A 5080 review was accidently published a bit early before being removed. It shows an 8.3% boost over the 4080 Super at 1440p across 11 games.

We'll soon see if this is consistent with other reviews, but if true that's pretty bad. It would mean the 5080 is about 10% above the base 4080.

 Relative performance gain for reference according to techpowerup:

• 980 -> 1080 = 51%
• 1080 -> 2080 = 39%
• 2080 -> 3080 = 63%
• 3080 -> 4080 = 49%

The more I hear about the 5080, the more embarrassing it looks. Even the early data leaks of the 5090 aren't looking stellar. This new gen is just a complete joke from Nvidia's side. 

All hail the 4080 Super Duper

Going from this, I expect the 5070 Ti to be ~10% above the 4070Ti Super and the 5070... halfway between the 4070 and 4070 Super due to it's lower CUDA Core count.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 “Blackwell” Graphics Cards Review Roundup

https://videocardz.com/195437/nvidia-geforce-rtx-5080-blackwell-graphics-cards-review-roundup

To the surprise of no one, it's garbage

Japanese store to hold lottery for a chance to purchase GeForce RTX 5090/5080

https://videocardz.com/newz/japanese-store-to-hold-lottery-for-potential-geforce-rtx-5090-5080-buyers

NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang Says Samsung’s HBM Process Cannot Be Trusted; Team Green Distances Itself Away From The South Korean Giant

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-says-samsung-hbm-process-cannot-be-trusted/

NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5090 To Witness “Stock-Outs” Due To Significant Demand; AIBs Not Able To Meet Inventory Targets Leading To Delayed Retail Launch

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-5090-witness-inventory-stock-outs-aibs-delay-retail-launch/

Intel Adds In Three New Battlemage PCI IDs At Linux Driver, Hinting Towards Release of New dGPU Models

https://wccftech.com/intel-adds-in-three-new-battlemage-pci-ids-at-linux-driver/

The news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Steam has five new deals:

• The Feudal Festival brings up to 90% discounts until February, the 3rd, but some will last until at tlest the 11th: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45229319/sale/FeudalFestival
• Blood Bowl 3 will be 60% off until the 4th of February: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1016950/Blood_Bowl_3/
• The Game of Sisyphus has a 60% discount until the 11th of February: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2904890/The_Game_of_Sisyphus/
• King Arthur: Legion IX will be 70% off until the 11th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2739830/King_Arthur_Legion_IX/

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

After resuming work following a 'hold' in 2024, Fallout: Nuevo Mexico is now officially cancelled: 'The costs ahead, both financial and personal, are too great'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/after-resuming-work-following-a-hold-in-2024-fallout-nuevo-mexico-is-now-officially-cancelled-the-costs-ahead-both-financial-and-personal-are-too-great/
After a rough 2024 that saw development briefly put "on hold" and then resumed a few months later, Fallout: Nuevo Mexico, an ambitious Fallout: New Vegas mod that promised to turn players loose amidst the irradiated wasteland of New Mexico just five years after the events of the original Fallout, has been cancelled.
"This project has been my passion, my obsession, and a huge part of my life for years," says a message posted on the Fallout: Nuevo Mexico Discord, attributed to project lead Zapshock. "I’ve poured thousands of hours into it, late nights, early mornings, and everything in between. I’ve met amazing people along the way, some who’ve become long term friends and helped me grow and evolve into a better person. Some of the best moments of my life have been spent bringing this world to life, and I’ll always be proud of the work we accomplished.
"But as much as I love this project, I need to prioritize my mental health and face reality. The team is small (less than four), the workload enormous, and the costs ahead, both financial and personal, are too great. Continuing forward simply isn’t sustainable for me and everyone involved, including voice actors."
Fallout: Nuevo Mexico was announced in 2021 and made quite an impression on PC Gamer's Rich Stanton when he eyeballed it in 2023, but the wheels seemed to come off in 2024 when the mod's YouTube channel was scrubbed of content and most of the channels on the Discord server were wiped. A couple months later, a message posted on Discord confirmed development had "been on hold for some time," and that "Zapshock has decided to step back from active participation in the community."
Unfortunate, but that sort of thing happens with big mods. But as noted by VG247, work resumed just a couple months later, and then a "reveal trailer" dropped in October 2024, showcasing a factional battle for dominance amidst the ruins of Mexico City, described as "the biggest hub in Fallout: Nuevo Mexico."
Now, though, the project has run aground again, and this time it seems permanent.

GAMING NEWS

Dino Crisis 1 & 2 are now available on GOG with 4K support, improved graphics and better DirectX game renderer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/dino-crisis-1-2-are-now-available-on-gog-with-4k-support-improved-graphics-and-better-directx-game-renderer/
Now here is a pleasant surprise. Capcom and GOG have released DRM-free enhanced editions of the first two Dino Crisis games on PC. Yep, Dino Crisis is back and fully playable on modern-day PC systems.
The GOG versions come with compatibility with Windows 10 and Windows 11. They also have an improved DirectX game renderer. Not only that, but you can expect improved geometry calculation, alpha transparency, more stable transformation and texturing. Plus, there is native support for 4K resolutions.
>> GOG has a news post with a video about this surprise release, and also has another page where we can vote for the next candidates to be ported.

Rocksteady accidentally leaked a Denuvo-free version of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/rocksteady-accidentally-leaked-a-denuvo-free-version-of-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league/
A couple of days ago, Rocksteady accidentally leaked a Denuvo-free executable file for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. And while the team has restored Denuvo to the Steam version, piracy groups were able to grab it and use it so they could crack the game.

The news, the sequel:

The OG Dying Light is giving away its first DLC in more than 4 years for free, and it's very shiny
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/the-og-dying-light-is-giving-away-its-first-dlc-in-more-than-4-years-for-free-and-its-very-shiny/
Zombies are among the most relentless monsters, whether they are of the classic shambling variety or the modern breed of sprinting corpses. They never give up—not until their brains are smashed in. And Dying Light developer Techland is seemingly no different, doggedly supporting the first game—now a decade old—even as it gears up to launch standalone follow-up Dying Light: The Beast.
To celebrate the series' 10th anniversary, Techland's giving some love to both the OG Dying Light and Dying Light 2, with four weeks of events and freebies. The first week has kicked off with a doozy, too, with the launch of the first DLC for Dying Light in more than four years, which is also being given away for free until February 10.

Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 8 stress test is now live for real
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/baldurs-gate-3-patch-8-stress-test-is-now-live-for-real/
After an awkward false start that saw it rolled out prematurely on PlayStation 5 consoles (and then quickly rolled back), the Baldur's Gate 3 patch 8 stress test is now officially live on all platforms.
>> If you want to know what it brings to the game, check this other article based on the leaked PS5 build from yesterday.

'The moon haunts you': Moon Knight's ultimate is killing Marvel Rivals players twice as fast as it should
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/its-not-just-you-moon-knights-ultimate-is-killing-marvel-rivals-players-twice-as-fast-as-it-should/
"The moon haunts you!" No other words in Marvel Rivals inspire hopelessness like the heralding cry of Moon Knight's ultimate, Hand of Khonshu. The lunar duelist's signature ult shares a lot of properties with other duelist ults in Rivals, casting an AoE circle that kills enemies inside, but Khanshu's barrage is particularly brutal. No ability like it kills as quickly, and if you're caught in the circle for even a second with 300-250 health (most of the roster), you're almost surely dead.
Moon Knight's ult has contributed to him becoming one of the most feared, reviled, and downright deadly heroes in Quickplay, but now it looks like Hand of Khonshu's unique kill rate can be explained by a bug. As discovered by Reddit user Sidewaysgts (and shared by Polygon), Hand of Khonshu currently deals twice as much damage per hit as its listed value on the official Marvel Rivals website.

Destiny 2's new episode hits next week, sending players back into the giant, haunted spaceship where the first game had its finest moments
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/destiny-2s-new-episode-hits-next-week-sending-players-back-into-the-giant-haunted-spaceship-where-the-first-game-had-its-finest-moments/
Long before Destiny 2 hit the high points of Forsaken, The Witch Queen, or The Final Shape—hell, before there was even a Destiny 2—The Taken King was peak Destiny. Aboard the Dreadnought, the titanic flagship spacecraft of the Hive God Oryx, the first game finally hit its stride, providing a compelling villain, an imminently repeatable public event in the Court of Oryx, and the Book of Sorrows: An in-game lore tome that turned Destiny's melange of proper nouns into a proper mythology.
Eventually, Destiny moved on. Oryx was defeated, sequels were released, free-to-play models were adopted, publishing agreements shifted, and the Dreadnought was left in space: neglected, but perhaps not entirely abandoned. In a lengthy developer livestream that aired earlier today, Bungie detailed what's coming in next week's launch of Destiny 2's Heresy episode, which finally sends players back into the Dreadnought to face new horrors churning in its depths.
>> There’ll be also new Star Wars based cosmetics.

Total War: Warhammer 3 hotfix makes a dwarf who longs for death slightly less likely to die
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/total-war-warhammer-3-hotfix-makes-a-dwarf-who-longs-for-death-slightly-less-likely-to-die/
The word "iconic" is so overused it makes me wince when I see it, but in the world of Warhammer it can be fairly applied to two characters: Gotrek and Felix, who sum up the duality of the setting. (...)
The two can be recruited in Total War: Warhammer 3 (Gotrek voiced by the perfectly cast Brian Blessed) if you win their quest battle, racing to the rescue to keep them alive when they're about to be overwhelmed by the daemonic hordes of Slaanesh. This is fairly achievable if you're fielding an army with some heavy cavalry who can charge into the middle of the battlefield in time to make a difference, but if you're playing poor stunty dwarfs—who thematically speaking, are one of the armies most likely to recruit the duo—you're kind of boned. Felix would probably break and flee, while Gotrek's suicide wish would be granted before you had time to help them.
Thank goodness for hotfix 6.0.4 then, which addresses this and many other issues. Near the bottom of a list of minor tweaks and fixes is a note that made my day: "Improved Gotrek and Felix’s initial survivability in 'The Adventures of Gotrek and Felix' quest battle (to Gotrek's dismay)."

Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition DLC promised last year is cancelled: 'We announced content before it had been built, and we now feel that announcement was premature'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rts/age-of-empires-3-definitive-edition-dlc-promised-last-year-is-cancelled-we-announced-content-before-it-had-been-built-and-we-now-feel-that-announcement-was-premature/
In February 2024, World's Edge announced new DLC for Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition that was slated to be out at the end of 2024. In October of that year, however, the DLC was delayed to an unspecified "future date," and today the studio announced that "after serious consideration," it's been cancelled entirely.

After falling victim to the recent US TikTok ban, Marvel Snap switches to a new US-based publisher
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/after-falling-victim-to-the-recent-us-tiktok-ban-marvel-snap-switches-to-a-new-us-based-publisher/
Last week Marvel Snap went offline during the United States' short-lived TikTok ban. The superhero CCG was swept up in the diplomatic spat due to its publisher Nuverse, which is a subsidiary of TikTok owner Bytedance. At the time, Marvel Snap studio Second Dinner indicated it would move away from Nuverse, and it looks like that's already happening.
In an X post published today, Second Dinner announced it will be handling most "operational and publishing" duties in-house with the support of Skystone Games, a small US-based publisher founded in 2020 by former Blizzard luminary David Brevik.

For COD’s sake: One player’s 763-day legal quest to make Activision unban their account ends in total success: ‘Worth the effort’
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/for-cods-sake-one-players-763-day-legal-quest-to-make-activision-unban-their-account-ends-in-total-success-worth-the-effort/
I've never been banned from a videogame or even got a single warning before. But sometimes, simply playing by the book isn't enough to avoid a ban. Maybe you've run into a few too many salty players who've reported you out of spite, or maybe you got a message in-game telling you that third-party software has been found on your PC, even though that's not true. I can't imagine what I would do in this situation, but one player known as b00lin decided that he wasn't going to stand for it.
(...)
This short message from Activision Support was the start of a long and arduous process of using the legal system to get his account unbanned and receive a refund for his initial purchase of Modern Warfare 2—all of this would take two years.

No Man's Sky is getting 'trillions of new planets,' some with oceans 'several kilometers deep,' plus explorable 'end-game' gas giants
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/no-mans-sky-is-getting-trillions-of-new-planets-some-with-oceans-several-kilometers-deep-plus-explorable-end-game-gas-giants/
If you thought 2025 would be any different from the last nine years of No Man's Sky updates… why would you think that? That would be a weird thought to have. Stop having weird thoughts.
That's my way of saying there's a big new No Man's Sky update landing today, and once again it's free, and once again it's packed with interesting stuff for the ever-expanding space sandbox from Hello Games. It's also being delivered alongside a missive from Sean Murray, who also wants to reassure everyone that, yes, Light No Fire is being worked on. In fact, the development of Light No Fire is one of the reasons we're getting new No Man's Sky stuff today.

Monster Hunter Wilds director is proud of his horrible, oily giant octopus son that belches flame and writhes in the muck, says it's a technical challenge he's 'finally getting to attempt'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/monster-hunter-wilds-director-is-proud-of-his-horrible-oily-giant-octopus-son-that-belches-flame-and-writhes-in-the-muck-says-its-a-technical-challenge-hes-finally-getting-to-attempt/
Yuya Tokuda, director of the upcoming slay-a-thon Monster Hunter Wilds, is very proud of the terrifying Oilwell Basin and the critters within it. The basin itself is styled as a 'what if we made the deep ocean on land and then set it all on fire' zone. For context, it's home to that horrible "affront to god" fans were yelping about last year.

Arrowhead CEO reassures Helldivers 2 players in the wake of Johan Pilestedt's sabbatical that if they can keep the game 'going for 10 years, we will'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arrowhead-ceo-reassures-helldivers-2-players-in-the-wake-of-johan-pilestedts-sabbatical-that-if-they-can-keep-the-game-going-for-10-years-we-will/
Helldiver's 2's former CEO, now CCO, made headlines earlier this week—including ours—by announcing he'd be on a sabbatical following years of hard work.
(...)
Essentially, he's become a bit of a central figure in the fanbase, and folks are sad to see him go, even on a temporary basis. The game's current CEO, Shams Jorjani, has been quick to reassure players that it's not going to be forever, responding to players on the game's Discord server (thanks, GamesRadar).

I'll take this chance to roast AMD. Once again they've taken the opportunity to fail an opportunity. The miniscule Blackwell uplift left the door wide open for them. However they stumbled into the door causing it to slam shut in their face. Everything 80 class and below was there to be had. Depending on the die size/CU count, they could have had a 6900XT vs 3090 scenario again, only with less of an RT handicap.

As Pem said, a regular SATA SSD will do the job fine. Crucial is the band to go for, but nowadays most drives are limited by the SATA interface, and so there'll be no difference between brands.

And you only need an SATA cable, the same one that your mechanical drive or even optical drive, if you have any use, plus the SATA power cable that your power supply should also have.

An ok/good option for those still with 3080 or older cards that want or need to upgrade now, but only if the card they can found is at MSRP or very close. Those with 4000 series can skip this card entirely.

So who will be the winners, the ones that get to buy them or the ones that don't?

It's a shame and a missed opportunity, yes.

But, in fairness, none of us thought Nvidia would offer something so underwhelming before we got the first spec leaks. I'm sure even AMD is surprised that the 7900XTX can beat this card in some tests.

Honestly it feels like the gpu market is rigged. And I don't mean in the usual duopoly sense where you have two companies that don't want to step on each others toes. I mean in the sense that Nvidia seems to make all the decisions... Even for Radeon.

RDNA 3 was the biggest hint at this sorta scenario. Before release if I was Radeons competitor, I'd be putting my best foot forward in every area. 6900XT went toe to toe against 3090 so the idea of Radeon developing an MCM monster sounds like something that would make Nvidia have nightmares. Yet when Lovelace launched, they perfectly configured the 4080 to be as fast as a 7900XTX? Like sure 7900XTX was a bit faster in Raster while 4080 a bit faster in RT but they were largely within spitting distance of each other for Raster. So it's like, uhh how does Nvidia know?

Similar thing with this gen. It takes time for GPU companies to configure specs of the skus they are gonna sell, takes time for distribution to get their shat together, takes time to let their partners know, etc. Yet Nvidia knew well ahead of time that Radeon is gonna not bother competing at the high end. And while there's rumours about 9070 XT being as fast as a 4080 Super, I highly doubt that while Radeons own slides show around 7900XT performance.

So it feels like the GPU space is predetermined even before the generation gets started. It really does feel like Jensen and Su sits at the dinner table and plans all this out. The only outlier thus far is clearly intel with the B580 launch and until they can get their drivers together, I think we are going to continue to see awful improvements outside of the 90 class.

I don't believe in this conspiracy that AMD and Nvidia plan all this together, there's been too many chiefs at AMD over the years for it to make sense.

I do think that Nvidia does a better job designing their chips, leaving room for adjustments, both up and down, to react to whatever info they may get from what the competitors are doing, and that's why they can always get slightly on top.