open-world action RPG, created by a single person
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/project-gray-is-an-impressive-open-world-action-rpg-created-by-a-single-person/
In-D has shared a prototype video of its upcoming open-world action RPG, Project GRAY, showcasing 16 minutes of gameplay footage. Now what’s really interesting here is that In-D is a one-man studio, meaning that everything you’ll see was created by a single person.

Overwatch 2 will require a phone number, has a ping system, will require level grinding
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/overwatch-2-will-require-a-phone-number-has-a-ping-system-will-require-level-grinding/
Overwatch 2 releases on October 4th and Blizzard revealed some new details about it. According to the team, all players across all platforms will be required to have a phone number attached to their battle.net account to launch Overwatch 2.
>> Any new details about this games makes it worse and worse.

Unreal Engine 4-powered Kena: Bridge of Spirits now supports NVIDIA DLSS 2
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/unreal-engine-4-powered-kena-bridge-of-spirits-now-supports-nvidia-dlss-2/
Ember Lab has just released Kena: Bridge of Spirits on Steam. Kena: Bridge of Spirits uses Unreal Engine 4 and for its Steam release, Ember Lab implemented support for NVIDIA’s DLSS 2 AI-upscaling tech.

Death Stranding now supports Intel XeSS, AMD FSR 2.0 & NVIDIA DLSS 2
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/death-stranding-now-supports-intel-xess-amd-fsr-2-0-nvidia-dlss-2/
Kojima Productions has released a brand new update for Death Stranding that adds support for both Intel XeSS and AMD FSR 2.0. As such, Death Stranding is the first PC game that supports all the upscaling techniques that are currently available on PC.

Wild Hearts will release in February 2023, official gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/wild-hearts-will-release-in-february-2023-official-gameplay-trailer/
EA and KOEI Tecmo have announced that their hunting game, Wild Hearts, will release on February 17th, 2023. This game will be only coming on current-gen platforms, and below you can find its official gameplay trailer.

Wednesday news, part two:

I almost don't believe the destructibility in this FPS is real
https://www.pcgamer.com/i-almost-dont-believe-the-destructibility-in-this-fps-is-real/
I thought multiplayer shooters had run out of ways to surprise me, but I had a genuine shock to the system yesterday morning watching this gameplay trailer for The Finals, a free-to-play FPS in development by the ex-Battlefield devs at Embark Studios. The trailer shows a brief look at what's apparently possible in The Finals: Entire buildings crumbling into hundreds of pieces at the whim of a grenade launcher while players parkour across the falling debris like Nathan Drake.

Turn Metal: Hellsinger into Jazz: Bebopswinger with new, free modding tools
https://www.pcgamer.com/turn-metal-hellsinger-into-jazz-bebopswinger-with-new-free-modding-tools/
Metal: Hellsinger, the high-speed headbanging FPS from Hell, features a "great soundtrack and well-integrated rhythmic combat," we said in our 78% review. But what's a poor gamer to do if they want to rock out against the hordes of Hades but, well, they really just don't care for metal?
Enter the power of mods. Announced today by The Outsiders and Funcom, Metal: Hellsinger's free modding tool enables users to insert their own music into the game, and make it react appropriately to the player's performance. Want to be a K-Pop Killer? A Disco Death Machine? An EDM MDK? All things, at least insofar as musical massacres go, are possible.

You can stop FIFA 23 from telling you you're bad at FIFA 23
https://www.pcgamer.com/you-can-stop-fifa-23-from-telling-you-youre-bad-at-fifa-23/
We've all had less than ideal matches in games. No matter what you play, from Rocket League to League of Legends, you'll know there are games in which you could have performed better. Normally any scathing remarks come from your opponents or maybe even the people you're playing with, and you can mute or just block them from engaging with you again. But FIFA likes to use its own commentators to rinse you a little bit when you're not performing well and, if that rubs you the wrong way, you can now turn this feature off.

New Overwatch 2 accounts have to unlock old heroes, too
https://www.pcgamer.com/new-overwatch-2-accounts-have-to-unlock-old-heroes-too/
As part of Overwatch's transition into a free-to-play game with its sequel, Overwatch 2 will have restrictions on new players to help prevent cheating and "disruptive players," Blizzard wrote in a blog post today. Most notably, new accounts, which have never played the original game before, will have to earn access to most of its game modes and heroes.

Overwatch 2 will record every naughty word you say in voice chat
https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-2-will-record-every-naughty-word-you-say-in-voice-chat/
Blizzard is taking aggressive new steps to tackle toxicity in Overwatch 2, including plans for a system that will record all voice chat and issue bans based on transcription analysis conducted by "chat review tools."
>> The Big Brother of videogames.

Alleged Grand Theft Auto 6 hacker pleads not guilty
https://www.pcgamer.com/alleged-grand-theft-auto-6-hacker-pleads-not-guilty/
The Grand Theft Auto 6 leak drama took another step forward over the weekend, as Eurogamer reports that the youth accused in the matter has pleaded not guilty to a charge of computer misuse.

Warhaven is a 'full contact sword action' game you can play for free in October
https://www.pcgamer.com/warhaven-is-a-full-contact-sword-action-game-you-can-play-for-free-in-october/
Warhaven is a "visceral medieval-fantasy sword fight experience" being developed by Nexon that will pit teams of 16 players against one another in brutal battles with blades, bows, and magic. It was revealed earlier this month with a trailer that strikes me as Chivalry mixed with a little bit of For Honor and just a hint of JRPG color, and while there's no release date yet, a beta test is coming in October and everyone's invited.

Aero GPX is F-Zero with the rage throttle set to 2,000 kmph
https://www.pcgamer.com/aero-gpx-is-f-zero-with-the-rage-throttle-set-to-2000-kmph/
There were some dark times for sci-fi racing games after Sony closed Wipeout developer Studio Liverpool in 2012. As Nintendo left F-Zero to languish, high-speed antigrav racers became one of those "don't make 'em like they used to" genres for a few years, until indie games like Redout and BallisticNG started to fill the void. There are a bunch of these games now, but almost all of them take after Wipeout more than F-Zero.
Then there's Aero GPX, which looks F-Zero as heeeeell.
>> There's a video of it.

Netflix establishes its first in-house game studio
https://www.pcgamer.com/netflix-establishes-its-first-in-house-game-studio/
Streaming giant Netflix is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and it's been quite the journey. (...)
Netflix doesn't just want to make the spinoffs, though, it wants to make the games. Now the company has announced it has set up its first games studio, based in Helsinki, Finland. The studio director is Marco Lastikka, who started in the industry as a programmer before rapidly moving into management: he spent eight years at Digital Chocolate (a specialist in Facebook games), four years at EA as a GM / executive producer on the mobile side, and five years at Zynga as a vice president.

This space MMO looks like Halo and Starfield had a beautiful baby
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-space-mmo-looks-like-halo-and-starfield-had-a-beautiful-baby/
Earth from Another Sun is a space MMO-slash-FPS that's just dropped a new trailer, and as you can see it's stuffed with bright pink mechs and gloriously lush vistas. At the start of it I was just thinking 'wow, this has shown me more to get excited about than Starfield has' and by halfway through when the mech-em-up action started, I was sold. Yeah who knows how it will turn out, but this looks bombastic, fun, and has battles on an epic scale (it claims up to 1000 participants in one conflict).

Intel Core i9-13900KS 6 GHz Raptor Lake CPU Benchmarks Leaked, Up To 19% Faster In Single & 55% Faster In Multi-Threaded Versus 12900KS

https://wccftech.com/intel-core-i9-13900ks-6-ghz-raptor-lake-cpu-benchmarks-leaked-rips-apart-the-12900ks/

Intel’s 34-Core Raptor Lake-S CPU Die Shown Off, Hinting At Possible HEDT Launch

https://wccftech.com/intel-34-core-raptor-lake-s-cpu-die-shown-off-hinting-at-possible-hedt-launch/

Certainly will be interesting to see the HEDT category back. While AMD did dominate that category back in the day, they all but left it once Intel stopped competing for that juicy workstation money. After AMD's treatment of Threadripper for desktop though with single gen sockets, I'd be curious to see how many would go back since even Intel supported their HEDT for multiple gens.

Fixing Ryzen 7000 - PBO2 Tune (insanity)

He was able to tune his 7700X to go from pulling over 135 watts to around 85 watts and instead of 95C to around 60C without any performance loss. Or you can keep the same wattage/temps but increase the clocks by 200mhz. Of course, you can do something similar with Intel as well but most likely, Ryzen will still be more efficient.

Intel announces entry-level ARC A310 desktop GPU with 6 Xe-Cores and 4GB VRAM

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-announces-entry-level-arc-a310-desktop-gpu-with-6-xe-cores-and-4gb-vram

Overall my thoughts on the products:

5800X3D: If you want the best bang for buck gaming performance and do not want to wait, it is certainly the one to get with a cheap X570 + DDR4 while trading blows with both Ryzen 7000 and Raptor Lake in certain games. The biggest issue is of course, you won't get any more CPU upgrades.

Raptor Lake: Both the i5 and i7s are pretty much the best all around CPUs. For gaming, they should perform similarly if not beat Ryzen 7600x and 7700x but for multi-threaded tasks, they will likely rolfstomp them with the 8 extra e-cores. Pair that up with Z690 motherboards that are on sale or DDR4 boards, you will most likely end up with cheaper yet more powerful setups compared to Ryzen 7000 equivalents. The 13900k as usual isn't as good of a value as it's lower tier CPUs but the pricing is still similar to 7900x so the 13900k should still be a multi-core champ only potentially losing to the 7950x. The biggest issue is of course, you won't get any more CPU upgrades.

Ryzen 7000: The only real reason to get it outside of the 7950x is the promise of platform longevity but I do think the price of entry is a bit too high. It is being flanked by both it's previous gen 5800X3D and Raptor Lake which will give you better bang for buck until you get to the 7950x range. And while you will save on not needing to upgrade to a new motherboard in the future, it does feel like AMD is really gouging you for that privileged. This isn't like Ryzen 1000 where you had cheap AM4 motherboards with the promise of 4+ years of updates paired with CPUs that had double the cores of the competition for the same price. The competition now has double the cores (all be it mix of P cores and slower E cores) for the same price along with cheaper motherboards and RAM instead. So imo, better to wait until the X3D versions where motherboards and RAM prices will get cheaper before taking the plunge. That way, you can get a meaningful upgrade in gaming performance in every game instead of going into scenarios where a 5800X3D is beating your shiny and expensive new build.

Lovelace: (Maybe outside of the 4090)

Arc:

The best thing to come out of this is that RDNA 2 users can finally enjoy having Ai upscaling...

The exact name doesn't matter, I'm sure there'll be an 8-corer with 3D cache. I'd be stupid not to do so... right?

Why is it that every time I hear something new about this game, it's keeps getting worse. Needing to unlock old heroes is very dumb because the point of overwatch is to switch between heroes to counter what the enemy is doing... So if the enemy has a Pharah, you need 76 or McCree to shoot her down. Imagine having a new user that hasn't unlocked those heroes yet... So dumb...

They'd be extremely dumb if they don't launch an 8-croe processor with 3D cache.

And don't forget the phone number and grind from the DSOGaming article. It's like Blizzard looked at all the things they did well with Overwatch and decided to make them worse.

Nvidia DLSS 3 on RTX 4090 - Exclusive First Look - 4K 120FPS and Beyond

I think the main area that people were interested in is the input lag so this is what DF tested:

So as I suspected in situations where the title is very heavy, DLSS 3 will have lower input latency than running the game at Native when it comes to very demanding games but DLSS 3 will have a worse input latency than DLSS 2. However in situations where the framerate is fast such as in Spiderman, you will get that increased input lag over Native. So this is not a case where a 30fps game will look like 60fps but feel like 20fps... Spiderman Remastered runs at 100+ fps on the 4090 Natively at 4k (according to Nvidia's videos) so I suspect around that range is when DLSS 3 will start having a worse input latency than Native.

One thing to note is Reflex will always be on with DLSS 3 and the frame generation is optional for every game so you can turn it off and only use DLSS 2.

The biggest issue is the "errors in the Ai generated frames." This will be one of those, wait till they improve the algorithm sort of a deal. It has significantly less errors than other frame generators like the ones from Adobe while giving significantly less input lag but it still has errors:

With fast games, this will be much less noticeable but with heavy games, this could be a lot more noticeable and may be the main reason to turn it off until they improve it Ai on it.