jaxa

Doom 3 on the Radxa Zero. 640x480 resolution, wildly varying between about 10-30 FPS with graphical glitches. But it's the baseline for what can be done with a "pack of gum" sized computer (although smartphone SoCs are much more powerful).

Banana Hell https://store.steampowered.com/app/1260130/Banana_Hell/ https://slickdeals.net/f/15299680-banana-hell-pc-steam-free

systemd, eh?

I was waiting for something interesting to use for my first new status post. Now that I used it, I notice that hyperlinks aren't clickable until you open the status. Long URLs are also shortened. Not ideal, but workable. I might use a URL shortener in future posts.

The Sword is an experience. You like to wander around it just looking at things, you remember it for years.

It was used extensively... several years ago, before the forum software was updated and the module stopped showing up on the front page.

Wow, this just got LIT.

I remember the good old days when we had features like the status updates on the home page.

Here's System Shock 2 running on a Radxa Zero, which is a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 SoC in the form factor of a Raspberry Pi Zero.

A great time to switch to Linux. Just play games that work with Linux or Valve/Steam's Proton. Which should be many more of them in the near future if Valve is serious about the Steam Deck.

Quake 2 RTX https://slickdeals.net/f/15229804-quake-ii-rtx-pc-digital-download-free-via-gog https://www.gog.com/game/quake_ii_rtx

You could use a userscript or user stylesheet to hide it. Just target the "cAuthorPane_badge" or "cAuthorPane_badge--rank" class.

https://www.gog.com/promo/rerelease_ultima_underworld_and_syndicate https://slickdeals.net/f/15206344-digital-pc-games-ultima-underworld-1-2-syndicate-plus-syndiate-wars-free Ultima Underworld 1 + 2, Syndicate Plus, and Syndicate Wars. You have until September 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndicate_(1993_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndicate_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Underworld:_The_Stygian_Abyss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Underworld_II:_Labyrinth_of_Worlds

Wanderlust: Transsiberian https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/07/get-a-free-copy-of-wanderlust-transsiberian-on-gog-with-their-publisher-sale https://www.gog.com/giveaway/claim

How is TDM's performance on modern hardware anyway? Ridiculously high? It might help on APUs though, or with more absurd resolutions like 7680x2160 @ 144 Hz.

https://www.techspot.com/review/2277-amd-fsr-analysis-benchmark/ So each FSR quality preset has a different scale factor: Ultra Quality = 1.3x Quality = 1.5x Balanced = 1.7x Performance = 2x Technically a game could use any scale factor, but most are just going to have those presets. So at the 1280x800 resolution of the Steam Deck, Ultra Quality mode is upscaling a 985x615 image (I rounded to the nearest integer, not sure how FSR does it). Performance mode would be upscaling a 640x400 image. There could be a dramatic increase in performance but quality will suffer.

AMD is probably wary of making a "super APU" outside of what they sell to the console manufacturers, for various reasons. The high-end desktop APUs we do see are just the TDP-up-up versions of the laptop APUs. The 65W TDP Ryzen 7 5700G probably uses the less efficient dies that would otherwise become the Ryzen 7 5800H or Ryzen 7 5800U in laptops. AMD relaxes the TDP limit, boosts the clocks, and OEMs can add it in cheap desktops with lower quality cooling, lower-wattage power supply, and no discrete GPU. If you look at next year's "Rembrandt" successor to the 8-core 5700G, it will probably have 75-100% more graphics performance due to an increase to 12 RDNA 2 CUs, instead of 8 RDNA 2 CUs in the Steam Deck or 8 Vega CUs in the 5700G. It will deliver decent 1080p gaming performance. According to Steam, 84.75% of players are at a display resolution of 1920x1080 or lower. Forget 4K gaming, even 1440p is irrelevant at the moment. It will be sold in complete OEM systems for around $600. Add another $100 for a cheap monitor or TV, and maybe $50 for peripherals. So a $750 gaming setup. A 6-core version could be cheaper. A Rembrandt desktop APU should actually be around the performance of the Xbox Series S. The CPU will be better, so no worries there. Xbox Series S has 20 CUs at 1.565 GHz for about 4 teraflops (RDNA 2). Rembrandt will have 12 CUs. I doubt it will run at 2.6 GHz, although maybe it can when overclocked. Then there's memory bandwidth. The Xbox Series S uses GDDR6 for 224 GB/s for 8 GB, and only 56 GB/s for the remaining 2 GB. Rembrandt should support DDR5-5200 and can use larger amounts. In the future, we will see more exciting APUs. They could stack gigabytes of memory on or near the chip to increase performance. But even without that, each new iteration of laptop APUs will raise the bar for low-end gaming. My understanding is that FSR is less effective at lower resolutions like 720p and 1080p, because there are less pixels in the first place for the algorithm to work with. So the Steam Deck using FSR to upscale to 1280x720/1280x800 might not make much sense. FSR is pretty good at turning 1440p into 4K (maybe that says something about the necessity of 4K). That said, FSR 1.0 is just the beginning, new versions are coming soon, and RDNA 3 may have specific hardware acceleration for FSR, so 2023+ AMD APUs with RDNA 3 graphics could benefit even more. Intel/Nvidia graphics can also benefit from FSR.

You can dock it to a monitor or TV and connect a keyboard and mouse. As far as I can tell, the graphics performance of the Steam Deck should be better (when docked or plugged in, running the graphics at 1.6 GHz) than any laptop with integrated graphics, and they typically inhabit a similar $400 to $600 price range. It's 8 RDNA 2 compute units vs. 6/7/8 Vega at moderately higher clock speeds, or the equivalent Intel Tiger Lake APUs with 80/96 EU Xe graphics. It won't beat laptops with discrete graphics cards but those are more expensive and could be less portable. A Ryzen 5 4500U (6 Vega) or Ryzen 5 5500U (7 Vega) laptop costs about $450 to $500. How well the controls work is an open question, and probably depends on what controls you're used to. So preordering it without ever touching it could lead to disappointment.

It compares well in price/perf to anything that isn't a desktop, probably better graphics than low-end desktops, and could be used as a mini PC with a dock.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/15/22578783/valve-steam-deck-gaming-handheld-pc It's about time to play TDM on a 720p handheld Linux PC.

Start commenting in the CPU/GPU news thread. As for Haiti, it's above your pay grade.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-s-Zen-4-based-desktop-processors-will-reportedly-ship-with-a-maximum-of-16-cores-and-up-to-170W-TDP.551047.0.html 16 cores ought to be enough for anybody.

Syberia 1 and 2 https://www.gog.com/giveaway/claim https://slickdeals.net/f/15162037-gog-com-pcdd-free-game-syberia-1-and-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syberia

Bit annoying, I'm glad I already got The Witcher 1 from a previous giveaway. It's the Enhanced Edition btw. Here's some other stuff with the deal: https://slickdeals.net/f/15150283-the-witcher-enhanced-edition-pc-digital-download-2-ebooks-4-gwent-cards-free-more