The power curve of the RTX 3070... and improving system energy use.

Literally what happens...

Summer is here and temperatures are on the way up. I live in a hot climate, meaning that an average daily temperature from May to September is in the mid-thirties degrees celsius, if not higher. I don't have AC in the computer room and, even if I did, it doesn't make much sense to purposely heat up the room only to spend more money on cooling that extra heat to a comfortable level.

This situation is why I care so much about airflow in cases because in a hot environment it really matters how much quantity of already warm air you must pass through the case in order to cool components that are, relatively, less hot (though still hotter) than that air compared to the scenario in a cooler climate.

But there is something else you can do to improve component temperatures that will help in not only this situation, but also as a general principle. Let's do a quick dive into whether undervolting, underclocking, and power limiting your components (specifically the graphics card) is worth trading performance for...

Analyse This: FSR 2.0...

This is not a comment on image quality... it is meant to convey us moving forward to new things!

AMD's FSR 2.0 launched* this week, with its inclusion in Deathloop's latest update and with that comes a multitude of analysis in image quality and performance uplifts. However, while those things aren't really my wheelhouse, there are a few things I thought I'd highlight about FSR 2.0 which are actually publicly available information but appear to be overlooked by many commentators and reviewers out there.

*Whatever "launch" means these days - what with both FSR 1.0 and DirectStorage doing the same thing where you can't actually get the software or source code or documentation unless you're in some sort of super secret partner programme with whoever is developing the software...

Analyse This: Dissecting the new RDNA 3 rumours...

Radioactive...

So, one of the reasons why I haven't really had a big technology post in a while (aside from being super busy at work) is that the rumours for RDNA3 have just been all over the place... it has meant that anything I analyse or tried to predict was just going to be out of date in a few days once any given leaker decides to change their leak.

However, with the latest leak, I thought I thought it would be interesting to see how that stacks up against the 3 times the performance of the RX 6900XT claim we repeatedly keep seeing bandied about, as well as my predictions made at the beginning of this year...

Post Thoughts: Dying Light 2

Somehow, they will work the entire title (with the exception of the "2") into the final speech by the bad guy at the end...

I've sunk hundreds of hours into Techland's zombie series. Somehow, they have single-handedly defined (and effectively carved out) The first person, physical combat, zombie-killing genre... starting with Dead island and DI: Riptide, and culminating with their refinement of the genre in the release of Dying Light where they added the parkour mechanics that really took the genre to the next level. 

Spoiling the conclusion of my thoughts after playing the game, up-front: Dying Light 2 is what Dead Island: Riptide was to the first game.

So, let's see what I think about the game. As usual: there WILL be spoilers ahead...

DirectStorage, again...

 

It's approximately eleven months since I last trashed on DirectStorage and, helpfully, to ease us into the anniversary, we have the official release of the API and another presentation covering the technology - now of an actual implementation within a game which will release relatively soon! 

Actually, it's quite exciting because I get to see whether I was correct in my understanding of how things were going to play out.

So, let's dive in!