Battlenet has been down for just over 6 hrs now, and there's no word on whether or not it'll be back up...

This is why I dislike always online BS clients, because I can't play any of my battlenet games without needing to login to their servers.

MS needs to make battlenet drop the always online bs part of Battlenet. I want to play Starcraft II skirmish ffs. 

Intel announces Core i9-12900KS 5.5 GHz Alder Lake CPU for 739 USD, launches April 5th

https://videocardz.com/press-release/intel-announces-core-i9-12900ks-5-5-ghz-alder-lake-cpu-for-739-usd-launches-april-5th

GPU prices are at their lowest in 15 months, could fall to ‘attractive’ level already in May

https://videocardz.com/newz/gpu-prices-are-at-their-lowest-in-15-months-could-fall-to-attractive-level-already-in-may

Data in NA as well:

Nvidia is still quite a bit more expensive while AMD cards seem to be near MSRP. Depending on how far off the Nvidia GPUs are at your location compared to AMD cards, it's certainly worth buying Nvidia cards at a premium now that we have seen how they perform is a number of tasks.

AMD Begins Testing Early EPYC Genoa CPUs As Sample Spotted With 32 Zen 4 Cores, Bigger L2 Cache, 3.4 GHz Boost

https://wccftech.com/amd-epyc-genoa-zen-4-early-cpu-sample-benchmark-leak-32-cores-3-4-ghz-clocks-1-mb-l2-cache/

The fact that the chip is still in the A0 stepping and with very low clock speeds and, according to the comments, with several functions deactivated, tells me that Zen 4 CPUs are sadly still a ways away from release. Late summer is the earliest I can see as a release window at this point with this data.

That's true. As long as the performance is there and they can get it out on time to compete against Raptor lake, they will be fine.

Interestingly, there's a piece at PCGamer about GPU prices: Asus says it's 'reducing MSRP aggressively' for graphics cards 'across all SKUs'
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/asus-reducing-msrp-graphics-cards/

Let's hope it's true and the rest will follow.

Zen4 was supposed to be a Q3 product, so it wouldn't surprise me if it launches in Spetember or slips a bit into Q4 and comes in October or November. We'll see.

Also, I realized when I posted the news that I didn't put the top 10 Steam "games", and that I didn't do it last week either, so here are both:

Prices are definitely falling fast for graphics cards in the UK. Not quite at MSRP yet, but getting there.

Get rekt scalper(s) scum lol.

Good time too, in with Lovelace/RDNA 3 cards later this year.

Yea this certainly could be one of the best years in PC gaming. PC monitors are finally getting competitive with flagship TVs while not breaking the bank relative to previous years. Zen 4 and Raptor lake coming out with DDR5/PCI-E Gen 5. GPU prices coming down to reasonable levels and mining seems to be slowing down. Lovelace vs RDNA 3 hype. And obviously in terms of software, PCs are getting insane amount of games.

The key to getting Lovelace/RDNA 3 is to not think twice. If you find it, doesn't matter who it's from, buy it! Cause the clock will be ticking from the day they release.

It's not a coincidence. Like Asus, many other AIBs and also stores will start lowering the prices to get rid of the stock in preparation for the Ada/RDNA 3 cards.

The question now is how fast will the prices fall because, after all, those new cards are still several months away.

True, this year has been pretty great for new tech. After an abysmal year for PC (gaming) with insane shortages and absurd prices we're finally seeing the end of the tunnel. And we have a tonne of exciting tech released or releasing soon. And we even have stuff like FSR 2.0 and TSR in UE4 (in Ghostwire) which is darn cool and nice things to have!

Oh, I'm definitely pulling the trigger. Last time I missed out.. and there's no way I'm doing another year with my old graphics card xD Not in the age of raytraced games. I just worry about the power consumption for these beasts lol.

Yeah, everyone knows whats up. Its no secret that the next generation cards are coming soon and consumers and businesses are holding out. Miners scaling back and retailers sitting on stock that needs to be cleared.

Hopefully by June/July things will be back to normal. And by September (if previous entries are anything to go by) Nvidia will launch the RTX 4080. Probably November for AMD and their big ones - RX 7800XT/7900XT.

I think they'll both bump up prices for respective tiers in the lineup but nothing crazy like we've been seeing the last few years; like from AiB's.