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Hello there, welcome to this - the official post for DF Direct Weekly #189's Call For Questions. You know the score here. I tell you that there's a show in the offing, I explain what the topic points are likely to be based on a perusal of the news sites and other stuff we'd like to share, and then I ask you to suggest your own topics and indeed your questions for the show's eternally excellent Supporter Q+A section.

So, to business. We'll be talking about that Phil Spencer interview. You know, the one about the handheld arriving years from now and 'no red lines' on which Xbox titles go multi-platform. John will be waxing lyrical about the Halo 2 E3 demo which has emerged on PC, we'll be discussing LEGO Horizon Adventures, WTF has happened to Silent Hill 2 on PlayStation 5 Professional, a potential Stellar Blade PC port and much, much more.

That's the topics part done then, now onto the 'call to action' as it is known. Is there anything else you'd like for us to look at? Do you have any questions for the team? Chances are it'll be myself (Rich), John and A N Other on the panel - possibly Tom, bearing in mind he's taken a look at Silent Hill 2. Deadline - as ever - is 8AM GMT on Friday morning. The stage is yours... which basically means that there's a box for your input below and you are invited to make full use of it.

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Comments

goregutz

Hi DF people! Intel has said they're working on a fix for the core ultra 200S series. How big of an impact do you think these optimisations will have. In light of the new X3D chips, is it possible for Intel to even compete or is AMD the NVIDIA of CPUs now?

WeegieBoo

Hi DF Team! Due to recent Californian law, Steam now displays a banner during checkout to make it clear that you are buying a license and do not own the software. My question to the team is on your thoughts of the current state of games ownership/preservation within the context of PC gaming? All the talk of losing digital games access seems to be focused on the consoles, but what if services like Steam etc ever disappeared? Many games on Steam are indeed DRM free but many are not! Thanks for your thoughts

Jonny_5a

No red lines for Xbox multiplatform huh, think this will mean Sunset Overdrive will finally leave its XBOne console purgetory?

Rhalgr

Which features would you like to see for the Xbox handheld?

Question Generated By JensenGPT

So now that the PS5 Pro has been out for about a week and we've been able to test it in detail - what PC GPU would you say it's most broadly comparable to? Is there one on the market now that compares well or would it perhaps be better to wait for RDNA4 to release early next year before we make that assessment?

KevWatch

Hi gang! I got my Pro on release date and immediately checked out a few games. In your review you mentioned Dragon’s Dogma 2 and PiSSR having trouble resolving RT bounces. Star Wars Outlaws seems like it has the exact same issue but to a greater degree. The image quality is incredibly unstable. Could PiSSR have issues with RT in general? If so, could this be improved upon?

OuterCrow

Hi chaps. What are your thoughts on the GOG Preservation Program? The statistic they mentioned in the recent announcement, that 87% of games made before 2010 are inaccessible today, is a sobering one. Seems like an immensely worthy endeavour, and it's nice to see a prominent developer like CDPR take this kind of stand for game preservation.

Rip Van Winkle

Since 3D cache has proven to be extremely effective at improving gaming performance, what is stopping console manufacturers from implementing it into the console SoCs? What about a potential Steam Deck successor or other mobile PCs?

Joseph Caruso

Hello DF panel. As I presume you are all heavy keyboard & mouse users, what measures if any do you take to help alleviate or prevent issues such as carpal tunnel syndrome? I'm almost 40, and heard horror stories from coworkers older than me, so to prevent carpal tunnel I invested in some palm rests that glide with your hands and began doing some recommended daily stretches a few months back, but now I feel like my hands are becoming fatigued more easily than before; I could barely play an FPS with a mouse longer than 20 minutes the other day. I do have a tilted ergonomic mouse for work, which seems to help a lot, but my home setup is a standard gaming fair, with the aforementioned palm rests. Thanks for any insight or experience you can share and keep up the great work.

Ben W

What’s the crew’s thoughts on film grain? I know you turn it off while capturing video, but do you leave it on while playing games on your own time? Any examples come to mind where film grain improved a games visuals? Any examples where they harmed them?

SlimeRyu

Hi guys, new subscriber, love hearing your takes on the gaming world each week! The GTA definitive edition games had updates this week only a short 3 years after the initial release. As well as purging all mention of their original porting studio (Grove Street Games), there appears to be tweaks to lighting, bug fixes, and what may seem like performance improvements? Would be interested to see your assessment on these, particularly the switch and PS5 versions. Are they now really definitive?

Tamerator

Hi DF friends, can we please get dishwasher safe DF mugs in the DF store? The current one is hand wash only which is less than convenient. Cheers.

Taggen86

Why do we have much faster memory for GPUs than CPUs? Why is the gap so wide considering how important memory latency/bandwidth is for CPUs when it comes to gaming?

JamesD

To whom it may concern: I have listened to your many pronouncements about the "merch" on your "store". I decided to peruse your "store" and I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to discover that there are no items of "merch" bearing the text "quote unquote" in quotes. When oh when will this omission be corrected? Yours very sincerely and respectfully, a Patreon "subscriber".

Stephen Marshall

Howdy gents! Pretty games are 'pretty great', but I'd love to hear some of the DF Crew's favorite quote unquote "ugly" games?

Greg Brown

Having played with the RetroTINK and other upscalers for previous-gen consoles, would you like to see Xbox or PlayStation offer a system-level “CRT”style filter that users can toggle?

Thomas Trala

Hey DF Team! Did you see the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition was massively overhauled? Are you planning to look at the changes made or throw it in a clips video? I’d be intrigued with your thoughts on it.

Jason Rogers

I’d love to see someone check out the Metal Gear Solid master Collection on the PS5 Pro. Specifically, I’d like to find out if the PS4 enhanced version actually has better image quality than the native PS5 app since the resolution situation with that collection is a unique set of circumstances you don’t really get with any other game these days. Cheers!

Adam Holmberg

Been playing some of the PS5 Pro Upgrades and have noticed a lot of artifacting with some game's RT. Boiling and aliasing in Star Wars Outlaws or flickering AO on vegetation in Jedi Survivor. Is it PSSR causing these issues with their denoisers and if so, will the devs have to tune their games more or is it Sony who have to keep improving their upscaler? Do we hope for fixes?

ConcreteLlama

In some of the much older DF directs, a little graphic would sometimes pop up when one of you said a catch phrase such as "here and now". Will we ever see those again or was it just for Audi's personal reference when playing DF Direct bingo/drinking game at 3am?

Skyrimfest 26 FPS Edition

Quite a few game genres seem to have vanished from AAA developer attention - RTS and point and click adventures to name but two. What forgotten or niche genre would the team like to see get the full £100m splurge?

ConcreteLlama

I'm kinda glad that Phil said the Xboy was years away. If they released it now it's doubtful that it would be able to match even the Series S and developers are already struggling with that - they want a unified platform where you can just buy an "Xbox" game and it'll play on any of your systems (although I doubt it'll support blu rays). Having said that, how's it going sit alongside the "biggest generational leap ever" console?

CCshoreditch

Hi Guys 👋 Great work as always an my favourite gaming podcast 🥰 Now that Rockstar have patched Grand Theft Trilogy The Definitive Edition on Switch is it now work purchasing?

Leftisthominid

How is Will Judd doing? Will he be helping with any of the PS5 Professional coverage?

Leftisthominid

You are all professionals, but do you feel even more professional now that you own PS5 Professionals?

Leftisthominid

I am debating to upgrading my RTX 3080 to an RTX 5070/80 tier GPU whenever those release, but I was wondering if I should be concerned about CPU bottlenecks. My current CPU is a in i7 11700KF, so upgrading the CPU basically means a full new build. What are your thoughts?

Leftisthominid

Have any of you ever worked at analog foundaries? How did they compare to Digital Foundry?

RAVE_DAM0S

Hola Lads! Bloomberg Intelligence is suggesting that the Microsoft handheld "won't come until 2028 at the earliest". Taken together with Phil's own recent comments, seems about right. Given the rumors that Xbox's next living room console will arrive early in the year of the lord 2026/2027, does this change your expectations, if so how? Many thanks gents!

Leddy Metal

Good day to the good dudes of DF, During the discussion about a wishlist for SteamDeck 2, the Nvidia feature set was mentioned and assumed for Switch 2 - are the software features like DLSS / FrameGen licenced separately to OEM's like Nintendo? Are we all incorrect in assuming that as the hardware may be capable, the native NVidia software features are available? It would be peak Nintendo to not licence the features! It might also explain why Nintendo applied for patents specifically regarding ML upscaling using Nvidia Tensor Cores, if they are going to use their own tech and not DLSS... https://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2021/0304356.html

Never Ready Eddie

Hi very generous DF-men. So when you upgrade your kit like you will no doubt do with the 9800X3D, what do you do with your old stuff? Does Rich sell it on Facebook Marketplace, or maybe you donate it to loyal Patreon supporters..... like me? Postal address on request.

Napoleon Blownapart

Hello! With UE5.5 aiming to close the performance gap between software and hardware RT on consoles, it has me wondering why it’s so heavy in the first place? Insomniac seems to have hardware RT reflections down, why aren’t we seeing other engines/studios able to do the same? Thanks!

VeryProfessionalDodo

Man, that is a blast from the past, I loved those small edits

Selogon

Hello, DF friends. I am going to disguise my question as a PS5 Pro question, since it seems to be so popular lately (could do the Switch too... get it ?). So here goes : Let's say the PS5 Pro is equiped with a Ryzen 5 7600X, and a 4070ti, just hypothetically. Would it be a mistake for it to attempt to use a 4k display for quite demanding games (CP 2077, Stalker 2, Star Wars Outlaws, etc.) ? This is not a very new subject, but where your input would be valuable to me is weither DLSS eeer RTSS has evolved enough in the past year to help enough to make it a sustainable, forward-looking use case. Thanks!

alexrdavies

Will and Rich's excellent review showed that the X3Ds are the class acts of the CPU field. But a 9800X3D would be wasted on a low-end GPU. How good a GPU do you need to buy before it is worth splashing out on a 9800X3D to go with it? Flipping the question - what CPU would you recommend someone buy alongside a 4090, 80, 70 or 60? At which point are you better off buying old and cheap?

alexrdavies

Could make a good DF supporters charity raffle

Lux

With the talks on the last Direct about the Inzone monitor and such a question popped up in my head. I recall that most of you are using an OLED LG TV as a monitor on your setups. How does one fit a TV that big on a desk? Are your desks just massive? Also is there any quirqs when using a TV as a monitor? (i.e. more input lag). Cheers!

alexrdavies

If Analogy Foundry existed, I suspect John would be first in line to work there. Recreate all the magic of a modern setup with as analog an approach as possible. In real life... the military did amazing things with analog electromechanical machines in the first half of the 20th century. A lot of what they did with those machines (targeting trajectories) would have strong relevance to computer programming. Perhaps just maybe, the same principles could be used to have an analog machine run DOOM.

Ferdinand

I'm playing with my 3080 and a 5700X3D in 4K DLSS Performance Mode in Cyberpunk. Your proposed system is faster and has better Raytracing Capabilities. You're good for 4K as long as you don't expect Path Tracing at high frame rates.

alexrdavies

The Xboy comes with a spring-loaded kickstand. The spring in the kickstand is so powerful that you can 'jump' the Xboy clean over a Series X (laid horizontally). A true generational leap.

Mekagnome

Now that Sony has implemented AI upscaling in the PS5 Pro, I assume Microsoft will include some version of this in their next hardware. However, could we see AI used for gameplay and story telling in the next generation? Generated NPC interactions, and even dynamic quests, could add a lot of life to an RPG or open world game provided it fits with the game world. Thoughts? Love what you do at DF, you are clearly doing the Lord's work.

alexrdavies

Dear DF, I would like to know how Rich reads "quote unquote". Does he read it "quote 𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘵𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘵𝘦 unquote"?

Mr.Pirotech

Hello guys. I know that questions regarding the PS5 Pro are now so frequent that it may become annoying. But anyway... For those of us with basic 4K LED TVs without any fancy gaming features (VRR or 100+ Hz), would you rather recommend saving money for a TV upgrade (OLED and VRR, etc.) or buying a new PS5 Pro when we want to improve our gaming experience?

AdorablyAllPhysical

Hey DF Crew! With the upcoming Switch 2 seeming to be a sort of last hurrah for Samsung fabed chips on major new gaming devices I'm wondering--does TSMC basically have a monopoly on state-of-the-art silicon at this point? When even Intel and Samsung are both relying on TSMC for their top of the line products along with everyone else what does that mean for the industry? Who is most likely to be able to step in and offer an actual alternative to TSMC, if anyone at all?

1040STF

I have a fun fact. As I'm looking for a PS5 disc drive on second hand markets since a few days for my soon-to-arrive PS5 Pro, as it's super hard to find one brand new these days - at least in Europe, I've programmed alerts based on keywords used in ads. And I receive much more notifications that I anticipated of ads posted by people who bought a physical game by mistake despite owning a digital console, mostly FC25 and Black Ops 6. It's not many notifications. But they come at a very constant pace since days. I'm half surprised. Half not. Half amused. Half baffled.

Selogon

Yes, true. The advantages would be there outside of gaming as well, since I'd go to 32 inches instead of 27. Ah, those first world agonizing questions! Thanks for your input, friend.

Auro

Hello! Will we be seeing more 9800X3D content? As you noted in the review this piece of hardware is legendary and i'm hungry to see more content about it!

Chhem

Hi DF! With the 9800x3d coming out, there have many reviews. Most of the reviews have benchmarks at 1080p and I understand the point of them however I find them useless as I have a 4k monitor and 7800x3d and I’m left to figure out on my own what the performance gains are. It’s similar to reviewers only benchmarking rasterization performance for gpus without using any of the upscaling techniques. What are your thoughts in general regarding pc hardware reviews. Thanks!

Abandoned Walnut

Your recent discussion about the recommended monitor size for pro gamers being 24" got me thinking. Whilst I know there's a lot of information on ideal viewing distance as a function of screen resolution, are there any recommendations more based on our ability to take in and properly process what's on screen, regardless of resolution? I have a 65" TV at home that I game on with my pc. Experimenting with this idea of viewing distance, I tried gaming much closer recently, and there was definitely a point at which I was a perfect distance to fully appreciate 4k in all it's glory but actually too close to properly play the game. Intrigued whether you have any thoughts on this.

Rich

Benchmarks are for understanding the relative power of products, not predicting exact performance for every particular configuration. You as a critical viewer are supposed to evaluate benchmarks in relation to others and extrapolate.

Bigmanupstairs

Gentlemen. With the new 'This is an Xbox' campaign, Microsoft seems to be pushing hard on Xbox as a platform rather than just a console, promoting gameplay on everything from Samsung TVs to VR headsets. While Phil Spencer recently spoke about an Xbox handheld and an upcoming console with 'incredible performance,' I can’t help but feel the incentive to buy Xbox hardware is fading for the consumer. Do you think Microsoft’s strategy here signals a future where dedicated Xbox consoles are less relevant, or even that they're moving away from traditional console hardware entirely?

Rich

Unreal Engine's Achilles' heel is its legacy as the engine for Fortnite - a game with 100% destructible environments and dynamic time of day. Thus the entire engine is designed around not baking in lighting and other previous gen optimizations. UE5 takes that logic even further with Nanite and Lumen, which impose higher costs. By the way, idtech has done a fantastic job with RT reflections as well, performant enough to run on consoles too.

Rich

No way in hell Nvidia gives Nintendo exclusive licensing over their tech. Patents get filed all the time, they don't necessarily prove what a big company will do. Nintendo can't patent anything owned by another company.

Thomas the Jank Engine

Hello gents. With the PS5 Professional offering users more choices in the settings menus of enhanced games, what are the odds that we will start seeing aspect ratio choices on consoles? Even on a 16:9 monitor, I feel like 21:9 really helps give games a cinematic edge. Is that too niche for an already niche product?

Leddy Metal

I don't think there's any suggestion that Nintendo are looking to hijack DLSS for their own, rather that they may develop their own ML upscaling "a la PSSR" for Switch2. There has been an assumption the entire Nvidia feature set is open to them as they will be using the hardware, I'm casting doubt on that based on Nintendo being Nintendo.

Rich

Intel still has the fastest single thread latency and can boost memory speed higher than AMD. Intel is still going to be the CPU of choice for high speed twitch action games and FPSes chasing 250+ framerates. While 1% lows are somewhat improved in the new X3D chips, there are still significant context -specific dips that happen when the cache is exceeded (especially in RTS games but also when streaming texture data in FPS games). And 1% lows on the 9800x3d are still in excess of a 14900ks in most games.

Dan

Hey DFers! What do you think the chances are that Nintendo has come up with a new gimmick for the Switch 2? There are console generations where Nintendo has just iterated on their last with better hardware, but often times, they bring something unique to the table too. Will this new generation be an iteration on the Switch or is there going to be something more to it? What gimmicks would you like to see?

FrostyGraybob

Greetings Gents, I just got myself a QD-OLED Ultrawide monitor as my first forray into daily driving ultrawide gaming. Its fantastic! I love it, but theres a noticable lack of coverage on ultrawide resolutions and support across the industry. Ever considered covering ultrawide use cases in its own video? I feel like shedding some light on its support ranging from older and newer games would be a step forward to making it more universally supported and normalized for peoples setups.

Jasper

Dear bespoke gents, new supporter here! Jedi Survivor on the ps5 professional feels like a big downgrade when it comes to image stability, just like Star Wars Outlaws. Foliage and distant geometry show a lot of artefacting with no option to go back to the original modes. I’m not sure if RTAO is in play in these games, but it seems to show similar issues as dragons dogma 2. Any idea why this is happening? Do you expect it to be an easy fix? Wish I could just go back to the base graphics modes… Thanks!

HelenX

Hello :) I have been playing and replaying a bunch of snes and mega drive games and realised how elegant the slow-motion that happens when the system is overloaded is compared to the more modern system of just dropping frames. The slow motion effect is often so elegant that I could easily be persuaded that it was often a deliberate artistic choice. Sonic's slow fallback as he drops 100 rings with a bunch of enemies nearby really ramped up the tension. Obviously slow-motion doesn’t work when the frames are stuttering rather than just consistently slow but have any of you ever seen or even heard theories for systems that could have worked instead of or maybe even better than VRR

carrotsauce

Hello DF gents! Have you guys checked out this new video from NVIDIA with interviews from Orbifold Studios? The title is Half-Life 2 RTX | Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary Tribute Video. I'm really impressed by all their hard work and was wondering what your thoughts are about it. I myself am particularly excited and have wishlisted it on Steam! Looking for ways to support this ragtag of devs as they're releasing the mod for free. Happy 20th anniversary to Half Life 2!!

dish-deep_

Have you tried combining FSR 3 framegen with AFMF on the 480hz monitor? Who would have thunk it, an actual reason to buy a 7900xtx?

Having an AI-neurysm

According to Xbox’s new “This is an Xbox” marketing campaign, how many Xboxes do you now own?

Thingmaker

Hi DF team, was wondering if John or anyone has taken a look at Gori Cuddly Carnage? It's a neon futuristic setting that looks gorgeous on a big OLED display. I'd love to see a mini review of that game. It supports RT and high frame rates, and just got a PS5 physical release. I bet John would get a kick out of that game!

Octolimar

Lossless scaling has seen a few significant updates since Alex's video on it. Their frame generation now supports 4x interpolation, meaning the dark souls can now be played at a glorious 240fps. They've also introduced resolution scaling that makes frame gen much less demanding. Along with those changes, the program offers a lot of utility due to its ability to, well, "losslessly scale," and I would love to see you cover the various algorithms available and discuss the benefits

Someguyperson

On August 1st, I mentioned how I felt the next generation Xbox console will just be a gaming PC and the "largest generational leap" will be accomplished by just running the largest Nvidia GPU and the best CPU money can buy. With Microsoft's recent ad about how everything is now an Xbox, do you tend to agree that the next Xbox will just be a top-end gaming PC? Do you think Xbox is just a gaming brand and has nothing to do with dedicated hardware now?

Someguyperson

I have a bit of a Zen 5 hot take: everyone complaining about the new non-X3D CPUs got the market definition for these CPUs wrong. With Moore's law slowing down, silicon vendors need to make specific products tailored for specific markets. There isn't a simple "best CPU" anymore as a result. Here's AMD's market definitions as I see them: Threadripper for max workstation performance 12 & 16 core AM5 for cost-sensitive workstation X3D for gaming performance Last-gen for entry level & "budget" CPUs 6 & 8 core CPUs for OEMs & system integrators I think the lowered TDP (for a cheaper cooling solution) and lowered idle power are specifically for the big box OEM market and large organizations with a lot of people to manage. These CPUs are not designed for gaming performance and AMD only really needs one new "best gaming CPU" a generation. I posed this same theory 3 months ago and the performance of the 9800X3D seems to confirm my suspicions. What do you guys think about AMD's market strategy?

Someguyperson

One thing I didn't quite gleam from your coverage is how much better the 9800X3D is compared to the Ryzen 3600, which is the console equivalent CPU. If a game is designed to target 30 FPS on the consoles, it will generally be CPU limited on PC and it would be nice to know how much higher you can push framerates with one of the X3D chips. Thanks!

Someguyperson

How much better can the Core Ultra 200 series get? Probably about as good as the 14900K, but not much better. Intel switched from their own fabs and internal tools to an external fab and industry standard tools for the first time and I think they intentionally targeted 14000 series performance as a benchmark. It's also a bit of a stopgap part. The Core Ultra 300 series will almost undoubtedly be much, much better than the 200 series.

Someguyperson

The tech for 3DvCache wasn't really possible until after the current generation of consoles came out. There were also issues with the thermal profile of the devices as the cache was placed on top of the CPU. AMD spent a lot of engineering time & effort to be able to place the cache underneath the CPU die, which opens up a ton of possibilities now. Rumors say that AMD will come out with SoCs that have 3DvCache sometime in the next year or two and I can see Steam waiting for that SoC before making a Steamdeck 2. I also expect the PS6 to include some 3DvCache (as mentioned in my question last week).

James Prendergast

Follow-up question to this - given the hard pivot Xbox division messaging has done, is this "largest generational leap" even happening any more? It would seem to be at odds to this philosophy of equalism.

zephyr

Hi DF team! During the last direct I was a bit surprised to hear you all say that the Steam Deck is underpowered. While it's a neat parlor trick for handhelds to play the latest AAA games, I personally think they are far better suited for 2D and older games. Is this thinking too narrow and we should we expect new handhelds like Microsoft's upcoming to continue to scale up to the latest and most demanding games?

Someguyperson

You really need to give yourself enough room for your arms on your desk. You need to fully be able to rest your forearms out with your elbows touching your sides. If you need to spread your elbows out to be comfortable, you're too close to your keyboard and you need more distance between you & the keyboard & mouse.

Someguyperson

If you're playing games at 4k 60 with VRR to help out when the CPU drops performance into the 40s-50s, a 50 series GPU might make sense. If you want high framerate gaming, you'll need a new CPU.

Someguyperson

The Digital Foundry CPU benchmarks show you at what point the CPU becomes the limiting factor on framerate. You should always try to be GPU limited and not CPU limited in performance, so you can look a your current machine, characterize the performance and see if your system is CPU or GPU limited and then make the determination on whether or not you want to upgrade each part.

Alan

Hi Guys, I see Richard has been sporting a little beard in recent videos! they say "if you do something you love, you'll never work a day in your life" but how do you guys switch off? Playing some game for tech review but then trying to go and play something else in your own time, how do you manage this?

Bulbous_Bow

By my count having Smart TV, a PS5 Pro, a Switch, an iPhone and a MacBook Pro makes me the proud owner of 5 Xboxs. I must be some kind of fanboy.

Bulbous_Bow

Oh hi there! Would it be possible for DF to include more HDR analysis in video reviews? While perhaps not as technically or academically interesting to talk about as something like FSR vs PSSR vs DLSS, I personally find it to have a huge impact on overall visual quality that dwarfs any distinction between these technologies. Thanks!

Diego ElRey

Hello, DF! Now that the MS XBOY seems to be more than a rumor, what do you think the purpose of this machine will be? Where will it be positioned? There are Windows devices that can run games from every store including MS's own. Most of them cost more than Series X. If the handheld is limited to XBOX dash, or limited in performance, what benefits could it have over one of the many similar devices?

sero

Hi Foundrymen, with ML now commonplace for upscaling & frame generation on PC and (increasingly) consoles, what do you see as the next frontier where machine learning could meaningfully augment traditional GPU rendering tasks?

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hey Digital Masterminds, what’s your take on the latest DLSS update and Nvidia App finally leaving the beta stage? Have you noticed any improvement in gaming due to the new version of everyone’s favourite upscaler? What about the app - do you miss any function there or do you think it’s a nice package as it is now? Cheers!

sero

To your knowledge, has the PS5 professional received any improvements to its 3D audio support? I've seen some comments to that effect, but as with all PS5 Pro impressions, it's hard to tell if they are real or just people under - what I like to call - the procebo effect.

sero

With the release of the PS5 pro marking the halfway point of this generation, are there any graphics technologies that you are surprised have not been adopted more widely by now? And conversely, is there anything that has surprised you in how widespread it has become?

1040STF

in the wake of (no pun intended) the Alan Wake's PS5 Pro patch, between the PS5 Pro experience and the Geforce Now ultimate experience, what would be the one you recommend in general (graphics, latency, global experience)? Taking a step back on the latency side, could the low latency of the PC version (I suppose it's lower than on PS5) make up for the added latency of Nvidia's cloud system compared to the native PS5 Pro version?

YouthInAsia

Hello DF crew! There has been some speculation swirling around that an ARM-based Nvidia gaming laptop could be released as early as next year. Are you all excited by this hypothetical product, or does the poor gaming performance of the Snapdragon X Elite temper expectations for ARM on PC?

YouthInAsia

CPUs with V-Cache tend to be among the most efficient for gaming. Curious if that efficiency boost would also apply in an APU context.

DyeHardX86

Yes please not enough high quality HDR content on YouTube Period what is there when encoded correctly can look Glorious!

Jay Fischetti

Have you seen Shuhei Yoshida tweet about PlayStation hiring to make more games "like" Astrobot? Asobi is hiring too. With the success of Astrobot changing the direction of PlayStation do you feel a sense of optimism for small games again?

Horselle

That 100 hour limit from Nvidia sucks. Is the gaming industry going to look for subs for everything. Will John start collecting physical vouchers for digital products!! Will Alex have different subs to see how the different tiers perform. The end is nigh. Gaming is dead, long live gaming!!!

DaJaCo (Dan)

The PS5 pro RT mode would be perfect if it ran at 40fps.

DaJaCo (Dan)

While we may have spoken afore of the flippantly forsaken forespoken (sporfoken).. has anyone taken their disk from beneath their coffee cup and put it in the Professional? It seems to me that the RT mode (in 120Hz) is so transformative that perhaps many forespoke too soon? Am I being deluded by the £5 I paid for it.. could it just be the fantastic taste of a free meal?

BespokeEP

With yet another Xbox “exclusive” confirmed to not have a physical disc release. It’s Avowed incase you didn’t see. What will happen with Xbox’s great BC next gen when they likely won’t offer a disc drive? Frankly I don’t know why they bothered with one this gen considering most Series X games use the disc just to initiate a download. Xbox has basically become the Xbox One E3 2013 vision. John! would you like to take point on this one?

Mr Bespoke

Hi guys! Not so much of a question but please queue the Art Attack theme if you're going to say the slogan "This is an Xbox". Thanks and keep up the great work!

Eric Benoit

I remember certain physical versions of PS One games on the PS3 were sharper and looked much better than the digital versions on PS3 and even PS4. Is there a chance a physical PS4 game could look better on the PS5 pro than the digital version?

framedr_pped

Hi DF Team! With the unexpected update to the GTA definitive edition, is this GTA edition now truly definitive? Cheers & Servus from Vienna.

Mark Smith

Do you all think Xbox will find a way to resurrect some or all of the games taken offline after the death of the Xbox 360 digital store?

SplitScrea had to sell the M this onth

Howdy DF team! Long time listener, first time asker. Do you believe Sony can learn from the insane success of the Quest 3S and possibly release a PSVR2 Slim by downgrading some features for their own $300 headset? (LED, fabric and elastic straps etc)? Cheers Gents and have a bespoke day

LittleMac

Curious as to why Returnal did not get a Pro patch.

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hey Gents! Is there any hope for UE5 to be optimised anytime soon? The new lights feature looks cool but wouldn’t it be yet another addition to the #stutterstrugle? I remember you worrying about more devs dropping their own engines back in the day. And I you were so right! Cheers!

HarryB

What are your thoughts on PS5 Professional getting an unofficial £40 price cut at many retailers within a week of release in the UK?

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hello there! Perhaps you could discuss the latest update on the Half-Life 2 RTX project? It’s cool to see that devs of three different HL-related projects have combined their forces to work on the RTX remaster. And with both Valve’s and Nvidia’s blessing. It’s the best example of what PC gaming is and has always been about. Seems like we need this reminder when other developers try hard to shut down modding scene and lots of AAA titles are released in a terrible shape on PC. Cheers!

Alexander Zyryanov

Hello. I never had an OLED monitor but thanks to you, now I’m interested in buying one. For me 4K resolution is a must, and I really don’t want to go above 32-inch size (I’m currently using 28-inch 4K LCD display and it feels just right). Any suggestions for which display to choose? Is there anything I should be paying attention to while picking an OLED display? Thank you and keep up the good work!

digitalfoundry

You can argue the same about an RTX 4060 being benched in concert with a 14900K. It is completely impossible to benchmark according to everyone's specific configurations so the idea is to remove the effect of other components and leave you with a CPU-only benchmark. However, on Eurogamer, we do benchmark at all popular resolutions: https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2024-amd-ryzen-7-9800x3d-review However, the idea is to create CPU limited benchmarks that are still effective at all resolutions. Go look at, say, Flight Sim 2020 or Cyberpunk 2077. Highlight the CPU of your choice and then swap between resolutions. You should see that the fps numbers are very similar. There will be some outliers in our line-up where we do hit CPU limits at higher resolutions, but not so much in most of them - also look at Baldur's Gate or Dragon's Dogma 2.

digitalfoundry

The plan is for the 9800X3D to replay the 7800X3D in Alex's software reviews.

Marsy

Last DF Direct, Alex said the PS5 console video capture is “garbage quality“. Can he elaborate on that please? Hows Xbox capture utility?

digitalfoundry

The memory's faster but the latency is gigantic. Check out the 4800S desktop kit review!

digitalfoundry

Cache is a massive investment in silicon which isn't appropriate to a console where the platform holder has a right to say, "hey guys, maybe make more efficient use of the cache you have."

digitalfoundry

That's an interesting take - our Baldur's Gate 3, Dragon's Dogma 2, Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 automated runs are all stress-testing streaming. And the 9800X3D wins every time.

Dubuc Nathan

With what seems like every dev teams turning to UE5, and considering its often poor performance, do you think Valve could be this generation's savior by releasing Source 2 and opening it up to devs? I still can't believe how lightweight Half Life Alyx is for how good it looks, and I feel like it would be a great choice for indie devs who want to make technically simpler games and don't need all the fancy UE5 features

DaJaCo (Dan)

Big Phil says that "we're not growing the console market with $1000 consoles", but isn't the bigger problem that they're not growing the market with $500 consoles either? Are the console maker's over fixating on the hardware offerings when they should be focusing on something closer to Nintendo's balanced model of game production.. i.e. Not every game has to be 100+ hours, open world, online, etc. Right now microsoft seems kind of the opposite of Nintendo in every conceivable way.. would Microsoft grow the market more if they were more "Nintendo" in their approach?

WarpTHUMP

How much consulting work do you guys do with game companies ? Has your expert commentary around presentation and feel lead to a noticable uptake from developers on topics raised in your videos ?

Graczdari

Hello everyone. You record footage with unlocked VRR framerate using the TV's internal overlay plus capture images with the camera. Is there any technical hassle in the emergence of a device to capture video with such parameters? Second question. Have you ever tried to get developer stations from SONY, MICROSOFT, NINTENDO with their undoubtedly powerful analysis tools for your tests?

JamesD

It *has* to be "quote unquote quote unquote" while also making air quotes.

Auro

Thanks for the response! I look forward to that! It would be nice to see some content related to scenarios where the 9800X3D pushes to higher FPS than we could have seen before. I can think of a couple fights in Black Myth Wukong, without listing spoilers, that were CPU limited with path tracing. Additionally games like Returnal that are fairly plagued with stutters seem like a completely different experience compared to an i9-12900k, although this may not be the case for the 7800X3D!

Simplex

Hello gents, anyone played Metro Awakening VR? Thanks to VR we are against getting short, linear, story focused fps games - I love it!

Max Fletcher

Hey gents, what are your the new Xbox slogan “This is an Xbox”? I get that they are trying to say basically any sort of device can be an Xbox now but I can’t help but think this is really just a clever spin on leaving the traditional console market entirely. By their logic every games console is also a Sega.

Hugo Kalm

Hi guys, long time watcher, first time writing. Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 1 just got a 2.0 update, with higher resolution across the board. Does this adress some of your initial complains? Is this now the best way to play Metal Gear? Thank for all your work!

MilangaConFritas

Hi everyone, What are your thoughts on Rockstar's latest update for the infamous GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition? It seems they've addressed issues like classic lighting, distance fog, and model fixes. At least I can confirm—no more Bearboxes!!!!

Kilkia123

Hey, DF! Hope you're all doing well :) With more and more games being released with raytracing or Lumen implementations, we know GPU requirements are going up. But what about for CPUs? My understanding is that raytracing at higher resolutions demands more CPU power. Is this correct? Related to this, are we past the age of "an i5 or Ryzen 5 is good enough for gaming" or "your CPU doesn't matter for 4K gaming"?

fraktl's archive

Hello beautiful people! Sorry for the non-gaming related question, but on the digitalfoundry.net site when I go to download a video, there are usually 2 options: 1 for h.264 and one for HEVC. My question is, why does the h.264 version have such a higher bitrate than the HEVC version? My thought process with bitrate has always been bigger number better, but I'm not familiar enough with HEVC as it is relatively new. Does the HEVC version have effectively the same quality as the h.264 version at a lower bitrate? How is this possible? Thanks and have a glorious week :)

ArcadeRacing_CENTRAL

Hello amazing DF team! I love your work, honestly. But I feel like most of your recent graphical analysis of PC and PS5 Pro literally can't help but be relatively pedestrian, as you've not been given much by Sony or anybody really, recently to work with. You guys are very honest, and I love your honesty, and the lack of exciting developments lately really show on your faces, haha! Is it the fact that graphical strides and differences are supremely unexciting right about now? Truly, it's hard to get excited about the aliasing on the powerlines in the version of Alan Wake 2 for PS5 Pro. None of it has any impact on the enjoyment of the actual game, and it feels like we're grasping at straws. I feel that maybe more on the Switch, or handheld PC's would be more interesting, as there's some really exciting developments in that area coming right about now! Thanks for everything fellas, love your work! :)

dish-deep_

Wait, what!? You're gaming on a QD-OLED Ultrawide monitor while on your daily commute? Sick! lol

BespokeDisplayName

Hey gents! With Treyarch finally confirming that the PS5 version of Call of Duty Black Ops 6 was patched with PS5 Pro support earlier this week, I was wondering if you could do high level analysis and share early impressions? I just booted it up today post patch using a 60hz VRR screen and played the mission “Ground Control” and I honestly think that the image quality and fluidity has taken a huge hit. The things I noticed: * FPS is insanely variable. Never experienced this much of a variable FPS in any COD game * The textures appear to be significantly lower quality across the board * Things appear lower res and distant detail looks reduced * There seems to be increased shimmer and fizzle in the image * The depth of field is broken just looks like even more of a muddy mess * The foliage now looks like alien creatures with constant strange, blurry motion Strangely enough, the MP looks far better thus far and appears to actually have somewhat improved image quality. This is looking like a genuinely bad PSSR implementation, at least in 60hz campaign mode. I hope that they can improve it soon, because we don’t even have the option to revert back to the base PS5 settings if we wanted to. It’s kind of wild to me that Dead Island 2, an open world game, has significantly better image quality with PSSR and BO6, a much more linear game, looks worse than it even did pre-patch.

EdoTensei

Greetings DF 😁 ! Let me ask you a question 🙈 I’m curious, since PSSR definitely needs some improvements, how will Sony (if at all) update it? Will it be a system update like DLSS, where they can just swap DLL files, or will the developers have to implement it again? Because if PSSR is a system-level upscaler, then updating it with each new version would be a breeze and super fast compared to waiting for the developers to make changes. I hope you have a wonderful day guys 😌