Since no one is saying anything about this, you should volunteer!

I mean, it has always been kind of like this, with few exceptions, due to the quadratic relation between voltage and power consumption. It's just far more noticeable now due to the latter reaching ludicrous levels.

(And in the 80s and early 90s CPUs consumed like 10 Watts...)

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

While it's Black Friday Sale is on its last legs (7 more hours until it ends), GOG has made a move and launched three new DotD and two new sales:

• Thse are the three Deals of the Day, that will end in 46 hours:
  • The first one is a DLC: Stellaris: MegaCorp, 55% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/stellaris_megacorp
  • King's Quest 4+5+6 is 65% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/kings_quest_4_5_6
  • And Quest for Glory 1-5 is 75% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/quest_for_glory
• The Midweek Sale comes with "story rich games" featuring up to 90% discounts during 4 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20221130_midweek_sale
• And the Weekly Sale, that this time will only last 5 days, comes with up to 85% discounts on sandbox games: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20221130_weekly_sale

Steam has seven new deals:

• The daily deal is Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr, 80% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/527430/Warhammer_40000_Inquisitor__Martyr/
• Call of the Wild: The Angler will be 34% off until December 5: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1408610/Call_of_the_Wild_The_Angler/
• X4: Foundations gets a 60% discount until the 5th (the DLCs go up to 90% off): https://store.steampowered.com/app/392160/X4_Foundations/
• The Destroy All Human franchise goes on sale with up to 75% discounts until Monday, December 5th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/DestroyAllHumansFranchise
• SCUM, still in Early Access, gets a 50% discount until December 6th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/513710/SCUM/
• Space Hulk: Deathwing Enhanced Edition will be 60% off until the 6th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/816090/Space_Hulk_Deathwing_Enhanced_Edition/
• And the last one is Crazy Machines 3, with a 90% discount until the 6th of December: https://store.steampowered.com/app/351920/Crazy_Machines_3/

And Fanatical's Star Deal is Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition, 64% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/pathfinder-kingmaker.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-Yep. Empty as well-

GAMING NEWS

Gotham Knights November 29th PC Update Patch Notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/gotham-knights-november-29th-pc-update-patch-notes/
Warner Bros has released a brand new update for Gotham Knights. According to the release notes, the November 29th Patch adds a four player co-op mode, called Heroic Assault.

Far Cry 6 Title Update 6 is 26GB on PC, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/far-cry-6-title-update-6-is-26gb-on-pc-full-patch-notes/
Ubisoft has released a brand new update for Far Cry 6. Title Update 6 is 26GB in size on PC, adds the Completionist Aid and a New Game + Mode, and below you can find its full patch notes.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Update 1.6.2 is 13GB on PC, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/assassins-creed-valhalla-update-1-6-2-is-13gb-on-pc-full-patch-notes/
Ubisoft has also released a new update for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Title Update 1.6.2 is 13GB on PC, adds new free content to the game, fixes a number of bugs, and you can find below its full patch notes.

The news, part two:

Yakuza's iconic cabaret club is making a comeback
https://www.pcgamer.com/yakuzas-iconic-cabaret-club-is-making-a-comeback/
Yakuza's cabaret club did something very few games manage to do: unite everyone in realising that dress-up games are actually a ton of fun. Of course, that's not all Club Sunshine has to offer. It's a slick management sim plonked in the middle of a beat-em-up adventure, a perfect juxtaposition that captures the vibes of this series. It's so good that Lauren Morton, Jody MacGregor and Tom Senior have all had their moments gushing about the mode. And it's coming back, baby.

Once upon a time, GTA was a game about playing an angry dinosaur
https://www.pcgamer.com/once-upon-a-time-gta-was-a-game-about-playing-an-angry-dinosaur/
Imagine a better world with me. The sun is shining, the wine is sparkling, and rather than starring men doing crimes, the Grand Theft Auto series is about a massive dinosaur. Who is probably also doing crimes, technically.
It's a world we could have had, if the original prototype for the first GTA had gone differently. According to Colin Macdonald, a former dev at DMA (now Rockstar North) who spoke to the BBC to mark the 25th anniversary of GTA 1's release, the original GTA game was just a tech demo where you played a "dinosaur roaming around and destroying the buildings". Kind of like a top-down The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.
>> ... or maybe it wasn't? Check out the last news article.

The Thargoids have just launched a 'massive invasion' in Elite Dangerous
https://www.pcgamer.com/elite-dangerous-update-14-thargoid-invasion-aftermath-war/
The inevitable has finally happened. After the two-year-long Azimuth Saga storyline in Elite Dangerous ended this past August with the misfire of an alien-killing superweapon (don't you hate it when that happens?), the Thargoids have finally had it with the human race. They're striking back. To put it plainly, Elite Dangerous Update 14 has arrived, and it's full-on war.

Australia eyeballs an adults-only loot box law
https://www.pcgamer.com/australia-eyeballs-an-adults-only-loot-box-law/
Australia may be the next country to take legislative action against loot boxes in videogames, as MP Andrew Wilkie has introduced a bill calling for a mandatory adult classification for any game that contains a "gambling-type feature."

Overwatch Season 2 is coming for all you Sojourn mains
https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-season-2-is-coming-for-all-you-sojourn-mains/
Blizzard is nerfing my favorite new hero, and I'm only a little salty. Overwatch 2 Season 2 begins on December 6, and with it comes the new Tank hero Ramattra, a new payload map, and a bunch of balancing changes. Today's dev update doesn't go into detail about most of the planned balance changes, but here's what we know for sure: Sojourn is getting a big nerf, and Doomfist is getting a big buff.

Relax and unwind with this stress-free city builder sandbox
https://www.pcgamer.com/relax-and-unwind-with-this-stress-free-city-builder-sandbox/
City builders typically present you with goals and challenges like balancing your budget, controlling your pollution levels, managing your resources, and keeping your citizens happy (or in the case of survival city builders, keeping them from dying horribly).
But sometimes you just want to build for the sake of building without worrying about traffic or logistics or how much things will cost or what bonus a house will get from a nearby park. Sometimes you just want a sandbox city builder with no restrictions, objectives, or headaches.
For times like those, there's a city builder headed your way that wants you to have a completely carefree building experience. It's called Gourdlets, the work of solo developer Aunty Games. It looks both relaxing and adorable, and there's absolutely no objectives, no budgets, and no goals beyond just building an attractive little village filled with houses, trees, roads, parks, beaches, gardens, and other decorations.

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight's first max level players rode its OP crafting system over the finish line
https://www.pcgamer.com/world-of-warcraft-dragonflights-first-max-level-players-rode-its-op-crafting-system-over-the-finish-line/
One of the fastest ways to hit max level in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is to stand in one spot and click through menus. Crafting, it turns out, is one of the fastest ways to hit the game's new level 70 cap.

New weird Far Cry expansion alert: This one is about interdimensional aliens
https://www.pcgamer.com/new-weird-far-cry-expansion-alert-this-one-is-about-interdimensional-aliens/
The thing I've always found interesting about the Far Cry series is how the base games are always straightforward, "real world" shooters, but the post-release content invariably goes bonkers. Far Cry 3 set the standard with Blood Dragon, which was standalone but nonetheless established a weird-ass baseline that continued through Far Cry 4 (Valley of the Yetis), Far Cry 5 (Lost on Mars), and now a new Far Cry 6 expansion called Lost Between Worlds that will send revolutionary hero Dani Rojas on a journey to a strange interdimensional realm in the company of a stranded alien.

A new 'rogue-looter shooter' about the machine betrayal of humanity is going into open beta soon
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-new-rogue-looter-shooter-about-the-machine-betrayal-of-humanity-is-going-into-open-beta-soon/
If there's one thing we've learned through the consumption of popular media, it's that sooner or later, the machines are going to rise up and kick our asses. For those who haven't yet picked up on that message, here's another opportunity: Synced, an upcoming third-person roguelite looter-shooter that's going into open beta testing in December.

The weirdest mobile game series is coming to PC under key Zelda designer
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-weirdest-mobile-game-series-is-coming-to-pc-under-key-zelda-designer/
Listen, if you love dress-up games and absolutely wild dramatic plots that have no place in a dress-up game, you might want to keep your eye on Infinity Nikki. As revealed by Gematsu, for the first time the pink-haired fashionista is making the leap from mobile over to PC as part of an "open-world dress-up adventure game" from Chinese developer Paper Studio.

Report highlights underpay and 'some level of crunching' at FromSoftware
https://www.pcgamer.com/report-highlights-underpay-and-some-level-of-crunching-at-fromsoftware/
It looks like even making some of the most important games of the last 15 years doesn't save you from capitalism. A new report from GamesIndustry.biz paints a picture of underpay and occasional overwork at FromSoftware, the studio behind (if you've managed to remain unaware) Elden Ring and Dark Souls.

Even after 30 hours of suffering through Overwatch League, many are yet to receive their viewership rewards
https://www.pcgamer.com/even-after-30-hours-of-suffering-through-overwatch-league-many-are-yet-to-receive-their-viewership-rewards/
Overwatch League's 2022 season wrapped up at the beginning of November, with the playoffs becoming the second most-watched event of its history according to Esports Charts, only outmatched by the League's inaugural season in 2018.
Two major factors played into that: the release of Overwatch 2—which makes this the first OWL to take place in the sequel—and the fact that Blizzard really wanted you to watch it. The developer was offering bundles of OWL tokens and skins for those who tuned in. Or at least, it was supposed to. Despite viewers watching over 30 hours of games in October and November, some have received nothing while others have only been given partial rewards, and there seems to be no solid solution in sight.

GTA creator says no, sorry, it didn't start as a dinosaur game
https://www.pcgamer.com/gta-creator-says-no-sorry-it-didnt-start-as-a-dinosaur-game/
If you can cast your mind as far back as yesterday, you'll remember a story about the original Grand Theft Auto game being based on a tech demo about a "dinosaur roaming around and destroying the buildings". The news came via Colin Macdonald, a former developer at DMA (now Rockstar North) in the 90s who told the tale to the BBC. But that story is now disputed by the creator of GTA 1's original prototype, Mike Dailly.

10W was already considered extreme. I can still remember my old 286 having no cooler at all, not even a passive one, and reports that the 68k series from Motorola, specifically the 68020 and 68030, running hot, and the 68040 and 68060 needing a (passive) cooler. Only with the Pentium Pro active cooling starting to really take off.

Here are some Power consumption numbers for you from old Pentium chips:

Pentium 90: 9W

Pentium 133: 11.3W

Pentium MMX 233: 17W

Pentium Pro 166: 35W

Pentium II 350: 21.7W

These would these days all go into Ultrathin Laptops. But for those days, they needed much power, hence why they started making mobile versions of the Pentium II (until then they still mostly used 486 DX2/4 in 3.3V mode - or simply P54C OG Pentiums), which ran at half the power consumption.

Mobile Pentium II 333: 11.8W

Pentium III also stayed below 35W. It's only with the Pentium IV that TDP's started exploding.

It wasn't just the CPU's either. Have a look at these old non-3D-capable ATi GPUs. None of them came with any coolers for any chips. Only with the 3D-capable ATi Rage and NVidia Riva TNT (Yes, they made GPUs before the GeForce series, and is also the reason where the GPU tuning tool Riva Tuner got it's name from) or 3DFX Voodoo Banshee did the GPUs also get some coolers.

But with the coming of 3D graphics, they had a little additional roadblock to get to high TDP rates: Early GPUs only got their power through the PCi/AGP/PCIe slot, meaning they were limited to 75W maximum. Cooling solutions were also not sophisticated enough yet to allow for much more than this early on and either couldn't run at expected speeds due to this (most later 3DFX chips ran into this) or sounded like a hairdryer on speed (looking at you, GeForce FX 5800!). And while it jumped rather quickly to about 250W from there, it stayed there for quite a while until last the GPU gen:

GeForce 8800 GTX: 145W

GeForce GTX 285: 203W

GeForce GTX 480: 250W It was nicknamed Thermi from it's codename Fermi for a good reason

GeForce GTX 780Ti: 230W

GeForce RTX 2080Ti: 250W

But now, it's exploding again. A this rate, we'll get GPUs in 2030 where a 300W model is the low mainstream, almost entry-level. I mean, how many modern GPUs get released that come without any power adapter anymore? Even entry-level cards these days have at least a 6-pin connector.

You're likely right and it's just that we, or I, didn't notice it as much because, well, there weren't as many reviews and tests available as there are now.

Still, they're pushng a bit too much for my liking.

NVIDIA RTX 6000 48 GB Workstation Graphics Card Available For $7350 US: 18,176 Cores, 300W TBP, 91 TFLOPs Horsepower

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-rtx-6000-48-gb-workstation-graphics-card-available-7350-usd-18176-cores-300w-tbp-92-tflops/

The full AD102 workstation GPU

Phison’s PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSDs Delayed, Were Supposed To Launch This Month

https://wccftech.com/phison-pcie-gen5-nvme-m-2-ssds-delayed-were-supposed-to-launch-this-month/

Gen 5 SSDs are probably the least exciting tech release of the season

NVIDIA AD104 ‘Ada’ GPU For GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Graphics Card Pictured, 25% Smaller Than GA104

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-ad104-ada-gpu-for-geforce-rtx-4070-ti-graphics-card-pictured/

Probably will be expensive

We Forgot About Luke - Switching to Intel Arc Pt. 2

Linus/Luke switched to Arc GPU for 30 days and yea, the experience has been pretty yikes. Intel seems to have a similar problem as AMD where third party software and games are slow to adopt their tech such as Arcs AV1 encoder and their Highlights feature. Ironically as shown in the video, even though Arc was out well before the 4000 series, OBS has support Nvenc AV1 but has no support for Arc AV1.

How Much Has Performance Improved In 1 Month?

Pretty big improvement in the dx11 title they tested, small to none in rest of their titles

I see Blizz has been taking some notes from BotW, either way the new zones on the Dragon Isle's look visually striking, beautiful and dark at the same time.

Also professions are wayyy easier to get into this expac than they ever were the last 8, I'm finding prime fishing spots easier thanks to them being marked on the minimap, tailoring cloth drops from every humanoid mob in decent number, and I'm getting enough stuff to disenchant.

The flying is hella fun, and I actually enjoyed the tutorial trial races (very Spyro-like in gameplay when flying). 

Also nice to see some same sex relationship content in-game too:

Btw, there is a hidden setting in WoW that's been there since Legion, it's called "Action cam", and it basically tries to emulate 3rd person camera combat angles you see in most 3rd person action games. paired up with the new "action targeting" option and you never have to mouse click a mob that you're looking at ever again.

It feels quite immersive having both turned on, though when dragon riding it does make it harder to steer your dragon, because action targeting snaps your camera view to any neutral or hostile mob near you at any given time (I turn that option off when dragon riding).

If any of you playing WoW wish to use action cam, type in chat: /console actioncam full, and it will enable it for you, to turn it off simply type in chat: /reload, and then hit disable or type in the first command, but replace "full" with "disable". 

The first screenshot I posted was using action cam btw. 

Yeah, I don't see these being a big success either. On one hand, there are very few programs that take advantage of even the current PCIe 4.0 drives much less the 5.0 ones, and on the other hand, those new drives will run so warm that they'll need active cooling, which will be a pain in the arse.

NVIDIA RTX 30 ‘Ampere’ GPU Supply Evaporates From The Market As Second Hand Prices Increase By Up To 200%

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-rtx-30-ampere-gpu-supply-evaporates-from-the-market-as-second-hand-prices-increase-by-up-to-200/

2020 flashbacks coming back in full force