Wait, ASUS put an Intel H-series CPU but only an AMD U-series chip? Couldn't they at least have taken an HS model then?

Either way, the AMD model should be fine unless you will be rendering or compiling a lot on that laptop. Outside of such CPU intensive tasks the CPU should be amply enough.

As for the GPU, due to the higher TDP the Intel model actually could be faster. See, the 7730 is a rebranded Ryzen 7 5825U and as such still comes with Vega graphics cores. the Alder Lake Iris grapics is about the same in perofrmance normally, but due to having more TDP headroom could actually be faster here.

In short, you're trading performance for battery life. But if you don't always need that performance like in the tasks I mentioned before, you'll be far better off with the AMD model. And unless ASUS chose a very shitty SSD, you won't see any difference between the two in that regard.

*Stands not included. Get  Horizontal stand for $39.99 or a Vertical stand for $34.99 or both together for just 69.99. No controller provided.

Yea AMD just keeps using old rebranded processors. Very confusing how they named their 7000 mobile series. Oh well, i do want more battery life. 

So i did order the AMD one. Big draw with these was to get the Oled screens. 



Video i found explaining the weird 7000 mess. Oh well good storage. I would have had to pay so much to get the macbook storage. 

The Wednesday news, all in one post:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has two new Deals of the Day that will last until Friday and a new sale:

• The first DotD is Tiny Thor, with a 20% deal: https://www.gog.com/en/game/tiny_thor
• The second DotD is Seal of Evil, 79% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/seal_of_evil
• And Ubisoft puts its games on sale with up to 83% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20231011_ubisoft_publisher_sale

Steam has two new deals:

• TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children will be 50% off until October, 17th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/470310/TROUBLESHOOTER_Abandoned_Children/
• And Rise of Industry gets an 82% discount until the same 17th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/671440/Rise_of_Industry/

Fanatical has launched the Marvelous Mystery Bundle, with up to 20 unknown games to get: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/marvelous-mystery-bundle.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

You can now remove Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s Chromatic Aberration effect
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/you-can-now-remove-chromatic-aberration-from-assassins-creed-mirage/
Last week, Ubisoft released the latest part in its Assassin’s Creed series, Assassin’s Creed Mirage. As we’ve reported, Assassin’s Creed Mirage can run smoothly on a wide range of PC configurations. However, Ubisoft has used Chromatic Aberration in it, without giving a setting to disable it. Thankfully, though, there is now a mod that allows you to completely remove it.
You can download the mod from here. Below you can also find a comparison between the game’s vanilla and modded versions.

Cyberpunk 2077 HD Reworked Project 2.0 available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/cyberpunk-2077-hd-reworked-project-2-0-available-for-download/
Modder ‘Halk Hogan PL’ has released HD Reworked Project 2.0 for Cyberpunk 2077. According to the modder, Version 2.0 improves the quality of almost all textures from Version 1.0. Additionally, it overhauls new textures of the environment, architecture, graffiti and more.
For those unaware, Cyberpunk 2077 HD Reworked Project is a mod that aims to improve the graphics by reworking game assets to better quality preserving the original art style and good performance. This modification is from the author of The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project, and it’s a must-have for everyone.
>> The article has an almost 5 minutes comparison video.

Starfield HD Overhaul Mod is now available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/starfield-hd-overhaul-mod-is-now-available-for-download/
Modder ‘luxor8071’ has released a new HD Texture Pack for Starfield. According to its description, Starfield HD Overhaul is providing new and improved HD textures, ranging from 2K resolution up to 8K.
In its current version, Starfield HD Overhaul improves the textures of the following areas/objects. However, the modder plans to improve the textures of more areas and objects in future versions.
>> The article has some before and after screenshots.

GAMING NEWS

Valve draws a stark line in the sand with Counter-Strike 2, says bye-bye to Mac players and 32-bit systems
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-draws-a-stark-line-in-the-sand-with-counter-strike-2-says-bye-bye-to-mac-players-and-32-bit-systems/
Counter-Strike 2 seems to have got off to a solid start, but a few weeks after launch Valve has announced some big decisions. These will only affect a small number of players, but even so this is a real line in the sand that reflects the developer's ambition to develop this game for a decade or more.
"Counter-Strike 2 represents the largest technical leap in CS history," says a Valve statement, "and our goal is to continue to develop Counter-Strike for years to come. As technology advances, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue support for older hardware, including DirectX 9 and 32-bit operating systems. Similarly, we will no longer support macOS."
>> Valve ditching macOS when Apple shows sings to care about gaming again is interesting.

Minecraft players go full propaganda mode as petition demanding the end of the 'mob vote' draws 300,000 signatures in just a few days
https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraft-players-go-full-propaganda-mode-as-petition-demanding-the-end-of-the-mob-vote-draws-300000-signatures-in-just-a-few-days/
When I heard about this year's Minecraft mob vote, I thought to myself, "Gosh, that sounds like fun! Some discussion, some debate, a little bit of good-natured trash talk, and at the end of the day, a new creature for players to enjoy." Dear readers, I was wrong. A big chunk of the Minecraft community is not happy about the democratic process, and a petition calling on players to boycott the vote has now surpassed an astounding 300,000 signatures.
The mob vote is actually an ongoing thing: Every year, Mojang presents concepts for three possible mobs and gives players the opportunity to vote on which one will be added to the game. This year's candidates are a crab, an armadillo, and a penguin, all of them "equally great," according to the petition—which is central to the complaint.
"The Mob Vote generates engagement by tearing the community apart, leaving fantastic ideas on the cutting room floor, and teasing content that will never be seen in the game," the petition states. "That, mixed with the fact that Mojang somehow releases less content WITH Microsoft's backing than they did without, means players see minimal content to the game they love, and watch as possibly the one thing to get them to play again is ripped from them."
>> Since the first paragraph implies that the problem is the democratic process and not the lost of good content for the game, I decided to post most of the article so you don't give them extra clicks from that bait.

The cozy MMO I've waited 4 years to play on PC finally has a Steam demo
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-cozy-mmo-ive-waited-4-years-to-play-on-pc-finally-has-a-steam-demo/
I have patience for most things to arrive on PC in due time, but Sky: Children of the Light, the online flying and platform puzzling game from Journey studio Thatgamecompany was not one of them. I've been playing the tiny MMO-alike game for two years on my Nintendo Switch because the online goblin in me just couldn't wait. Sky: CotL still doesn't have an official release date on PC, but it is participating in the Steam Next Fest so you can try it out, or migrate your existing account, right now.

Call of Duty's best new item is a drone that can kill enemies around corners
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-dutys-best-new-item-is-a-drone-that-can-kill-enemies-around-corners/
I've come to appreciate Call of Duty's newfound love for unorthodox gadgets. Every CoD these days has at least one weird gear or throwable that replaces your grenade or takes up the "field equipment" slot that replenishes on cooldown. In last year's Modern Warfare 2 reboot, the Drill Charge was a star. This year, Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer has come out swinging with the Breacher Drone.

RIP Rocket League economy: player-to-player item trading is being removed in December
https://www.pcgamer.com/rocket-league-player-trading/
Come December, Rocket League players will no longer be able to trade cosmetic items with each other: "Player-to-Player Trading will be removed from Rocket League on December 5 at 4 pm PST," developer Psyonix announced today.
The instantly unpopular decision (I'd characterize the response so far as "why tho???") will bring Rocket League into alignment with "Epic's overall approach to game cosmetics and item shop policies, where items aren't tradable, transferrable, or sellable," says the developer, which was acquired by Epic Games in 2019.

Diablo 4's strongest builds are being nerfed in the name of increasing build variety: 'Our goal is not to make you weaker'
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4s-strongest-builds-are-being-nerfed-in-the-name-of-increasing-build-variety-our-goal-is-not-to-make-you-weaker/
Since launch, Diablo 4's strongest builds have been fueled by the exceptional power of multiplying two damage stats together to get a really, really big number when you hit an enemy. In season 2, the math will work differently, resulting in lower damage numbers, but a wider range of possibilities for your build, Blizzard announced during its Campfire Chat stream today.

Your favourite Baldur's Gate 2 companions were 'a bunch of cardboard cutouts' until the game's director played Final Fantasy 7 and felt the heat of competition
https://www.pcgamer.com/your-favourite-baldurs-gate-2-companions-were-a-bunch-of-cardboard-cut-outs-until-the-games-director-played-final-fantasy-7-and-felt-the-heat-of-competition/
I might have a personal soft spot for Baldur's Gate 1, but it's impossible to deny that Baldur's Gate 2 is far more influential. (...)
Where BG1's party members were mostly a collection of tropes and barks—resources for you to make use of until they got gibbed, at which point you'd replace them with some other unfortunate—BG2's were full-on people. They had personal motivations, sprawling quests, and desperately needed therapy.
And it turns out we have one game in particular to thank for that: Final Fantasy 7.

Starfield NPCs have the fear of space god put into them by player picking up a mop
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-npcs-have-the-fear-of-space-god-put-into-them-by-player-picking-up-a-mop/
Starfield has now been in the wild for a month and, yep, turns out it's a Bethesda game. I don't know why anyone's surprised really, and surely that's what we were all secretly hoping for: where's the joy in a vast, polished galaxy where everything works as intended? Far better to have a cosmos where something like a mop can accidentally trigger a mini-genocide.
This is what player lkl34 discovered when tootling around in Neon and deciding, flagrantly, to pick up a cleaning mop. The reaction of NPCs immediately around them is to shout "thief!" and start running like headless chickens, which is amusing enough, but in that way of bad logic piling upon bad logic, things begin to escalate… and soon enough we've got a bunch of NPCs in their underwear, seemingly non-aggroed, just desperate to be involved?

Qualcomm aims big with Snapdragon X series for PCs

https://videocardz.com/newz/qualcomm-aims-big-with-snapdragon-x-series-for-pcs

We will see how it turns out as qualcomms pc SoCs haven't exactly faired too well thus far

First Benchmarks of AMD Ryzen 3 7440U “Phoenix” Quad-Core Zen 4 APU Unveiled, Strong Single-Core Performance

https://wccftech.com/first-benchmarks-amd-ryzen-3-7440u-phoenix-quad-core-zen-4-apu-unveiled/

I just realized that yesterday I forgot to say that I won't be making the news today.

I may post the free game(s) at the Epic Store to save you from the trouble (let's face it, most of us only check the EGS for the free games), but that'll be it.

Ok, here are the new Epic Store giveaways:

• Blazing Sails: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/blazing-sails
• Q.U.B.E. ULTIMATE BUNDLE (with the original game and the director's cut): https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/bundles/qube-ultimate-bundle

Next week they'll go into Halloween mode and give away The Evil Within.

Next-Gen AMD, Intel and Qualcomm mobile CPU roadmaps showcase what’s actually new

https://videocardz.com/newz/next-gen-amd-intel-and-qualcomm-mobile-cpu-roadmaps-showcase-whats-actually-new

2024 To Be A Big Year For AMD In The AI Segment, Orders Expected From Microsoft & Others

https://wccftech.com/2024-to-be-a-big-year-for-amd-in-the-ai-segment-orders-expected-from-microsoft-others/

Apple May Lose Out On Its Annual $20 Billion Deal With Google Thanks To The Latest Antitrust Case, But It May Only Be A Temporary Setback

https://wccftech.com/apple-and-google-may-lose-their-20-billion-search-engine-thanks-to-antitrust/

AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000WX CPU Specs Leak: 7995WX Flagship With 96 Cores, Over 5 GHz Clocks at 350W

https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-threadripper-pro-7000wx-cpu-specs-leak-7995wx-flagship-96-cores-5-ghz-350w/