Recommended Posts

10 hours ago, George P said:

I keep hearing that about RDR2, it's hours lost not doing much, from what I gather.

It's certainly a narrative-oriented game. You've got to appreciate the time setting and relationships - the Wild West is coming to an end, and your band of outlaws are trying to pull off that final job that will set them up for the rest of their days while your character is leaning more towards setting up for a quiet life. There's some repetition insofar as you get sucked into a heist, it doesn't pan out so you need to move your camp to the next location, but that's there to push you around the map. You get to see your relationship with the gang change throughout.

As you can maybe tell, I thought it was an incredible game. Even though I've completed the main story, I still go back to it now and again to roam around, do a spot of fishing or play a game of poker in town. A funny little thing that threw me not too long ago was when I was heading into St. Denis for a game of poker and someone called out to me. I went over to them and it turned out to be an old friend from the gang. Like my character, they had moved on from the posse and started a new life for themselves. This was after I had completed the story, and it gave me a real sense that the world had continued to evolve even though the main narrative was finished. I'm not sure I've had that feeling in any other game.

Β 

I might start a new game when I get back to my Playstation. It's got to be one of my favourites from the last decade.

Well decided to run through some more of my backlog till CP2077.Β  Just finished Close to the Sun, short and nice looking indie game I got for free off of EGS.Β Β 

Β 

Jumping back to Game Pass and am installing Gears Tactics atm.Β  I'm not big on that type of game but I'll give it a go till my Series X hits and I jump over to that for some Jedi Fallen Order via GP Ultimate and EA Play.Β  Β By the time EA Play is added to the PC side of Game Pass I think CP2077 will be out so.

  • 2 weeks later...

Well, Gears tactics done, longer than I thought it would be but pretty fun even though tactics type games aren't my thing.Β  Also finished Jedi Fallen Order, hope they do a sequel because I enjoyed it, and the story has me wanting some more.Β  Don't actually know what I'll start next since I expected to have Cyberpunk ready to go by now.Β  Β Guess I'll find something else to squeeze in till then.

8 hours ago, Circaflex said:

The Division 2; found an old friend of mine who plays so we usually get a few hours in each day.

Pretty sure I have the first one free from Ubisoft, wondering if I can run through it solo real quick just to get the story bits before I end up playing 2?

On 22/11/2020 at 01:08, George P said:

Pretty sure I have the first one free from Ubisoft, wondering if I can run through it solo real quick just to get the story bits before I end up playing 2?

I am sure; I never finished 1 and love 2 so far. I believe it is on sale for 9.99 through ubisoft right now, if its not on sale, wait a few weeks as it usually returns.

Β 

edit: yea its still on sale, 9 bucksΒ here

Been playing through the Halo games on PC the last few weeks. Part way through Halo 4 now and sad that 343 seems to have no intention of bringing Halo 5 to PC even though Infinite will be coming to PC.

Β 

So PC only players like me will have to watch a playthrough or be faced with havingΒ a gap in story :/

After watching a couple of groups playing online I decided to get Among Us. Next thing I know several hours have gone by and I've been having a blast. The only slight issue is the number of people that quit the moment something takes too long. Even in a party of 10 people the moment the game starts you might only be a group of 6. Is anyone else playing it? We could maybe organise a Neowin game some time?

Β 

I also noticed that the Command & Conquer Remaster was on sale, so I've picked that up. I'm quite surprised to see that it's going to be about 20GB of space!

After many hours of The Witcher 3, including playing with mods, I am now playing Horizon Zero Dawn on PC. I am really liking it so far, the music and graphics are very good, the story line is a bit weak, but overall a decent game!

  • 2 weeks later...

Managed to get through Arkham Knight last week, just before Cyberpunk turned up.Β 

Β 

Arkham Knight - Really enjoyable, I was a little sceptical how the larger world would work coming from the first two games, but they did a great job. Will dip back into it every now and then to try and get 100% on it.

On 24/11/2020 at 12:45, Nick H. said:

After watching a couple of groups playing online I decided to get Among Us. Next thing I know several hours have gone by and I've been having a blast. The only slight issue is the number of people that quit the moment something takes too long. Even in a party of 10 people the moment the game starts you might only be a group of 6. Is anyone else playing it? We could maybe organise a Neowin game some time?

I don't own Among Us currently but I'd totally be willing to pick it up to play with you guys some timeΒ :)

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Posts

    • AMD RX 9070 GRE AI, Blender benchmarks vs 9070 XT, 7800XT, Nvidia RTX 5070, 4070 by Sayan Sen Earlier this week, we shared the first part of our review of AMD's new RX 9070 GRE. It was about the gaming performance of the GPU, and we gave it an 8 out of 10. As a follow-up, similar to how we did with the 9070 XT and non-XT, we are doing a dedicated productivity review for the RX 9070 GRE as well, where we compare it against the 9070 XT, 9070, 7800 XT, as well as Nvidia's 5070 and 4070. This will include AI, rendering, compute, and more benchmarks. AI performance, especially, is a very important metric in today's world, and AMD also promised big improvements thanks to its underlying architectural improvements. We will be pitching it against the data we already have for the RX 9070, and RX 9070 XT, but also the Nvidia 5070 FE, MSI GeForce RTX 4070 VENTUS 2X 12G, and Gigabyte Radeon RX 7800 XT GAMING OC 16G as they are in a similar price class, but also because we do not have a comparable 5060 Ti card lying around here that we can compare it against. Before we get underway, this is a collaboration between Sayan Sen and Steven Parker, who lent me his test bed. Also, there was no editorial input from AMD. First up, the specs of the RX 9070, 9070 XT, and 9070 GRE, which were given to us by AMD: Radeon RX 9070 GRE Radeon RX 9070 Radeon RX 9070 XT Boost Clock: Game Clock: up to 2.79GHz up to 2.20GHz up to 2.52GHz up to 2.07GHz up to 2.97GHz up to 2.40GHz Stream Processors 3,072 (48 CU) 3,584 (56 CU) 4,096 (64 CU) Ray Accelerator 48 56 64 AI Accelerator 96 112 128 ROPs 96 128 Texture Mapping Units 192 224 256 Memory 12 GB GDDR6, 18Gbps Clock, 192-bit Bus 432 GB/s 16 GB GDDR6, 20Gbps Clock, 256-bit Bus Effective Memory Bandwidth: 640 GB/s Infinity Cache 48 MB (3rd Gen) 64 MB (3rd Gen) Card Bus PCI-E 5.0 X16 Output 2x HDMI 2.1b 2x DisplayPort 2.1a Power consumption 220W 304W Recommended PSU 650W 750W Slot width 2x 3x Price (SEP) $549 $599 As you can see from the specs above, it is less than the standard RX 9070 in every way that counts, except for slightly higher Boost and Game clock speed. Design Moving on, the RX 9070 GRE we were given is an XFX Swift triple-fan, dual-slot design with two 8-pin connectors. At 30cm (self-measured), it will fit in most systems easily. There is no RGB either. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE by XFX from all angles. Test system Our test system consists of the following: Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini V2 Flow (Amazon|Newegg) ASUS Z890 ProArt Creator WiFi (Amazon|Newegg) Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus (Amazon|Newegg) Thermal Grizzly KryoSheet - 44x37 (Amazon|Newegg) 2x 16GB G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB (7200 MT/s in XMP) (Amazon|Newegg) Sabrent Rocket4 Plus 2TB SSD (Amazon) Windows 11 25H2 (Build 26200.8246) AMD shared a press driver based on the recently released Adrenaline 26.5.2 that we were required to use. We now move on to our benchmarks. First up, we have Geekbench AI running on ONNX. For some reason, the 9070 GRE does exceptionally well here in both half-precision (FP16) and single-precision (FP32). It manages to beat the RTX 5070 and RX 9070 non-XT, and is only behind the 9070 XT. Since Geekbench runs in short bursts instead of continuously hammering the graphics card, it seems the GRE's faster boost clocks are helping here. Next up, we move to the UL Procyon AI test suite, starting with the image generation benchmark. We chose the Stable Diffusion XL FP16 test since it is the most intense workload available on Procyon. The Nvidia cards do very well here, as even the 4070 out-muscles AMD's best fairy easily. The positive thing about the GRE is that it gets quite close to the 9070 non-XT in this test; this indicates that the VRAM does not play a very big role here, as SD XL relies on float16 (FP16). So this is something to keep in mind again. If you wish to work with float32 AI workloads, graphics cards with larger than 12 GB buffers would likely emerge as victors. Regardless, the gains are still massive on AMD's 9000 series compared to the 7000 series. Following image generation, we move to the text generation benchmark. This is one test where the 9070 GRE struggled, quite a lot. It seems that the 12 GB VRAM and lower memory bandwidth of the new Radeon 9070 GRE are hurting it quite a bit; the split is massive, especially in a test like Llama2, which packs 13 billion parameters. As such, in all the tests, the 9070 GRE is the slowest of the lot. Next, we tried Blender, and here the AMD GPUs were beaten by Nvidia. Rendering is something the Green team has always had a lead over the Red side, and it has not changed so far. On the positive side, though, the 9070 GRE shows significantly better results than the 7800 XT, which means AMD is on the right path. Catching up to Nvidia, though, will require a lot more effort. And we hope HIP and ROCm can keep improving. Wrapping up AI testing, we measured OpenCL throughput in the Geekbench compute benchmark. The RX 9070 GRE alongside the 9070 did not fare well here at all, even falling behind the 7800 XT. Interestingly, even the RTX 5070 could not beat the 4070 on OpenCL, so perhaps this suggests that OpenCL optimization may not have been a priority for either AMD or Nvidia in the modern era. Conclusion We reached the end of our productivity performance review of the 9070 GRE, and we have to say it's a mixed bag. Unlike the 9070 and 9070 XT, the GRE excels in some areas while losing ground fairly easily in others. Similar to how it happened in gaming, any time the card's memory subsystem gets hammered, it tends to fall behind the others. This was the case with text generation, wherein we saw the VRAM sometimes hit its maximum available 12 GB of usage with larger model sizes. So what do we make of the RX 9070 as a productivity hardware? It can certainly be used, but you have to know it has its limitations. For those looking for a GPU that can deal with more, AMD recently unveiled the Radeon AI PRO R9700, which is essentially a 32 GB refresh of the 9070 XT with some additional workstation-based optimizations. On a similar note, the new Ryzen AI Halo platform is something you can consider if you want to set up a local AI processing station. Considering everything, we rate AMD's Radeon RX 9070 GRE a 7.5 out of 10 for its productivity performance. Price is less of a factor for those looking at productivity cases compared to those considering the GPU for gaming, and as such, we felt it did quite decently on many occasions and can be handy if you need a 12 GB GPU and, for some reason, don't want to get Nvidia. Purchase links: RX 9070 / XT / GRE (Amazon US) As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • Does anyone here know if these updates are integrated into the UUP dump isos?
    • Motrix Next 3.9.4 by Razvan Serea Motrix Next is a modern, open-source cross-platform download manager built as the official next-generation successor to the original Motrix project. It has been completely rewritten using Tauri 2, Vue 3, TypeScript, and Rust, while still relying on the powerful Aria2 download engine for high-speed multi-protocol transfers. The app supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, BitTorrent, ED2K and magnet links, offering advanced features like multi-connection acceleration, task scheduling, bandwidth control, and batch download management. With a significantly reduced install size (around 20MB), it focuses on being lightweight, fast, and resource-efficient compared to traditional Electron-based download tools. Designed for Windows, macOS, and Linux, Motrix Next delivers a clean, modern UI inspired by Material Design 3 principles, with smooth animations and a minimal workflow. It improves usability through better download organization, system tray integration, and enhanced torrent handling including selective file downloads and tracker management. Motrix Next features: Multi-protocol downloads β€” HTTP, FTP, BitTorrent, Magnet, .torrent, ED2K, and Metalink tasks BitTorrent β€” Selective file download, DHT, peer exchange, encryption controls, metadata caching, GeoIP peer flags, and tracker probing Browser extension integration β€” Embedded Extension API with independent authentication, download confirmation, smart auto-submit, filename hints, referer/cookie forwarding, and real-time controls (Chrome Web Store Β· Edge Add-ons) Safe filename handling β€” Content-Disposition, RFC 2047, non-UTF-8, percent-encoded, and extensionless URL resolution with path traversal sanitization Download organization β€” Favorite and recent folders, optional file-type categorization, stale-record cleanup, and completed history backed by SQLite Concurrent downloads β€” Independent controls for active tasks, HTTP connections per server, segments per file, and BT peer limits Speed control β€” Global and per-task upload/download limits with day-of-week and time-of-day scheduling System integration β€” Tray operation, optional tray speed display, macOS Dock badge/progress, protocol handlers for magnet://, thunder://, and motrixnext:// Lightweight mode β€” Destroys the WebView on minimize-to-tray while Rust keeps the engine, task monitor, notifications, history, and extension routing alive Notifications and power options β€” Native task start/complete/failure notifications, keep-awake during downloads, and optional shutdown after completion Network controls β€” Scoped proxy support for downloads, app updates, and tracker updates, plus system proxy detection Auto-update channels β€” Stable, Beta, and Latest Across Channels policies with separate download and install phases Diagnostics β€” Structured logs, exportable diagnostic ZIPs, database integrity checks, automatic DB rebuild, and Linux GPU rendering fallback Personalization β€” Light/dark/system theme, 10 color schemes, 26 languages, and first-launch system language detection Motrix Next 3.9.4 changelog: Motrix Next 3.9.4 promotes the 3.9.4 beta cycle to stable. This release refreshes bundled engine binaries, improves task detail readability and copy actions, expands link handling for magnet and ED2K workflows, polishes responsive navigation and text wrapping, updates browser extension documentation, and refines network preference controls. New Features Task Detail copy actions β€” Added copyable values for task metadata and reusable render functions for long text fields. Magnet and ED2K lifecycle support β€” Added task lifecycle handling for magnet and ED2K links. History cleanup for deleted tasks β€” Deleted tasks can now remove matching history records. User-Agent management β€” Added user-agent management and improved related network preference controls. Browser extension documentation β€” Added the Firefox Add-ons link for the Motrix Next extension. Improvements Engine binaries β€” Updated bundled binaries for supported architectures. Task Detail readability β€” Long task names, URLs, tracker values, and copyable metadata now render more clearly. Deletion messaging β€” Refined localized task deletion text for clarity and consistency. Text wrapping β€” Improved URI input wrapping and task name multiline display. Navigation layout β€” Improved sub-navigation responsiveness. Disk allocation default β€” Changed the default file allocation method to trunc. Proxy controls β€” Improved proxy button styling in network preferences. Download: Motrix Next 64-bit | ARM64 | macOS ~20.0 MB (Open Source) Links: Website | macOS / Linux | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • NVIDIA officially supports Ubuntu, as linked above with the GeForce NOW Hands on I did in collaboration with Paul Hill.
    • TO be clear I am not running linux today, however I keep thinking about it. And I want to make sure there are minimal obstacles if I decide to make that switch in the coming months.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Proficient
      Eric Biran went up a rank
      Proficient
    • Dedicated
      Conjor earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Week One Done
      Windows Guy earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Dedicated
      Mark Spruce earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Collaborator
      conkir earned a badge
      Collaborator
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      479
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      244
    3. 3
      Steven P.
      72
    4. 4
      FloatingFatMan
      66
    5. 5
      +Edouard
      66
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!