Well it's not like they have to do much. If they bring the prices one tier down, it should be plenty. 4070 Super for the price of the 4070 Ti with the performance similar to a 4080 would be easy wins. It's similar to what they did with 2070 Super during the Turing generation.

I'm pretty sure the 4070 Super will still have less CUDA cores than the 4070Ti since the latter doesn't get a Super update. I expect 6400-7000 Shader cores (200-218 TMUs/Tensor cores), which is still less than the 7680 Shader Cores (240 TMU/Tensor cores). Otherwise the 4070Ti would lose all reason to exist, and I doubt it would be in NVidia's interest to torpedo their own product for a second time after the uncancelling of the 4080 12GB.

The name of the chip doesn't always mean much: The 2060 has a variant that uses the same TU 104 chip than the 2080 and 2080 Super, for instance

Except that 2060 was a limited product line that was exclusive to Evga and their "2060 KO" and not an entire product stack that was given to all AIBs to produce. 2070 Super was close to 2080 performance for $500. It made the 2080 lose all reason to exist hence the purpose of the 2080 Super. Why do you think they are making a 4080 Super as that is generally how refreshes work. 2070 Super also used TU104 which was same die as a 2080.

So I highly doubt a 4070 Super will have less cores while using AD103 die because it's simply wasteful when they could easily use AD104. If anything, Nvidia will position it as 4070 TI's replacement and not replace the 4070.

OK, the performance of Cities: Skylines II sounds way worse than I was expecting, and... it's GPU-bound. Wow. At least that means it should be possible to optimize it (the simulation shouldn't be the culprit), but it's really bad at the moment. It sounds like there are a few settings you can lower to squeeze somewhat decent performance, but optimization-wise, definitely seems like an early release. I guess releasing now might kind of make sense it the settings can be tweaked for tolerable performance, but performance still seems abysmal. Definitely going to have to watch the performance situation closely in the coming days.

The Friday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Fanatical's new Star Deal is Dead Island Definitive Collection, 88% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/dead-island-definitive-collection

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

New Starfield Mod adds physics collisions to all dead bodies
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/new-starfield-mod-adds-physics-collisions-to-all-dead-bodies/
Now here is a Starfield mod that most PC gamers will download and use. Modder “Korodic” has shared this mod that adds physics collisions to all the dead bodies in the game.
Thanks to this mod, dead bodies will now move when the player or an NPC walks into them or jumps on them. This will, obviously, improve overall game immersion. And, since the mod does not impact the game’s performance, we highly recommend downloading it from here.
Korodic used xEDIT RC candidate in order to create this mod. Furthermore, the modder plans to further improve the collisions in future versions.
>> The article has no screenshots or videos.

Starfield gets a new mod aiming to improve the behavior of NPCs
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/starfield-gets-a-new-mod-aiming-to-improve-the-behavior-of-npcs/
Modder ‘nexstephen’ has released a new mod for Bethesda’s RPG, Starfield. This mod is all about making the game’s non-player characters (NPCs) behave better. With this mod, you won’t have all the NPCs giving you creepy stares with their weird eyes.
The modder explained that this mod is based loosely on the Realistic Conversations Mod for Fallout 4. This mod does a bunch of cool things. For starters, NPCs won’t stare at you or shout from far away, they won’t cut you off mid-sentence, and they won’t make comments about what you’re up to. Plus, they’ll be more emotional, blink less often, chat more with other NPCs, taunt you during fights, and, most importantly, act more like real people and less like flat characters in a video game.
>> Once again, no videos nor screenshots about this mod.

GAMING NEWS

Here are ten minutes of gameplay from One Punch Man: World
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-ten-minutes-of-gameplay-from-one-punch-man-world/
GameInformer posted a video with ten minutes of fresh gameplay from One Punch Man: World. In this video, we can see what the game looks like and how its fighting works. It’s a cool sneak peek so be sure to watch it if you are fans of the manga/anime.

Bandai Namco has fixed the in-game shader compilation stutters in Tekken 8
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/bandai-namco-has-fixed-the-in-game-shader-compilation-stutters-in-tekken-8/
Bandai Namco has launched the Closed Beta phase for Tekken 8 and I’m happy to report that it has fixed the in-game shader compilation stutters.

Star Citizen Alpha 3.21: Mission Ready is now available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/star-citizen-alpha-3-21-mission-ready-is-now-available-for-download/
Cloud Imperium just dropped a new free update for Star Citizen today. This Update, called Alpha 3.21: Mission Ready, expands content and systems with greater risk and rewards.

Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 2.02 coming soon, key features unveiled
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/cyberpunk-2077-patch-2-02-coming-soon-key-features-unveiled/
CD Projekt RED announced that Patch 2.02 for Cyberpunk 2077 will be released soon, and shared its key features. This is going to be a small update, so don’t expect any major tweaks, fixes or improvements.

The Friday news, part two:

The upcoming Assassin's Creed VR game looks genuinely cool if you can keep yourself from throwing up
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-upcoming-assassins-creed-vr-game-looks-genuinely-cool-if-you-can-keep-yourself-from-throwing-up/
Part of me would love a VR headset, but the rest of me lives in a flat, which means I'm usually thankful that most VR game trailers don't do much for me. Besides Half-Life: Alyx and Superhot, there aren't many games that have me wishing I had an Index or Quest.
Except now they're apparently making some sort of Assassin's Creed game for your pint-size holodecks, and it actually looks pretty cool so long as you manage not to throw up.

AI in big budget games is inevitable, say dev vets from Assassin's Creed and Everquest 2: 'Developers hate it … the money is still going to drive absolutely everybody to do it'
https://www.pcgamer.com/ai-in-big-budget-games-is-inevitable-say-dev-vets-from-assassins-creed-and-everquest-2-developers-hate-it-the-money-is-still-going-to-drive-absolutely-everybody-to-do-it/
AI's a thorny subject, to say the least. The big issue with technology is that it advances in waves. There'll be a very long time where it feels like nothing's changing much at all, and then suddenly we're all saddled with something new to irreversibly change our lives.
(...)
The latest two cents thrown into the ongoing debate comes via an interview from our friends over at Edge Magazine, who sat down with former Assassin's Creed lead producer Jade Raymond and Raph Koster, the former co-director of Everquest 2 co-director.
"AAA games have gone from taking teams of 50 people two years to make to now sometimes taking teams of hundreds of people more than ten years to make … [we believe] these technologies will eventually help game developers reverse that trend, and unlock more creativity from developers and players alike," says Raymond as she goes over the R&D projects of her new professional home, Haven Studios.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 finally gets an offline mode, but only for the Steam Deck
https://www.pcgamer.com/tony-hawks-pro-skater-12-finally-gets-an-offline-mode-but-only-for-the-steam-deck/
Three years after debuting for PC on the Epic Games Store, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, a remastered bundle of the first two games in the long-running Tony Hawk series, finally made its way to Steam earlier this month. By and large it's been well received, but there's one persistent complaint: A lot of players would really like to see the always-online requirement dropped. Yesterday it finally happened, thanks to the 1.1 patch for Steam, but only partially—very oddly, the offline mode is only available on Steam Deck.

Josh Sawyer would like to make Pillars of Eternity 3, but only if he got a Baldur's Gate 3-sized budget
https://www.pcgamer.com/josh-sawyer-would-like-to-make-pillars-of-eternity-3-but-only-if-he-got-a-baldurs-gate-3-sized-budget/
I recently got around to playing Pentiment, and while I won't spoil the experience for anyone I will say, "Man. Wow. Holy cow," as I stare off pensively into the distance. After contemplating the nature of existing for a few days, my main takeaway was that Obsidian should just give Josh Sawyer a few million dollars every five years or so, and tell him to come back when he's done.
But what would Sawyer do if he actually found himself in that position—or more specifically, the position of having as many million dollars and as much time as he wanted? In a wide-ranging interview with Touch Arcade he said he probably wouldn't make Pentiment 2, but he would make Pillars of Eternity 3—as long as someone was really ready to back up the money truck.

Mortal Kombat 1 players discover that crash logs are eating up massive amounts of drive space: More than 1GB per crash in some cases
https://www.pcgamer.com/mortal-kombat-1-players-discover-that-crash-logs-are-eating-up-massive-amounts-of-drive-space-more-than-1gb-per-crash-in-some-cases/
Are you playing Mortal Kombat 1 on Steam? Have you noticed that your free drive space has been disappearing without obvious cause and at a potentially alarming pace? If so, there's good news, or at least an explanation that will help you deal with it: It turns out that Mortal Kombat 1's crash logs are really big.

There's cool stuff happening in every big FPS right now, and I can't decide where to start
https://www.pcgamer.com/theres-cool-stuff-happening-in-every-big-fps-right-now-and-i-cant-decide-where-to-start/
One fun side effect of every live-service FPS updating on similar seasonal schedules is that a few times a year they all decide to go big at the same time. The last big convergence of shooters happened in March, but October is poised to make March look like hot garbage.

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader has an alignment system, sort of
https://www.pcgamer.com/warhammer-40000-rogue-trader-has-an-alignment-system-sort-of/
The latest trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader emphasizes choice and consequence, highlighting its equivalent of alignment—the conviction system. "While exploring you will be met with a great number of hard decisions," the trailer says. "Do you try to save the population of a dying world? Or burn it all with the intent of containing heresy?"

If you try to sneakily undercut one of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's most emotional scenes, CD Projekt counters with hidden dialogue followed by instant death
https://www.pcgamer.com/if-you-try-to-sneakily-undercut-one-of-cyberpunk-2077-phantom-libertys-most-emotional-scenes-cd-projekt-counters-with-hidden-dialogue-followed-by-instant-death/
I don't think I'm spoiling too much off the jump by saying that Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's endings are emotionally charged and more than a little bit devastating. It is also a natural gamer behavior to goof around in such moments, but as reported by VG247, CD Projekt Red seems to have anticipated players attempting to bork one such scene, inserting hidden dialogue to reflect their apparent death drive. Spoilers for Phantom Liberty ahead.

Age of Sigmar RTS Realms of Ruin reveals its final faction
https://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-sigmar-rts-realms-of-ruin-reveals-its-final-faction/
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, the upcoming real-time strategy game with big Dawn of War 2 vibes, will launch with four factions. We've already seen the heavily armored Stormcast Eternals, swamp-dwelling Orruk Kruleboyz, and undead Nighthaunt, and now developers Frontier have revealed the mutated and magical Disciples of Tzeentch will round out the roster.

Serpens is a stealth sim that's carrying a torch for Thief: The Dark Project, then quickly extinguishing it with a water arrow
https://www.pcgamer.com/serpens-is-a-stealth-sim-thats-carrying-a-torch-for-thief-the-dark-project-then-quickly-extinguishing-it-with-a-water-arrow/
I love Thief: The Dark Project so much I push for its inclusion in the PC Gamer Top 100 every year (and sometimes I get my way). Seems like Thomas Porta loves Thief too, as demonstrated by the footage of his upcoming stealth game Serpens: Eternal Thievery. As well as a gameplay trailer there's a video from the current alpha (embedded above), which shows the first 10 minutes of torch-snuffing abbey exploration and has convinced me to add Serpens to my wishlist.

Tokyo resident arrested after using FF14 to allegedly stalk a woman in grim reminder of how a blacklist overhaul is long overdue
https://www.pcgamer.com/tokyo-resident-arrested-after-using-final-fantasy-14-to-allegedly-stalk-a-woman-in-a-grim-reminder-of-how-much-the-games-blacklist-system-needs-an-update/
In Tokyo, a man has been arrested for stalking a woman using social media sites like LINE (a popular app in Japan) and Twitter—as well as the MMORPG Final Fantasy 14. As reported by Kobe News (and translated by Siliconera), the man reportedly sent over 22 messages via those apps trying to re-establish contact, while also threatening to tell her family about their past conversations.
In Final Fantasy 14, however, he was able to just follow her around. That's down to an issue the MMO has had with its friends list system since its launch—if you blacklist someone, you're not removed from their friends list.

Stellaris' next DLC is gonna take you to another dimension
https://www.pcgamer.com/stellaris-next-dlc-is-gonna-take-you-to-another-dimension/
Galactic tyranny sim Stellaris is officially getting weird. Paradox has announced the game's next DLC—named Astral Planes—and it's promising to let you venture into whole new dimensions, where everything is topsy-turvy and the laws of physics go out the window.

Starfield player turns shotgun into a carpet-bombing artillery nightmare that should probably violate interstellar law
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-player-turns-shotgun-into-a-carpet-bombing-artillery-nightmare-that-should-probably-violate-interstellar-law/
Starfield has a ton of weapon mods to muck about with—not the kind you need a script extender for, mind you. I'm talking about the vanilla crafting system: If you drop a few points into the Science skill tree, you'll be able to craft all kinds of mods that blow the doors wide open on the game's build variety.
One such combo is the Hornet Nest mod, slapped onto the Coachman shotgun. This thing makes your gun explosive, scattering rounds directly downwards from the point of impact—which can just be the sky, as they explode after a certain distance anyway. Here's a great example video from iSwearSheWas56 on the Starfield reddit.

And now, let's check the weekend deals at GOG and Steam:

+GOG

• There are four new Deals of the Day that will last until Monday, with the first one being Murder Is Game Over: Streaming Death, 14% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/murder_is_game_over_streaming_death
• The second one is Full Throttle Remastered, with a 75% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/full_throttle_remastered
• Hero of the Kingdom III is next, 80% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/hero_of_the_kingdom_iii
• And the fourth and last one is We are the Dwarves, with a massive 95% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/we_are_the_dwarves" target="_blank"> https://www.gog.com/en/game/we_are_the_dwarves

+Steam

• The first deal is Ozymandias: Bronze Age Empire Sim, 45% off until October, 26th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1768280/Ozymandias_Bronze_Age_Empire_Sim/
• The game EMPTY SHELL gets a 10% deal until the 30th of October: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2243110/EMPTY_SHELL/
• Publisher Neon Doctrine puts its games on sale with up to 80% deal until the 1st of November: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/nd/sale/neondoctrinescreamfest
• Sons Of The Forest, still in Early Access, gets a 20% discount until November, the 2nd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1326470/Sons_Of_The_Forest/
• STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor will be 35% off until the 2nd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1774580/STAR_WARS_Jedi_Survivor/
• To celebrate the launch of its latest game, Jackbox Games puts its titles on sale with up to 60% discounts until November, 2nd: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/JackboxGamesWeekendSale
• The Roguelike Celebration features up to 75% deals. The deals vary in length, with game deals lasting until October, 26th, the 28th and some until November, the 2nd: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/roguelikecelebration2023
• Killing Floor 2 will be 80% off until the 2nd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/232090/Killing_Floor_2/
• And the Warner Bros publisher sale features up to 90% discounts until the 2nd: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/WarnerBros2023

That's all folks! Until next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.

Disappointing, but not that surprising. They should have delayed the game.

By the way, PCGamer has published its review of the game: https://www.pcgamer.com/cities-skylines-2-review/

They've given it a 77 compared to the 86 of the first one.

Counter Strike 2 update will now check AMD drivers, Anti-Lag+ VAC ban reversing now taking place

https://videocardz.com/newz/counter-strike-2-update-will-now-check-amd-drivers-anti-lag-vac-ban-reversing-now-taking-place

Least Valve is unbanning the users, no word for COD/Apex or anyone else however that had their users banned. Pretty dumb that Radeon didn't test this before launching the feature but it is what it is.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX 96 Core CPU Shatters Cinebench Performance Benchmarks, Almost 150K Score

https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-threadripper-pro-7995wx-96-core-cpu-shatters-cinebench-performance-benchmarks/

TSMC Places Confidence In 3nm Node, Compares It To Intel 18A: Better Maturity, Cost & Delivery Time

https://wccftech.com/tsmc-places-confidence-in-3nm-node-compares-intel-18a-better-maturity-cost-delivery-time/

Pretty crazy that Samsung and Intel had to go for GAAFETs early and even then can't compete with TSMC, and N3 is just a half-node smaller than their 2020 N5 to boot.

AC VR? Hopefully with full roomscale... like the old Kinect version: