How SSDs might really change gaming...

People keep saying that SSDs are going to change the way we play games now that they're on the next generation of consoles. Some people say that the PS5's increased bandwidth derived from the 12 channel PCIe Gen 4 SSD will lead to even better performance than the Series X's more traditional 8 channel PCIe Gen 3/4* SSD. However, we've had this sort** of performance available in the PC sphere for a number of years now. So what should we be expecting when developers haven't even been bothered to utilise the "awesome" power of the storage medium?

*I'm saying 3/4 because it's not clear from the actual performance numbers (2-3 GB/s is achievable by Gen 3 SSDs...)

**On the same order of magnitude, maybe not the same amount of IOPs 

Let's take a look...

Budget high-tier CPUs?! 3750X &3850X rumours... [UPDATED]

People were really amazed and surprised by AMD's release of the 3100 and 3300X 4/8 C/T processors recently. However, these two processors, powered by Zen 2 chiplets really caught the imagination and passion of enthusiasts and tech reviewers alike for their value to performance ratio. 

In fact, those two processors, are currently "out of stock" across various etailers, or have huge mark-ups on their (M)RRP from third party sellers... and, the processor can't even be found in some territories!

I mean, yeah it's out of stock... as is the 3100.... but just like *that*?! I literally checked them only an hour and a half earlier and everything was normal! pic.twitter.com/EuMKmiU6OY

— Duoae (@Duoae) May 21, 2020

Which leads me to one conclusion - these were limited clearance stock.

Unreal Engine 5 demo and misconceptions...

There's been quite a few articles covering how HDDs simply can't keep up with the moment-to-moment streaming enabled by the PS5 and SX. But, again this really misses the point of PCs - PCs are engines of brute force. Consoles are beasts that are designed to streamline and work past limitations through optimisation. Yes, the next gen consoles are generally much more powerful than the average PC out there right now but they are still highly optimised pieces of hardware because they are static and will quickly be outclassed by new PC technologies appearing on the near-term horizon.

Yes, the rate of improvement of CPUs and GPUs is quite phenomenal at this point in time!

This is all self-evident, but why am I writing another post so close to the previous one when I'm covering much of the same ground? Well, that's because the Unreal Engine 5 tech demo was released, running on PS5, alongside an interview with key personnel at EPIC Games and there is, as far as I understand things, one primary misconception being repeated over and over again. To paraphrase:

You can't fit all of this detail in the scene into memory on a PC - it's not possible.

This is, at best, a misunderstanding of nomenclature... at worst, it's a lie.

Are current PCs unable to keep up with the Next Gen consoles? Answer: Yes, sort of...

Photo by Marco Verch, Creative Commons 2.0 License

Last time I mentioned in passing how the consoles will be affecting current owners of PCs. I also touched on that subject when I was discussing my relatively newly-built PC. I generally don't feel that current owners of mid-to-high-end PCs have that much to worry about but it appears that this is not a commonly held belief.

So let's get into that!

Late to the party: B550...

So by now, you've all read the kerfuffle surrounding the B550 announcements. I was quite annoyed at first but I'm more resigned about the situation now. In this post I'm going to go over why I felt that way and why, although I understand the technical limitations at issue, I do not agree with the way this has all been handled.