DLSS is actually surprisingly good, if you stick with Quality setting - and according to some tests, in higher resolutions are fickle minds can be even fooled as to look better than native. So I'm quite fine with it, but so far I don't like frame generation, since it introduces too much artifacts in my experience.

AI is, for good or worse, here to stay and will probably be the biggest jump in making games since transition from 2D to 3D, in everything from art to NPC interactions. As someone who witnessed professionally first hand what AI can do, it is definitely something that can help a lot, but it does need certain regulations (SAG-AFTRA voice actors are currently on strike for that reason).

I do hope AMD is finally going to do with next lineup of their GPUs  what Ryzen did for their CPU department. nVidia has become way too greedy and cocky.

Fair enough.  I do not like frame generation, I think it is a lazy excuse for bad optimization.

I do genuinely love DLSS quality.  Great image and helps to crank fps.

AMD To Ship “Half a Million” Instinct MI300X AI Accelerators In 2024

https://wccftech.com/amd-ship-half-a-million-instinct-mi300x-ai-accelerators-2024/

AMD launches Ryzen AI 300 PRO series: up to 12 CPU cores and 16 RDNA3.5 CUs

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-launches-ryzen-ai-300-pro-series-up-to-12-cpu-cores-and-16-rdna3-5-cus

OBS Studio 31 drops NVIDIA Encoder (NVENC) support for Kepler GPUs

https://videocardz.com/newz/obs-studio-31-drops-nvidia-encoder-nvenc-support-for-kepler-gpus

Intel Starts Working on Next-Gen Xe3 “Celestial” GPU Support, First Panther Lake PCI IDs Listed

https://wccftech.com/intel-starts-working-next-gen-xe3-celestial-gpu/

Thursday news, part one:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Epic Store

• Empyrion - Galactic Survival: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/empyrion-galactic-survival-fbd99f
• Outliver: Tribulation: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/outliver-tribulations-679884

Next week, the free games will be Invincible Presents: Atom Eve and Kardboard Kings.

GOG has two new sales:

• To those of you that enjoy more raunchy games, the NSFW Promo has games up to 90% off during 10 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20241010_nsfw_promo
• Meanwhile, there’s also the Back to 00' Promo, also with up to 90% discounts, but during 14 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20241010_back_to_00

Steam has one deal: Blue Fire is going to be 80% off until October, the 23rd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1220150/Blue_Fire/.

We have a new Humble Bundle, the SNEG Video Game Classics Bundle, featuring up to 23 games from GOG to get during 13 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/sneg-video-game-classics.

Fanatical has three new deals for us:

• The new Star Deal is Hell Let Loose, with a 58% discount during 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/hell-let-loose
• Frontier Developments puts its games on sale during 6 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/frontier-developments
• And the Best of Bundle Bash – BYOB has 20 titles to choose for your 3+, 5+ or 7+ games bundles: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/best-of-bundle-bash-build-your-own-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Nextgen Edition Mod vs Original Graphics Comparison
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/grand-theft-auto-vice-city-nextgen-edition-mod-vs-original-graphics-comparison/
The modding team behind the Nextgen Edition Mod for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City has released a new comparison video. In this video, the team compares the modded version with the original one. So, let’s take a look at it.
For those who did not know, GTA Vice City Nextgen Edition will be a complete transfer of all missions from the original game to the RAGE Engine. The mod currently targets a 2025 release date. However, there isn’t any specific release date window for it.
The mod will have an improved version of the city – and weapons – from the Definitive Edition. All the cars from the Xbox version of the original game will be present here. Additionally, all the models of all characters and peds will be from the Xbox version. From what we know, there are no plans to increase their polygon count. However, all 3D characters will have better textures.
All the original radio stations will also be present in this unofficial remaster. And although the project will have the cut-scenes and the style of the original game, it will also pack better particle effects and some lighting improvements.
>> The video is a bit over 5 minutes long.

Batman: Arkham City Ascension Overhaul Mod overhauls upgrade system, adjusts combat and enemy AI, adds new difficulty options
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/batman-arkham-city-ascension-overhaul-mod-overhauls-upgrade-system/
Modder “GPUnity” has released an updated version of his Ascension Overhaul – Insane Difficulty Mod for Batman: Arkham City. This new version changes the upgrade system, tweaks the combat and enemy AI, and adds more difficulty options for players to choose from. So, let’s dive in and see what’s in store for all Batman fans.
Going into more details, the latest version of the mod makes the Power Gadgets function as Special Combo Moves similar to Arkham Knight. Gliding and grapnel boost speeds are also adjusted and more in line with Arkham Knight. Not only that but there are now new death tips and UI text in-game to assist you on your journey.
As said, this new version adds three difficulty options. These are Regular, Insane, and Chaos. Regular is for players who want an easier experience and want to enjoy the changes made to the gameplay. Insane is for those who know the Arkham games well. Chaos is for the toughest players who have mastered the game’s combat system.
All in all, this mod is for those who have already finished the game and want a new challenge. By using it, you can finally replay this classic Batman: Arkham game.
>> There’s a slightly over 1 minute long video in the article.

No, there is no Silent Hill 2 mod that can fix the traversal stutters
https://www.dsogaming.com/articles/no-there-is-no-silent-hill-2-mod-that-can-fix-the-traversal-stutters/
Silent Hill 2 has just been released and as I’ve reported, the game suffers from numerous traversal stutters. And, to the surprise of no one, a few mods surfaced, claiming that they could fix them. Well, I tried all of them and none of them fixes or reduces the traversal stutters. Shocking, I know.
>> At least not yet.

Here’s SiN Episodes: Emergence with RTX Remix Path Tracing
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/heres-sin-episodes-emergence-with-rtx-remix-path-tracing/
NVIDIA’s Jacob Freeman has shared some screenshots from a WIP RTX Remix Mod for SiN Episodes: Emergence. This mod will add Full Ray Tracing/Path Tracing effects to this 2006 FPS title. So, let’s take a look at it.
SiN Episodes: Emergence was developed by Ritual Entertainment and came out in 2006. It was an attempt to revive the classic SiN game, which came out in 1998. The devs were planning to release nine episodes but abandoned those plans as the first episode flopped.
SiN Episodes: Emergence is powered by the Source Engine, so an RTX Remix Mod should be an easy task. At least in theory.
Created by modder MattTheZombie, this mod is still in an early dev stage. Moreover, there is no ETA on when it will come out.

GAMING NEWS

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 may have Denuvo on PC
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/kingdom-come-deliverance-2-may-have-denuvo-on-pc/
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a game that a lot of PC gamers have been looking forward to. However, it appears that the game may use the Denuvo anti-tamper tech.

Thursday news, part two:

Silent Hill 2 devs explain how they were able to stay true to James' character, 'he had to be not too cool and not too good-looking'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/silent-hill-2-devs-explain-how-they-were-able-to-stay-true-to-james-character-he-had-to-be-not-too-cool-and-not-too-good-looking/
The Silent Hill 2 remake managed to surprise a lot of dedicated fans with a faithful retelling of a much-beloved story, and to celebrate the game's release, Bloober Team shared a behind-the-scenes video that demonstrated how much thought went into creating not only the remake, but also its protagonist. 

Killing Floor 3's dynamic tech that makes zed heads 'flower' when you shoot them will haunt me for the rest of my days, but also I have to see more
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/killing-floor-3s-dynamic-tech-that-makes-zed-heads-flower-when-you-shoot-them-will-haunt-me-for-the-rest-of-my-days-but-also-i-have-to-see-more/
I'll level with you, folks: I've never sat down and pondered the precise number of ways my head could be minced, mangled, and maimed, and that's probably why no one is ringing my phone off the hook to come work on Killing Floor 3.
The devs love their gore, you see. You can tell because a new documentary cut from PCG (that's us!) and Tripwire—alongside talk about influences, approach, and philosophy—details KF3's evolution on the studio's Massive Evisceration And Trauma tech.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard won't have an arachnophobia mode because it won't have any spiders
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/dragon-age-the-veilguard-wont-have-an-arachnophobia-mode-because-it-wont-have-any-spiders/
Thedas was just declared a no-spider zone. We've seen other games offer arachnophobia modes that replace spiders with alternative enemies: World of Warcraft swaps them out with crabs, Grounded progressively de-spiderizes the offending models until they're eventually just floating balls with eyes, and Lethal Company simply replaces spiders with the word "SPIDER." But where others might provide arachnophobia modes, Dragon Age: The Veilguard has arrived at a more elegant solution for overwhelming spider terror.
Veilguard won't have an arachnophobia mode, because Veilguard simply won't have any spiders in the first place. In the business, we call that efficiency.

More Embracer Group layoffs: Star Trek Online developer Cryptic Studios is cutting jobs for the second time in a year
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/more-embracer-group-layoffs-star-trek-online-developer-cryptic-studios-is-cutting-jobs-for-the-second-time-in-a-year/
A year after laying off an unspecified number of employees as part of a "comprehensive restructuring program" at parent company Embracer Group, Star Trek Online developer Cryptic Games appears to be cutting even more staff.
As reported by Game Developer, numerous Cryptic employees have said on LinkedIn that they will be laid off from the studio at the end of October. The number of people being put out of work isn't currently known, but it sounds like the cuts are significant.

Black and White's AI programmer just won a Nobel prize: 'an incredible honor, it's the big one really'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/black-and-whites-ai-programmer-just-won-a-nobel-prize-an-incredible-honor-its-the-big-one-really/
Professor Demis Hassabis, a co-founder of DeepMind who began his programming career working for Bullfrog and Lionhead, has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, alongside Professor John Jumper and Professor David Baker. Hassabis and Jumper's share of the award is for their "complete revolution" in the prediction of protein structures through the AI tool AlphaFold2. 

Former Bethesda and BioWare devs are making a Stardew-like with Redwall animals, and oh my god look at this little mouse farmer carry a pumpkin
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/former-bethesda-and-bioware-devs-are-making-a-stardew-like-with-redwall-animals-and-oh-my-god-look-at-this-little-mouse-farmer-carry-a-pumpkin/
Nothing soothes the soul like a little woodland creature acting like it's people. If you're suffering from a midweek slump, try it yourself: Imagine a mouse. Now imagine he's got little clothes and he's sipping a tiny mouse soup from an acorn cap. Good, yeah? It's the infallible logic behind the success of Frog and Toad, Redwall, Magic's recent Bloomburrow set—and it's the delight that NEARstudios, a team of former Bethesda, BioWare, and Naughty Dog devs, are hoping to capture in Hawthorn.

'Nobody, and I mean nobody, at Bethesda is patting themselves on the back while ignoring our players': Starfield design director reassures fans that developers are paying attention to community concerns
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/nobody-and-i-mean-nobody-at-bethesda-is-patting-themselves-on-the-back-while-ignoring-our-players-starfield-design-director-reassures-fans-that-developers-are-paying-attention-to-community-concerns/
In the wake of a less-than-stellar reception for the Starfield DLC Shattered Space, design director Emil Pagliarulo has taken to X to say he's proud of it, but that nobody at Bethesda "is patting themselves on the back while ignoring our players."

Former Blizzard president planned to 'cut down' on microtransactions in Diablo 4 and reboot Overwatch before the Microsoft buyout
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/former-blizzard-president-planned-to-cut-down-on-microtransactions-in-diablo-4-and-reboot-overwatch-before-the-microsoft-buyout/
If Microsoft hadn't dropped $69 billion to buy Activision Blizzard last year, we may have seen some dramatic changes to Diablo 4 and Overwatch. In the final chapter of Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, author Jason Schreier reports that former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra "had planned to cut down on microtransactions in Diablo 4 and reboot Overwatch," before he left the studio.
>> Easy to say that now.

"Why Nobody Is Buying Graphics Cards Anymore"

I don't think that's true for PC gaming. The growth of the RTX40-series on Steam ain't slower/worse than Ampere or Turing and it is a lot faster than Maxwell and Kepler. Only Pascal gained its percentages faster and peaked higher:

And these are just percentage shares. The user base on Steam has grown a lot over the last decade.

Both concurrent users and concurrent "in-game" stats more than doubled in the last 6 years... so in absolute numbers the RTX40-series perhaps even sold better than the GTX10-series (based on the Steam hardware survey):

Oh no, I didn't post that video based on what that guy thinks. I posted it because it reminded me of what Yuri was saying earlier about buying their GPU and just hunkering down with it (Like how I've been doing that with my 1080ti for yrs now). 

I feel like the guy ended up spewing some bollocks when he said "more people will rush to console gaming", when we know it's the actual opposite, and just because high end nvidia cards going up in price doesn't exactly mean console are going to become cheap as chips (again, look at the PS5 Pro, and that's without the stand + disk reader), and there's nothing out there stating the Switch 2 will be bargain bin cheap price either. 

Also as a side note, seeing this image recently does not fill me with confidence on me being able to bother with the high end market anymore, let alone Nvidia's mid teir:

MLID has been right several times this year, but I'd still take those prices with as much salt as possible.

On another note, and in case you still haven't heard about it:

Change your passwords: Attackers claim a 'catastrophic security breach' of the Internet Archive, with 31 million emails and hashed passwords captured
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/change-your-passwords-attackers-claim-a-catastrophic-security-breach-of-the-internet-archive-with-31-million-emails-and-hashed-passwords-captured/
The Internet Archive—the online repository of, well, pretty much everything—is under attack. It's been hit by a series of DDOSes that have rendered the site essentially unusable since Wednesday, with the non-profit's engineers scrambling to fend off the assault, upgrade security, and keep users informed all at the same time.

None of which, alarmingly, is the worst part. If you try to go to the site at time of writing, you'll just find an error page, but visitors yesterday were greeted by a pop-up reading "Have you ever felt like the Internet Archive runs on sticks and is constantly on the verge of suffering a catastrophic security breach? It just happened. See 31 million of you on HIBP!"

HIBP means Have I Been Pwned, a site you can use to check if your emails and passwords have been leaked in any of the data breaches that happen with disconcerting regularity online. In other words: The Archive's attackers are claiming to have nicked the deets for around 31 million accounts as part of their campaign, a breach which has since been confirmed by Archive founder Brewster Kale and HIBP's Troy Hunt (via Bleeping Computer).

I think you're looking at the wrong side of chart. As in, you're watching how fast the sales curve goes up every generation and don't notice any big differences.

That's true, but that's also not what's important right now. Rather, look at the tail ends: See how after Pascal peaked, the lead over Maxwell got smaller?

See, that's how it traditionally went: By the time The current generation dropped, the drop of the previous one had slowed down already to just those who kept their hardware for longer, which were pretty few. But let's look at Turing compared to Pascal now:

As you can see, Turing stays longer at it's Zenith, and then drops - but does so slower than Pascal instead of faster. This trend is getting even stronger with Ampere: It's stagnating much longer than any previous generation and simply refuses to drop down despite it's successor being out for almost 2 years now.

All this implies that people take longer and longer to upgrade their hardware. Part of the reason is certainly that there's less and less need to actually do so, especially on the games that are played the most like Counterstrike or eSport titles, all of which run fine on an APU. So if an APU suffices for the most popular games, what's the point of upgrading your 5-year old mid-range GPU (like a GTX 1660 or RX 580 for instance) if it's still powerful enough for the games?

You point at the growing number of players on Steam as an argument that people are still buying GPUs - but those are mostly new players with new computers and laptops, when the argument is that nobody is upgrading their GPUs anymore.

Speaking of laptops, those are an increasing force on the steam hardware charts. Those of course are also not upgrading their GPUs for obvious reasons.

Or they are upgrading their GPUs/laptops and sell their replaced hardware to other people (part of them new players), who also play on Steam.

When I upgraded my GTX 1070 to a RTX 3070, I also upgraded the crappy GPU in my brother's PC to my old GTX 1070. 

When I upgraded my RTX 3070 to a RTX 4090, I sold the 3070, which was an upgrade fo the buyer.