Yeah, this launch has a similar vibe to that. RDNA 3 feels like a proof of concept (for MCM) and a test for AMD, rather than a product line that would be a strong competitor to Ada in the high end. At least RDNA 2 was highly competitive in raster across the stack.

Also read rumors there may be issues with the design at least for Navi 31, hence why the clock speeds are fairly underwhelming. Still, eh.. which is to be expected frim the Radeon group. I just hope the mid range cards fare better from but I'm not holding my breath.

Something is off here though since the card does 395FPS at 1440p in Doom Eternal and I don't think it's pulling ~ 680 W when doing so :D

Since 4K is running more or less at the power limit, I suspect the FPS limiter isn't working at the driver level, which might or might not be the same problem with video playback...

If this is the case, it wouldn't exactly be terrible timing since Nvidia isn't exactly in gamers good graces with Ada. If RDNA 3 is more of a Vega moment, then hopefully RDNA 4 will be more like an RDNA 1 moment, in terms of hardware performance improvements anyway. They've certainly left room for power and driver improvements.

The Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

After spending 20 years simulating reality, the Dwarf Fortress devs have to get used to a new one: being millionaires
https://www.pcgamer.com/after-spending-20-years-simulating-reality-the-dwarf-fortress-devs-have-to-get-used-to-a-new-one-being-millionaires/
Acclaimed indie colony/existence sim Dwarf Fortress launched on Steam on December 6, and it's since been having a bit of a moment.
Other game developers gushed about Dwarf Fortress and its influence on launch day. Someone on the Steam forums asked if all the people reviewing the game on Steam moments after launch had been "playing free DF for 25 years and just waiting for an opportunity to pay $30?" So far, the 237 page thread is almost entirely people answering "Yes." Publisher Kitfox Games tweeted that Dwarf Fortress had blown past their predicted two-month sales figure in less than 24 hours. Now six days later, Dwarf Fortress has sold around 300,000 copies, developer Tarn Adams said in an interview with PC Gamer.

Steam has several new deals, including some new weeklong deals:

• Hardspace: Shipbreaker gets a 33% discount until December 15: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1161580/Hardspace_Shipbreaker/
• There's a Games in Italy Sale, with up to 90% discounts. Some of those discounts end on the 18th, but some others will last until the 22nd: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/gamesinitaly"> https://store.steampowered.com/sale/gamesinitaly
• EA SPORTS™ FIFA 23 will be 60% off until December 22nd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1811260/EA_SPORTS_FIFA_23/
• And these are some of the weeklong deals:
  • The Plague Doctor of Wippra is 20% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1811740/The_Plague_Doctor_of_Wippra/
  • Hell Road VR, and VR ONLY title, gets a 40% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1389610/Hell_Road_VR/
  • Toodee and Topdee is 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1303950/Toodee_and_Topdee/
  • Mars Horizon gets a 67% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/765810/Mars_Horizon/
  • Perfect Heist is 70% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/787040/Perfect_Heist/
  • And the last one, CASE: Animatronics, with a 90% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/489360/CASE_Animatronics/

There are four new deals at Humble:

• At Humble Bundle has appeared a 2K Megahits Holiday Encore bundle, with 16 titles to get (there are no tiers this time) during only 27 hours: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/2k-megahits-holiday-encore
• The Humble Store has the remaining three deals:
  • The Devolver Holiday Sale brings up to 90% discounts during 6 days. There are keys for Steam, GOG and 1 for EGS: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/devolver-holiday-sale/
  • The RPG Sale features up to 90% discounts during 6 days. There are keys for Steam, GOG, EGS and UPlay: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/rpg-sale/
  • And Ubisoft also does a Holiday Sale with up to 80% discounts during 9 days. Most keys are for UPlay, obviously, but there are (3) for Steam, (3) for GOG and (1) for EGS: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/ubisoft-holiday-sale/

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD (Radeon) Software Adrenalin 22.12.1 (RX 7900)
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-22-12-1-rx7900
Highlights
Support for Radeon™ RX 7900 Series Graphics.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Cyberpunk 2077 gets a 1.6GB 4K Texture Pack that upscales all weapons
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/cyberpunk-2077-gets-a-1-6gb-4k-texture-pack-that-upscales-all-weapons/
Modder ‘Amakesh’ has released a 4K Texture Pack for Cyberpunk 2077 that upscales the textures of all weapons. This is a must-have Texture Pack as it can noticeably improve the visuals of the weapons you’re holding.
According to the modder, this pack upscales around 500 textures. Unfortunately, Amakesh has not shared any before/after screenshots or videos. However, he did share the header image which showcases the quality of these new upscaled textures.

Modders are on an RTX rampage having added ray tracing to Half-Life 2, Max Payne and even SWAT 4
https://www.pcgamer.com/modders-are-on-an-rtx-rampage-having-added-ray-tracing-to-half-life-2-max-payne-and-even-swat-4/
A while back we reported that Portal was getting a full Nvidia RTX overhaul. Created in-house at Nvidia's Lightspeed Studios, it's been made possible through the use of an Omniverse tool called RTX Remix.
The fantastic thing about the tool isn't just that an age old Valve classic can now be played in shiny, ray-traced glory (as a free DLC); the fact that you can so easily add ray tracing to almost anything means we're now up to our eyeballs in RTX mods.
Joining the ever growing list, modders on the Beyond3D forum have thrown RTX into yet another Valve classic, Half-Life 2, as well as Max Payne, and even SWAT 4. And damn do they look great.

GAMING NEWS

Here are 100 minutes of in-game footage from The Witcher 3 Next-Gen
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-100-minutes-of-in-game-footage-from-the-witcher-3-next-gen/
CD Projekt RED has shared a video, featuring 96 minutes of in-game footage from The Witcher 3 Next-Gen. This video features one scene during a full night/day cycle, showcasing its overhauled graphics and the newly implemented Ray Tracing effects.
To be honest, this video would work best as a timelapse (and not as a regular video). Still, this is something that may interest some fans, so go ahead and take a look at it.

The Witcher 3 Next-Gen Update Release Notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/the-witcher-3-next-gen-update-release-notes/
The Witcher 3 Next-Gen Update will become available for download tomorrow, and CD Projekt RED has revealed its full changelog. The changelog details all the improvements, enhancements, tweaks and additions that the team has made to it.

Behold the PC version of The Witcher 3 Next-Gen with all of its Ray Tracing effects
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/behold-the-pc-version-of-the-witcher-3-next-gen-with-all-of-its-ray-tracing-effects/
YouTube’s ‘Cycu1’ has shared a comparison video between ray-traced and the non-RT versions of The Witcher 3 Next-Gen PC. This video showcases all of the game’s Ray Tracing effects that PC gamers will be able to enable.

Grand Theft Auto 5 Update 1.64 released, full patch notes revealed
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/grand-theft-auto-5-update-1-64-released-full-patch-notes-revealed/
Rockstar has just released a brand new update for Grand Theft Auto 5. According to the release notes, Update 1.64 adds new Story Missions, Freemode missions, a new business for players to manage as well as a range of experience improvements.
Furthermore, this patch fixes two PC-specific issues. Unfortunately, though, it does not bring the newly implemented ray-traced reflections to the PC. Instead, Ray Tracing is only available on PS5 and Xbox Series S|X. It’s ironic but there you go everyone, Rockstar giving PC gamers the middle finger.
>> Rockstar? Giving the middle finger to PC gamers? That's unheard of! /sarcasm

The Tuesday newsm part two:

The creator of Dusk says his cat went behind his back to release this $5 'bite-sized' FPS early
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-creator-of-dusk-says-his-cat-went-behind-his-back-to-release-this-dollar5-bite-sized-fps-early/
David Szymanski, the creator of Dusk, one of the most important shooters of the past five years, has just launched his latest game, Chop Goblins. Or, if Szymanski is to be believed, his cat Zamboni released it behind his back. The nefarious Zamboni strikes again.

FromSoftware says Armored Core 6 won't emulate Dark Souls or Elden Ring, is all about mech customization
https://www.pcgamer.com/fromsoftware-says-armored-core-6-wont-emulate-dark-souls-or-elden-ring-is-all-about-mech-customization/
For newcomers to FromSoftware's mech series, Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon might sound like an impenetrable late-series sequel that refers to deep lore from the '90s. In actuality, nobody's expected to know where Rubicon is and why it's on fire. The mecha series spans 13 games and seven spin-offs, some of which have built on one another, but Armored Core 6 tells a new story that doesn't follow from Armored Core 5 or its sequel, which came out back in 2012 and 2013.

The writer of Minecraft's ending poem wants to 'liberate it from the corporate economy'
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-writer-of-minecrafts-ending-poem-wants-to-liberate-it-from-the-corporate-economy/
Julian Gough, a novelist who wrote the End Poem for Minecraft, published a long article on Substack describing the experience of creating Minecraft's "ending," as well as his reasoning behind releasing the text of the poem under a Creative Commons License.

Dwarf Fortress now needs about 100 icons for spilled intestines, torn arteries and bruised tendons
https://www.pcgamer.com/dwarf-fortress-now-needs-about-100-icons-for-spilled-intestines-torn-arteries-and-bruised-tendons/
Dwarf Fortress has a minor guts problem: right now, it doesn't do a great job of telling you whether a dwarf's guts are inside, or outside, of their body. While dwarves have some physiological differences from humans (they live 150+ years, have perfect dark vision, and start vomiting if they hang out in the sun for awhile), they are alike in this respect: if their guts are hanging out, something's gone very wrong. One of the changes to the graphical version of Dwarf Fortress makes this dire situation a bit harder to diagnose, but developer Tarn Adams says it's on the list to address.

Wreak havoc with this completely free D&D inspired AI story generator
https://www.pcgamer.com/wreak-havoc-with-this-completely-free-dandd-inspired-ai-story-generator/
AI Dungeon is going ad free, and free for all. The news comes as part of the "unchained" announcement yesterday in which Latitude CEO Nick Walton and co. noted a few major changes to the D&D inspired, artificially intelligent, text based game master that is AI Dungeon.

Fortnite is giving you 3 hours to win a million dollars this weekend
https://www.pcgamer.com/fortnite-is-giving-you-3-hours-to-win-a-million-dollars-this-weekend/
MrBeast, YouTube's foremost innovator in the throwing money at people genre, is collaborating with Fortnite. MrBeast's Extreme Survival Challenge, taking place this Saturday, will give Fortnite players a brief window to compete for a $1 million prize. Not to worry if you don't nab first place, though, there's still a chance you could win a special in-game umbrella. Which is almost as good.

WoW's new trading post feature will let you pick up older and paid cosmetics for free
https://www.pcgamer.com/wows-new-trading-post-feature-will-let-you-pick-up-older-and-paid-cosmetics-for-free/
World of Warcraft's public test realm (PTR) is getting a new addition, and it's gonna give you a shot at picking up paid cosmetics for free. In the not-too-distant future, Stormwind and Orgrimmar will each become home to a trading post, stores with a changing collection of unique cosmetic wares that players will be able to buy with a new in-game currency.

AIB 7900XTX reviews are coming out and they are looking more impressive than the reference model

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/asus-radeon-rx-7900-xtx-tuf-oc/39.html

While in stock, they are largely the same...

There's good potential if you OC:

It won't perform like that in every game even when OC but least we know there is some untapped potential if you buy AIB cards and the TUF is only $100 more than reference. It's also quieter and etc.

The power is also higher of course. I'd be curious to see how much more power the OC takes.

They also mentioned that OC is actually complicated to do and if you don't know what you are doing, you will actually lose performance:

"Overclocking the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is complicated. Just like on RDNA2, you can no longer dial in a specific clock frequency, but you're operating with min/max sliders to set a range. While on the AMD reference cards, changing the GPU clock does nothing for performance, or it results in a loss of performance or crashes the card when set too high, on this 3x 8-pin custom design things are slightly different.

Due to the increased power limit, the GPU frequency sliders can actually help. Just like on the reference card, for maximum OC performance you should increase power limit to max (+15%), then find your stable memory clock. Memory overclocking works well, but you have to monitor performance. Once memory becomes unstable, there will be no visual corruption, but performance goes down."

Intel 13th Gen non-K CPUs are 28% to 64% faster than 12th Gen according to leaked tests

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-13th-gen-non-k-cpus-are-28-to-64-faster-than-12th-gen-according-to-leaked-tests

That TUF is more like what I had expected. The OC would even manage to just about match the 4080 in RT (on average, still behind on the more demanding titles).

This lends some credence to the idea AMD found some frequency curve issues late in development and that is why the clocks were much lower than expected. Even then, I wonder if they'd be better off just adding another hundred Watts to the cards. Could be bad PR trauma from the Vishera/Hawaii days but now everyone's doing it so yeah.

Too bad these won't retail for the MSRP at least for now.

AMD should have let go of their efficiency nonsense and just showed the card like how it really was. It's inefficient against Lovelace but that doesn't mean it can't perform if given enough power. Instead they chose to ship a power limited reference that made their cards look like turds while AIB cards look a lot closer to what RDNA 3 should have been once they are OCd. Not to mention the reference are also noisy af.

Thankfully there is no mining boom so AIB cards are priced very well for RDNA 3, least some of them in the US.

So overall, 4090 > 7900XTX AIB > 4080 > 7900XT

But largely just skip 4080 or 7900XT. If you are in the market to buying a new expensive GPU, either get AIB 7900XTX or 4090 depending on your budget and needs. Just be aware that RDNA 3 has a lot of driver issues that need to be sorted out as explained by the reviewers. From blackscreens to multi-monitor issues to high power usage during video playback etc.

Turn that SSD into a Mechanical Hard Drive exclusively on Radeon /s

Ok, I've send a bunch of messages to those of you that (still) haven't joined the PC Secret Santa thread. I have to say that I found myself surprised a few times by what I noticed.

Anyway, I just want to apologize once again for having bothered you with the messages.