The Ampere GPU's have been announced and it seems a lot like a gauntlet has been gently, yet contentiously laid at the head of the AMD table.
Nvidia's 3070, 3080 and 3090 look to be not just impressive but in the line of game changing, if you'll pardon the pun. Performance per dollar has been raised even though the pricing has remained mostly the same as the 20xx series. It wasn't really all that long ago before the crypto mining boom that $500 would have gotten you nearly two of the highest end cards you could buy. Now that same $500 gets you in the door of the high end market while the mid range sits around $200 to $350. Still, I guess Nvidia could have released at $600 and gone up. I think that's the gauntlet though if you ask me.
AMD is still being somewhat cryptic with RDNA 2, it's alleged truly high end competitor. A recent publicity stunt had a Fortnite streamer finding a "hidden" easteregg in a custom map made for AMD that took a "secret code" to unlock. That code was 6000 and folks got a little peak at "something big". I'm using quotes a lot because we still don't WTF that really is. But I can say that Nvidia starting at $500 means AMD has a starter price ceiling that they're going to have to be careful not to stress too much or they'll risk losing even more sales than just waiting two months after Nvidia's news and or release. I'm betting there will be a lot of people jumping on the wagon. All that on top of AMD having to actually putting their product where their mouth is and release what they say is coming. They could surprise us though as the next gen consoles are using RDNA 2 architecture GPU's that support ray tracing and they're reportedly very cut down in terms of performance.
I'm certainly hopeful that AMD will come out swinging and actually live up to some hype. We need better competition, period. Personally, I expect AMD to bring a relatively lower end that hits 2080S performance and a higher end that will fall in between the 3070 and 3080. Following the current RDNA naming I'd guess that to be a 6600 and 6700 with perhaps a later 6500 to replace the 5000 series and pick up some market from the mid range 2000 series from NV. I also expect they'll release X or XT versions that bump it up a little in both memory type and core speed. I.E. G6x Vram and a higher binned GPU. However I do not expect a 3090 competitor, and really why should there be? My hopes are high yet tempered, but I have to say that I'll have no issue picking up a 3070 or 3080 if the performance vs cost isn't worth it to me on the AMD end. I just don't love the idea of NV my money.
Anyway, that's a while out yet for me as I'm going to wait for AMD to show it's cards. Until then...
What are we playing?
AJ: I’ve got big plans for the Labor Day weekend! (Which is to say I don’t really have any plans at all yet, other than gaming. We’ll see what comes along.) First up, there’s a new Arcade Archives version of Contra on the Switch that finally ditches all that stupid annoying sidebar wallpaper bs. So, definitely that. Also, Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I just can’t seem to stop playing that game, no matter how hard I try. Besides those, I’m not quite sure yet. Dead Cells? Spider-Man? Ghost of Tsushima? Tony Hawk? All of the above? We shall see!
Yoda: Dota Dota Dota dodta Dota doat doat Dota Dota dita dotd aodta DOATDTAODTAODTAODDOTA!!!
Tru: Borderlands 3 with my friend Nick. Maybe some Warframe if other friends are playing. I've been thinking of buying Control on PC now that it comes with all the DLC... But we will see. Probably not much Gaming more so catching up on rest. I would like to play more Division 2 but most the people I play with don't seem to play much anymore.
Greywolfe: more than two thirds of the way through rayman: origins. it's definitely ramping up the difficulty. to get "full stars" on a given level is starting to get sillier as they squeeze in /just/ enough collectibles to make it possible [and put them in dumb to reach places.] - so, it's very much a "platformer by the numbers." if it weren't for the great art style and wonderful music, this would be a very 5/10 game - with -1 for "oh god, old school silliness all over" for hiding collectibles and nonsense. the graphics and sound the, give it two extra points. so a solid 6/10 game. other than that, more magic, of course.
Scroo: I've been playing Remnant: From the Ashes and it's fun. It does have some issues, modular environments give a feeling of deja vu when there shouldn't be and only one player can talk to an NPC at one time so vendors and such can be annoying to deal with. Game play is fun though and fairly satisfying. Mortal Shell is finished so I've finally installed Kindom Come: Deliverance, and I hope to see how that's going to be.