If you know what I mean...

Somehow, that reminded me of AMD's old A-series CPUs, which had a great integrated GPU but the CPU was pretty much garbage.

While the CPU ain't quite that bad, being just on par with it's predecessor in multicore while getting smoked by it in singlecore isn't exactly a great showing.

It still amazes how thoroughly outclassed Intel has been by AMD as of late. When Ryzen (Zen 1) first hit, I just assumed Intel had a trump card that they'd drop to counter. It's been nearly 7 years and things have just gotten worse for them. Especially in the big money Data center segment. Hell, Intel just gave up on HEDT all together. Which has had a negative effect on the pricing and upgrade path of Threadripper since AMD just competing with themselves at this point.

Intel's main cuck is their reliance on their Fabs for their CPUs. One way to look at it is that Intels CPUs are competitive in the consumer space against AMD despite having a pretty big node disadvantage. V-cache was also made possible by TSMC otherwise Zen 4 as a whole would be a big flop like how vanilla zen 4 was when it launched. With that being said, it's not to take credit away from AMD but unlike Nvidia where their architecture can carry them through node disadvantages, I don't have much confidence on AMD being able to do the same if Intel was on TSMC for their CPUs as well.

But at the end of the day, the end product is what matters and AMD is able to give comparable if not better performance than Intel while flexing key benefits such as longevity on their platform while Intel continues to be super power hungry while not providing any real benefits while getting slaughtered left right and center in the datacenter whether it's in the CPU space by AMD or GPU space by Nvidia or by both in the Ai space.

Intels fabs is what's sinking the ship that continues to force them to sack many projects.

The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has launched its Winter Sale! But that's not all, of course:

• First things first, the Winter Sale is now live and features more than 6000 deals up to 90% until the 4th of January: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_winter_sale
• There is a GIVEAWAY: Legend of Keepers: Career of a Dungeon Manager will be fre to get during 70 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/legend_of_keepers_career_of_a_dungeon_master
• And there's one Deal of the Day: Heroes of Might and Magic will sport a 77% discount during 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/heroes_of_might_and_magic

Steam has three new deals:

• Edge Of Eternity is going to be 75% off until December, 19th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/269190/Edge_Of_Eternity/
• WINGSPAN gets a 50% discount until the 21st: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1054490/WINGSPAN/
• And the Untold Tales Publisher Sale will feature up to 90% deals until the 4th of January: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/untoldtales/sale/december-2023-sale

Humble Bundle has launched the Unparalleled Puzzlers Holiday Encore, with 8 items to get during 27 hours: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/unparalleled-puzzlers-holiday-encore.

Fanatical has two new deals:

• The Star Deal is Street Fighter 6, 46% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/street-fighter-6
• The Winter Mystery Bundle has 20 unknown games to get in groups of 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/winter-mystery-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX just got an unofficial PC version
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/the-legend-of-zelda-links-awakening-dx-just-got-an-unofficial-pc-version/
The Legend of Zelda fans, here is something special for you today. A team has just released a native PC version of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX that you can download right now.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX originally came out on Game Boy Color in 1998. So, this PC version offers a fresh take on the beloved classic, combining the essence of the original with cutting-edge enhancement. It supports high resolutions and framerates. The game will also run better than its original Game Boy Color version.
What’s also amazing here is that this PC version of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX supports widescreen monitors. This can change the way you’ve experienced this classic Zelda game. Not only that, but you can zoom the map all the way out.
>> The article has a 1:26 video.

GAMING NEWS

First official details for The Division 2: Project Resolve
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/first-official-details-for-the-division-2-project-resolve/
Ubisoft has just announced Project Resolve, a comprehensive update plan for Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, and shared its first details. So, let’s see what Ubisoft has in store for its agents.

Starfield will get FSR 3.0 in early 2024; city maps, new ways of travel and mod support coming in future updates
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/starfield-will-get-fsr-3-0-in-early-2024-city-maps-new-ways-of-travel-and-mod-support-coming-in-future-updates/
Bethesda has revealed that the next update for Starfield will add support for FSR 3.0 Frame Generation and Intel XeSS. This update will come out in early 2024, and it will also include a large number of “in-progress” quest fixes.

Micky Mouse-inspired noir FPS gets new official gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/micky-mouse-inspired-noir-fps-gets-new-official-gameplay-trailer/
In May 2023, we informed you about an upcoming noir FPS game inspired by Disney’s Micky Mouse. And today, we are happy to report that a new trailer for it has been released. This trailer features some gameplay sequences, so be sure to watch it.

Forza Motorsport Update 3.0 Released & Detailed, Full Patch Notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/forza-motorsport-update-3-0-released-detailed-full-patch-notes/
Turn10 has released the third major title update for Forza Motorsport, and shared its full patch notes. This new patch brings a number of PC performance improvements. So, let’s dive in and take a closer look at them.

Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown gets brand new in-engine trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/test-drive-unlimited-solar-crown-gets-brand-new-in-engine-trailer/
NACON has just released a new in-engine trailer for its upcoming open-world racing game, Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown. According to the devs, this trailer shows another way to play TDU, one that illustrates how much fun it is to win races, take on other players, upgrade your car and constantly strive for better performance.

The news, the sequel:

Veil is a co-op tactical warlock game that looks like someone mashed up Dishonored and Rainbow Six, and it just got its first gameplay trailer
https://www.pcgamer.com/veil-is-a-co-op-tactical-warlock-game-that-looks-like-someone-mashed-up-dishonored-and-rainbow-six-and-it-just-got-its-first-gameplay-trailer/
My friends, it's my delight to inform you that we have entered the era of magical gun wizards. At least, that's my takeaway from the trailer for Veil, a just-announced, four-player co-op shooter based around squads of tactical warlocks as they try to keep demons from spilling over into our world. It got its first gameplay trailer today, which you can see above.

DayZ and Icarus team up with a cheeky 'The Day After' survival Steam sale bundle
https://www.pcgamer.com/dayz-and-icarus-team-up-with-a-cheeky-the-day-after-survival-steam-sale-bundle/
We weren't terribly surprised to see early access zombie survival game The Day Before crash and burn, but the speed with which it fell apart—a mere four days between the game's disastrous launch and developer Fntastic closing—was a bit of a shock.
I'm not a particular fan of grave-dancing about a failed game and a shuttered studio, but it's not hard to understand why the makers of another zombie survival game like DayZ—which The Day Before was so clearly trying to emulate—might feel some satisfaction upon seeing a copycat strike out at the plate.
After a pretty harsh tweet mocking the developer of The Day Before, Bohemia Interactive is now telling disappointed survival fans the same thing you might read on a pizza box. "You've tried the rest, now try the best." DayZ is on sale, in other words.
And it's not alone: the sale includes survival game Icarus from developer RocketWerkz—the studio founded by original DayZ creator Dean Hall. The two studios have bundled their survival games together for what they call "The Day After Survival Sale Bundle." Get it? Purchased together, both games are 33% off Steam until December 21.

8 years after the first game, cyberpunk adventure Read Only Memories: Neurodiver pushes its release to 2024 as it shows off its psychic protagonist and weird pocket leech
https://www.pcgamer.com/8-years-after-the-first-game-cyberpunk-adventure-read-only-memories-neurodiver-pushes-its-sequel-to-2024-as-it-shows-off-its-psychic-protagonist-and-weird-pocket-leech/
Given that there's only about two weeks of 2023 left, it probably shouldn't be a surprise that Read Only Memories: Neurodiver has been pushed back into 2024, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little sad about it. The original Read Only Memories—which somehow turns nine years old next year, god help us—was an excellent cyberpunk visual novel I still think about from time to time

A whisper of hope: a cryptic Belgian McDonald's promotion has spawned a flurry of desperate MultiVersus hype from abandoned players
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-whisper-of-hope-a-cryptic-belgian-mcdonalds-promotion-has-spawned-a-flurry-of-desperate-multiversus-hype-from-abandoned-players/
Ah, MultiVersus. By all accounts, it was a genuinely solid platform fighter with an all-star cast, torn away from us too soon. It was only an "open beta!" What do you mean there were seasons with battle passes? That's normal for an open beta. To test battle passes you could buy with real money. (...) But MulitVersus felt like a real contender. The Warner Bros. portfolio is massive, and for a beautiful second, it seemed like we'd live in a world where Saul Goodman could spike the Iron Giant. Well, there might be hope on the horizon—though there's a thin line between hope and cope. As spotted by The Gamer, a Belgian McDonald's promotional sticker made the rounds on Twitter last week.

Intel 14th Gen Core i5-14400 & Core i3-14100 CPU Benchmarks Leak, Non-K Lineup Launches on 8th January at CES

https://wccftech.com/intel-14th-gen-core-i5-14400-i3-14100-cpu-benchmarks-leak-non-k-lineup-8th-january-launch/

NVIDIA’s Doom 30th Anniversary Sweepstakes page lists GeForce RTX 4090 MSRP at $1,398

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidias-doom-30th-anniversary-sweepstakes-page-lists-geforce-rtx-4090-msrp-at-1398

Samsung Unveils 31.5″ UHD & 27″ QHD QD-OLED Gaming Monitors With Up To 360Hz Refresh Rates

https://wccftech.com/samsung-31-5-uhd-27-qhd-qd-oled-gaming-monitors-up-to-360hz/

240 and 360hz Samsung QD-OLED's.. now we're talking. Hopefully come with HDMI 2.1.

It's worth adding that Nvidia has "fixed" it and now they value the card at $1,789 and also that this is part of a contest with a custom RTX 4090 as the price.

Here are the rules and conditions to apply: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/contests/doom-anniversary-sweepstakes-official-rules/

Steam's winter sale is late next week, right?