Or it's just Twitter nonsense like the cracked die hysteria. GPU drivers can't change the VBIOS, let alone the BIOS.

The only way I can see anything like this being feasible is if there's some sort of rare Radeon Software-Ryzen Master interaction that can trigger a crash at initialization when combined with manual CPU overclocking.

But it's more likely that, if there's any truth at all, that's just loading a bad GPU profile that has nothing to do with the motherboard. That's why the updater resets settings by default unless you specifically turn that option off..

True. Most likely nothingburger. Could be something up with the driver and Ryzen Master installed, or (most probably) something else entirely. Thought it might be worth a mention.

In any case Radeon drivers (or lacktherof) have been pretty sus. I guess they've been stretched thin with them trying to fix and improve on 7000 cards and get drivers out for 6000 series.

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG wants to make my day harder than it should with a lot of new deals:

• These are the 9, (9!), new Deals of the Day, available until Friday:
  • Blade Runner - Enhanced Edition is 26% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/blade_runner_enhanced_edition
  • A YEAR OF SPRINGS gets a 30% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/a_year_of_springs
  • 8Doors: Arum's Afterlife Adventure Bundle is 50% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/8doors_arums_afterlife_adventure_bundle
  • Knightin'+ is also 50% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/knightin
  • Darkwood gets a 70% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/darkwood
  • Ever Forward is also 70% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/ever_forward
  • Iron Harvest gets a 75% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/iron_harvest
  • Tokyo Xanadu eX+ is 80% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/tokyo_xanadu_ex
  • And Jagged Alliance: Rage! , that doesn't have online at GOG, gets a 95% discount, making it a bargain: https://www.gog.com/en/game/jagged_alliance_rage
• There's a new GIVEAWAY! This time it's the Alien Breed Trilogy, free to keep during 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/game/alien_breed_trilogy
• The We Love Games Sale adds a new category with the Medieval Day, full of games "inspired by the Dark Ages". These deals will end with the bigger sale, in 5 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_we_love_games_medieval
• And publisher Hooded Horse celebrates its anniversary putting its games on sale, with up to 25% discounts on a small selection of its games until February 25th: https://www.gog.com/partner/hooded_horse

Steam has two new deals:

• SYNTHETIK 2, still in Early Access, will be 20% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1471410/SYNTHETIK_2/
• And Haven gets a 60% discount until February 21st: https://store.steampowered.com/app/983970/Haven/

The Humble Store puts Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Deluxe Edition on sale with a 75% discount during 13 days. The keys is for Steam or EGS: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/destiny-2-the-witch-queen-deluxe-edition.

And, finally, there's Fanatical with a new Star Deal and bundles:

• The new Star Deal is Ghostwire: Tokyo, 66% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/ghostwire-tokyo
• There are 12 new bundles and I'm not going to post them. Check the bundles page to check them out: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 23.2.1
https://videocardz.com/driver/amd-radeon-software-adrenalin-23-2-1

Highlights:

• Support for:
  • Forspoken™
    • Up to 7% increase in performance for Forspoken @ 4k, using AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition™ 23.2.1 on the Radeon™️ RX 6950XT GPU, versus the previous software driver version 22.11.2 RS-524
  • Dead Space™
  • IREE compiler using MLIR interface on Vulkan.
  • Additional Vulkan® extensions. Click here for more information.
• Radeon RX 6000 Series GPUs now have support for newly introduced streaming capabilities including pre-filter toggle, pre-analysis feature and CAML technology.
• A new version of AMD Link improves overall connectivity across all supported Radeon products, RX 400 series and newer, so you can game from anywhere on virtually any device.
• Boost your performance with AMD Software – read the latest blog HERE and learn how this newly unified driver delivers performance gains since Windows 11 first launched.

>> The article also details some game optimizations (between 3 and 19% at 4K with a 6950XT, but they should also apply to the rest of the RDNA2 cards) and also several fixed issues, but I haven't posted them to avoid making this part too long. Funnily enough, there's no Hogwarts Legacy profile in this driver.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This Valentine's Day, say it with Doom
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-valentines-day-say-it-with-doom/
What the world needs now is Doom, sweet Doom. Yes, while the 14th of February sends some folks' thoughts into the aether, while others search through gas station bouquet stands, the dedicated speedmapping mod team Pineapple Under the Sea Studios know that one universal truth remains: What the world really needs today of all days is Doom.
I bring you the studio's 24th (!) major Doom project, the aptly named Lover's Quarrel. Themed around love and Valentine's day, a bunch of mappers were given six hours apiece to create Deathmatch maps, which were then adjusted ("often in major ways") to also work as singleplayer maps.
"Come and join us on this romantic stroll and kill some demons along the way! And hop into a Deathmatch or co-op server, with or without a valentine, to lose yourself in this world of love!"
>> A day late, but you can still try it. There's an almost 3 minutes long video of the mod.

Players are replacing their Hogwarts wands with with guns, Luigi Wiimotes, and asparagus
https://www.pcgamer.com/players-are-replacing-their-hogwarts-wands-with-with-guns-luigi-wiimotes-and-asparagus/
It didn't take long for modders to begin practicing their magic on Hogwarts Legacy. Within days of release there were already Hogwarts Legacy mods to improve performance, tweak the UI, add mouse controls for broomstick flying and spellcasting, and yes, to shoehorn in Shrek and the inevitable Thomas the Tank Engine.
One particular aspect of the open world RPG modders have been focusing on is the player's magic wand. Players can, of course, pick between different wand appearances in the game, but modders have taken further liberties, in some cases removing it completely and replacing it with something more interesting than a pointy stick.
>> There are some screenshots.

GAMING NEWS

First Hogwarts Legacy PC Update released, full patch notes revealed
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/first-hogwarts-legacy-pc-update-released-full-patch-notes-revealed/
Avalanche has released the first PC Update for its latest Harry Potter game, Hogwarts Legacy. According to the release notes, the February 14th Update brings a number of PC-specific tweaks and improvements. As such, we’ve decided to test this patch and see whether these claims were valid.

The Callisto Protocol February 14th Update Released
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/the-callisto-protocol-february-14th-update-released/
Striking Distance Studios has just released a brand new update for The Callisto Protocol. The February 14th Patch is around 300MB in size, and brings some HDR improvements to the game.

Gotham Knights February 14th Update promises to significantly improve performance
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/gotham-knights-february-14th-update-promises-to-significantly-improve-performance/
Warner Bros has released a new patch for Gotham Knights. According to the release notes, the February 14th Update promises to significantly improve the game’s performance.

The other Wednesday news:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's going to give the best player in the world a one-of-a-kind prize
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2s-going-to-give-the-best-player-in-the-world-a-one-of-a-kind-prize/
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is shortly entering its second season of competitive content, and the developers have now posted about what players can expect from the new ranked mode. The post also goes on to outline the various cosmetic rewards in enormous detail, and one feature jumped out immediately.

Minecraft is getting a new biome in update 1.20 after all
https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraft-is-getting-a-new-biome-in-update-120-after-all/
Following the archeology announcement and those Sniffer details, Mojang has announced yet another Minecraft 1.20 feature today and it's a sweet one. The update will include a new biome after all: the Cherry Blossom biome. Mojang had kept pretty quiet about whether we could expect a new biome in 1.20 so this is a nice Valentine's surprise.

Guild Wars 2 is switching to smaller, more frequent expansions
https://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-is-switching-to-smaller-more-frequent-expansions/
Guild Wars 2 had a good 2022. Its tenth year brought a new expansion, the return of the first season of its Living World story, a Steam launch, and quality-of-life improvements that addressed some long-standing gripes lingering in its ageing code. It also brought renewed hope for the future, with the announcement—shortly after End of Dragons' release—of a fourth expansion. It was such a good year that we named it our Best Ongoing Game.
Now, for 2023, ArenaNet is preparing us for that expansion's release. We don't have a theme, or even a release date. Instead, we have a new format for how expansions (plural) will be released.

Mick Gordon is donating his fee for Atomic Heart to humanitarian aid for Ukraine
https://www.pcgamer.com/mick-gordon-is-donating-his-fee-for-atomic-heart-to-humanitarian-aid-for-ukraine/
Mick Gordon, the composer on games like 2017's Prey, the Doom reboots, and the new Wolfenstein games, has been hard at work on upcoming BioShock-like Atomic Heart, but he's not keeping the money for it. In a post to Twitter earlier today, the veteran videogame musician announced he's going to donate his fee for the game to the Australian Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal, in order to "use [his] work as a means to help those affected by the conflict" that began when Russia invaded Ukraine almost a year ago.

Destiny 2 just dropped its biggest twist since Cayde-6 got killed off and I'm a mess
https://www.pcgamer.com/destiny-2-just-dropped-its-biggest-twist-since-cayde-6-got-killed-off-and-im-a-mess/
When you are many thousands of hours deep into a six-year-old videogame, it takes a lot to surprise you. But today's Destiny 2 season finale did just that. I'll explain why in a second, but first here's the obligatory SPOILER WARNING for details and discussion of the final Season of the Seraph mission and accompanying cut-scene which is embedded further down the page.

Age of Empires 4 is getting a dash of Age of Mythology-style magic in tomorrow's big update
https://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-empires-4-is-getting-a-dash-of-age-of-mythology-style-magic-in-tomorrows-big-update/
Age of Empires 4 is getting magical in its season 4 update. Launching tomorrow, February 16, AoE 4's Enchanted Grove promises a swathe of new content that will turn the decidedly history-focused RTS into a more fanciful, almost Age-of-Mythology-flavoured experience. Because I guess the real-life Holy Roman Empire wasn't basically Faerûn? News to me.

The Witcher 3 unwittingly added a mod called 'Vaginas for Everyone' after another chaotic modder snuck it in
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-witcher-3-unwittingly-added-a-mod-called-vaginas-for-everyone-after-a-chaotic-modder-snuck-it-in/
One of the year's most unusual stories thus far has been the Witcher 3's spiffy next-generation update not only polishing the game to a mirror sheen, but adding detailed vagina models to a select group of monsters. Four characters suddenly found themselves in possession of anatomically accurate nether regions (The Crones of Crookback Bog, who look more like Victoria's Secret models than crones, and the vampire-like bruxae) and the weirder element was that, initially at least, the game's developer CD Projket Red didn't seem to know why.
When first reporting on this, PCG's Josh Wolens speculated on a likely cause: The various community made mods that CDPR integrated into the new version of the game. Looks like that was on the money, because CDPR has now confirmed in a statement to Kotaku that the rogue vaginas originate in a mod called HD Monsters Reworked (HDMR), which was ostensibly about adding more realistic textures to in-game characters, but it turns out also incorporates parts of another mod called, straightforwardly enough, Vaginas for Everyone.
>> Well, now you know which mod you need to bring that content back.

League of Legends is getting a '2D hi-bit pixel action RPG' where you lead a magic revolution
https://www.pcgamer.com/league-of-legends-is-getting-a-2d-hi-bit-pixel-action-rpg-where-you-lead-a-magic-revolution/
The South Korean game ratings board's worst-kept secret has finally gotten an official announcement. The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story promises to be a "gritty indie 2D hi-bit pixel action RPG that lets players raise a rogue mage army and lead a revolution," and it's set for release in Spring this year.

11 years on, Natural Selection 2's going to that great alien-infested spaceship in the sky
https://www.pcgamer.com/11-years-on-natural-selection-2s-going-to-that-great-alien-infested-spaceship-in-the-sky/
I guess this is really two news pieces in one. The first bit of news is that apparently Natural Selection 2 has been getting updates for the last 11 years, ever since it was released at the tail-end of 2012. The second bit is about how that's all over now: Unknown Worlds Entertainment has "ceased active development" on the game as of yesterday.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 GPUs See Huge Price Cuts At BestBuy: 3090 Ti For $880, 3080 Ti For $720, 3080 For $420, 3070 For $300 US

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-30-gpus-huge-price-cuts-bestbuy-3090-ti-880-us-3080-ti-720-us-3080-420-us-3070-300-us/

If you were able to snag one, would have won the lottery.

MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk Motherboard To Retail At $339 US, Retains High-End Design

https://wccftech.com/msi-mag-x670e-tomahawk-motherboard-to-retail-at-339-us-retains-high-end-design/

Finally an X670E motherboard that's good for it's price

AMD Radeon RX 7600S (RDNA3) mobile graphics card has been tested

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-rx-7600s-rdna3-mobile-graphics-card-has-been-tested

This is why you pay Extra for Nvidia cause this is exactly the type of nonsense that gives PC gaming a bad name. Don't get me wrong, Nvidia drivers also aren't always perfect but man... From Driver delays for 2.5 months to 7000 series being incompatible for a lot of emulators to now this. It's certainly not looking good for Radeon team as they without a doubt gotten rid of all the good will they managed to acquire during RDNA 2 generation.

I think a lot of it comes down to switching to dual FP32 requiring a custom driver branch, least for now. Because of this, the driver team needs to work with two different sets of drivers. For someone as big as Nvidia, this is generally not that big of a deal because of the R&D budget of their software team and the market share they have in the GPU space. For AMD, this is a huge problem because unlike CPUs, GPUs need a ton of upkeep, especially in the gaming space. Imagine supporting a GPU from 2014 like the GTX 970 with all the latest games in 2023 or in AMDs case, Polaris from 2016. Now imagine doing that with 8% market share against a opponent like Nvidia that continuously comes out with new proprietary features that you need to match.

But as a consumer, you really can't think in that fashion about the welfare of a billion dollar company. Because if you spend $1000 today only to be treated with driver delays and blue screens two years later, the lesson will be to save that extra cash and buy Nvidia. The last thing anyone wants is an unstable PC or bad experiences after spending so much money. Least with Arc it's cheap and you know what you are getting into.

Well actually, if you have a Radeon card and you pair it with a Ryzen CPU, it can in fact happen and has happened in the past:

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/adrenalin-gpu-drivers-cause-ryzen-instability

AMD themselves even confirmed it:

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-confirms-its-gpu-drivers-are-overclocking-cpus-without-asking

"AMD has confirmed to Tom's Hardware that a bug in its GPU driver is, in fact, changing Ryzen CPU settings in the BIOS without permission. This condition has been shown to auto-overclock Ryzen CPUs without the user's knowledge."

But if you pair Ryzen CPU + Nvidia GPU or Intel CPU + Radeon GPU, this won't happen

Amazing deals. Whoever got his/her hands on a 3080 or 3070 at those prices got one of the best GPU deals in years.

It's not that impressive, to be honest. Asrock has the X670E PG Lightning and the X670E Pro RS with very similar specs, if not better in some areas, for less than that.

Yea but that's Asrock. While they are cheap, their BIOS and such doesn't have as good of a quality control as MSI/Asus ones and if you are going Ryzen, you really need a good bios vendor since you will be upgrading in the future. Asrock were the only motherboards afaik that had compatibility issues with RTX 4000 series which needed an eventual BIOS update to fix for example.

If you're not ok with Asrock, how about Asus?

https://www.neobyte.es/asus-tuf-gaming-x670e-plus-placa-base-amd-am5-15309.html

And remember, that price includes 21% VAT.