OT: Video Games VI

[John Price]

 

[Devil Dancer]

Guys if you have ANY interest in poker or roguelikes, try Balatro. It's cheap and it's on everything except mobile, and it's coming to mobile soon.

 

[Neil Racki]

Madden ... 6 games in, im 4-2 .. playing with Jayden and Terry is fun but im kinda already bored with it.

MLB is waning as im stuck in AAA

RDR2 .. still kicks ass

 

[John Price]

Madden allows you to swap out teams.

 

[Drake1588]

Picked up a Ryzen 9 7950X3D for a significant gaming boost, while retaining high multi-threaded performance for video upscaling (Topaz Video AI) and photography RAW file batch processing (DxO PureRaw, Photoshop, and Lightroom).

 

[usiel]

Picked up a Ryzen 9 7950X3D for a significant gaming boost, while retaining high multi-threaded performance for video upscaling (Topaz Video AI) and photography RAW file batch processing (DxO PureRaw, Photoshop, and Lightroom).

Glad I went with AND on my last gaming system build considering the intel issues that have come up.

One of the many analysis softwares my company create and that my team helps supports is a aerial mapping (orthos, 3d meshing, etc..) the recommend machines specs were so bonkers we could not believe but they did finally get two machines that support can get access to and they have those AMD threadrippers and some ungodly amount of RAM.

 

[Drake1588]

Glad I went with AND on my last gaming system build considering the intel issues that have come up.

One of the many analysis softwares my company create and that my team helps supports is a aerial mapping (orthos, 3d meshing, etc..) the recommend machines specs were so bonkers we could not believe but they did finally get two machines that support can get access to and they have those AMD threadrippers and some ungodly amount of RAM.

Marshall convinced me to go 7950X3D after his new gaming rig came in... though it didn't take a lot to pull the trigger. I'm an easy mark.

Neither side has really seized the reins lately. Intel's chips are running hot and suffer instability issues. They seem to be spinning more than offering a real solution, and stressing that upcoming Arrow Lake won't suffer the same issues. ("Thanks a lot," is presumably how current-gen Intel owners respond.) AMD has released Zen 5 and the early returns seem to indicate that they've tried to focus on power efficiency for the 9000 series and especially Epyc more than uplift over the 7000 series. At least in gaming, most reviewers were scratching their heads at the very comparable results to last gen at the same tiers. Perhaps the 9800X3D, 9900X3D, and 9950X3D will be aces. Those are due in Q1 2025.

I'm hoping it leads to more CPUs for next year that start to inch upwards again in performance but with better power efficiency and Zen 5's apparent heat improvements. If so, AMD will be in a position to crow over Intel. They can't do that this quarter, though.

Evidently, the pending Windows 11 24H2 update has massive gaming performance gains coming for existing Zen 4 and the new Zen 5 Ryzen CPUs. It's still in beta but available already for those who want to tinker with an OS that isn't yet completely stable, via the Insider Release program. When it releases sometime in the fall, Ryzen CPUs should deliver a lot more gaming performance. This isn't speciifc to 9000 CPUs, though. If you're using a 5000-, 7000-, or 9000-series CPU, those gains should be apparent.

A Threadripper-based machine for crunching would be amazing. Doesn't make any sense for gaming but a dedicated rig for photography and video batch processing would be something else. I can't justify the cost for a hobby, but it would be fun. There has long been a suggestion that Photoshop prioritizes individual core frequency more than number of cores, and that Intel was the way to go, but I believe that's changed to some degree with software updates.

 

[usiel]

Marshall convinced me to go 7950X3D after his new gaming rig came in... though it didn't take a lot to pull the trigger. I'm an easy mark.

Neither side has really seized the reins lately. Intel's chips are running hot and they seem to be spinning more than offering a real solution. AMD has released Zen 5 and the early returns seem to indicate that they've tried to focus on power efficiency for the 9000 series more than uplift over the 7000 series. At least in gaming, most reviewers were scratching their heads at the very comparable results to last gen at the same tiers. Perhaps the 9800X3D, 9900X3D, and 9950X3D will be aces. Those are due in Q1 2025.

I'm hoping it leads to more CPUs for next year that start to inch upwards again in performance but with better power efficiency and Zen 5's apparent heat improvements. If so, AMD will be in a position to crow over Intel. They can't do that this quarter, though.

Evidently, the pending Windows 11 24H2 update has massive gaming performance gains coming for existing Zen 4 and the new Zen 5 Ryzen CPUs. It's still in beta but available already for those who want to tinker with an OS that isn't yet completely stable, via the Insider Release program. When it releases sometime in the fall, Ryzen CPUs should deliver a lot more gaming performance. This isn't speciifc to 9000 CPUs, though. If you're using a 5000-, 7000-, or 9000-series CPU, those gains should be apparent.

A Threadripper-based machine for crunching would be amazing. Doesn't make any sense for gaming but a dedicated rig for photography and video batch processing would be something else. I can't justify the cost for a hobby, but it would be fun. There has long been a suggestion that Photoshop prioritizes individual core frequency more than number of cores, and that Intel was the way to go, but I believe that's changed to some degree with software updates.

Bolded reminded me about that has an article where one could go ahead and install it but no rush on my big rig its nice and stable and considering having a lot of problem with the Alienware M15 that I have yet to figure out and fix don't want to rock the boat.

All started with a brief power outage. Lost a USB controller in device manager but nothing I have found has resolved it so have USB ports on the right side no longer. Did a bunch of check disk type troubleshooting from the console but nothing came out of it. Also it now freezes pretty often forcing a hard power off. Also have a bit of a corrupt profile issue I can no longer set a pin to login has to be my terribly long and arduous microsoft password.

 

[Drake1588]

Bolded reminded me about that has an article where one could go ahead and install it but no rush on my big rig its nice and stable and considering having a lot of problem with the Alienware M15 that I have yet to figure out and fix don't want to rock the boat.

All started with a brief power outage. Lost a USB controller in device manager but nothing I have found has resolved it so have USB ports on the right side no longer. Did a bunch of check disk type troubleshooting from the console but nothing came out of it. Also it now freezes pretty often forcing a hard power off. Also have a bit of a corrupt profile issue I can no longer set a pin to login has to be my terribly long and arduous microsoft password.

Nuts, sorry to hear that. Sounds like you need to cannibalize and then go shopping for a tasty new mobile setup.

For my new CPU, I had to flash the BIOS before installation, and then setup the BIOS again, and install new AMD chipset drivers to include the V-cache optimizer tools. Otherwise, purring like a kitten.

For laptops, I spent a long time trying to decide on a purchase and ended up going with a Lenovo Legion Pro 7i laptop in the spring, with an RTX 4080 and an Intel 13900HX CPU. Added 64GB of DDR5 RAM and a stupid amount of M.2 storage to store photos. Good all rounder and still very strong for mobile gaming. Been happy with it. Nice enough screen, but not one of the new OLEDs. It's a 16" panel, 1440p, with a 16:10 aspect ratio. I got all that for $2,000 on a deal, which I think is cheap for what they put in it.

Build quality is very good, and this is coming from someone whose last two laptops have been Razers. Can't justify their prices anymore. This is better and much cheaper for the guts. The keyboard is exceptional, much better than a Razer.

 

[usiel]

The M15's 4k Oled is basically ridiculous. It look great and luxurious but on a 15" screen size pretty useless, heh.

Going to reimage that thing as a next step to rule out anything OS related.

 

[Drake1588]

The M15's 4k Oled is basically ridiculous. It look great and luxurious but on a 15" screen size pretty useless, heh.

Going to reimage that thing as a next step to rule out anything OS related.

I hear you. I tend to take my laptop to my family's place and anytime I do, I'm connecting to an external 27" 1440p monitor anyway. The quality of the laptop screen wasn't as big a deal for me as a result, and an OLED 4K not really justified. Until you get to the 17" or 18" models, I'm not sure you need much more than 1440p resolution on a laptop. YMMV though.

I could have picked up the newer model with a 14900HX CPU and a beautiful OLED screen, but the markup was huge versus the prior year's model, and the uplift from the 13900HX to the 14900HX CPU is relatively minor. It certainly didn't make sense to me to spring for the $1000 difference. Both came with an RTX 4080 GPU. They were clearing out last year's stock and it was just too good a deal to pass up.

 

[bacchist]

I played Tape to Tape for the first time since it launched. My expectations were pretty low, which didn't hurt. But they have also been steadily working on it, and I think it plays a bit better now. I enjoyed it much more than I remembered. It's still definitely a goofy arcade style hockey game, when what I really want is a realistic representation of the sport. Still... Hockey on the PC. Cool.

 

[Neil Racki]

Playing MLB "road to the show" and Ive been stuck in AAA for like 5 seasons now. Given up on ever getting to the Orioles.

Last night had house to myself .. started drinking around 6 and by 1ish was ready to go to bed. But I had half a beer left so I figured Id play a few mins of MLB then go to bed.

f***ers called me up to the bigs at like 1:40 am so I had to stay up drinking til 4 playing

f***ing hurting today at work

 

[usiel]

I'm going through yet another playthrough on Pathfinder: WotR with a mantis zealot/mythic lich build but I'm losing steam.

 

[shtorm2005]

When you love to do something, it never feels like a work

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I'm going through yet another playthrough on Pathfinder: WotR with a mantis zealot/mythic lich build but I'm losing steam.

Was just reading up on this….

 

[Devil Dancer]

I played Wrath of the Righteous last year. It was way too goddamn long.

Pretty good game, but too long.

 

[usiel]

Was just reading up on this….

Yeah for character builders its pretty infinite. cRPG Bro's youtube channel is great with a lot of cool builds both for companions and main character/mythic builds. Companions are pretty effective so I sort of disagree with what seems like the min/max character build styles are required.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I played Wrath of the Righteous last year. It was way too goddamn long.

Pretty good game, but too long.

Interesting….its not often you hear complaints about too much content….

I’m dying for an RPG after finishing Diablo4. No interest Baldur’s….

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Yeah for character builders it’s pretty infinite. cRPG Bro's youtube channel is great with a lot of cool builds both for companions and main character/mythic builds. Companions are pretty effective so I sort of disagree with what seems like the min/max character build styles are required.

Holy crap I watched some game play….insane amount of dialogue!

 

[bacchist]

I've been playing a ton of Balatro. It's such a good game. Surprisingly deep strategy and a lot of interesting choices.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I started V Rising….not bad so far.