Coming This Week to Digital Foundry (Week 49 2025) (Patreon)

Hello there, how are you? Welcome to the latest weekly update post from Digital Foundry, written in the wake of quite an exciting #content meeting. Exciting but also daunting, because it presents a bit of a challenge. YouTube ad revenue ramps up significantly in December, while at the same time, the team deserve a vacation - so we need to find ways and means to keep the content flowing while at the same time acknowledging that the work time available will be lower.

Part of what that means is doing a few more Direct-style shows. Of course, we'll be back with our Graphics of the Year showcase. We're also considering an assessment of the generation so far in the wake of PS5 and Series' five-year anniversary. Best hardware of the year? We've got thoughts. A couple more episodes of the DF Retro Super Show - why not? Worst PC ports of the year? People seem to enjoy that and it can be cathartic for Alex. So, let's see eh?

Right now though, it's all about the #content to come, so let's get to it:

Rich (ie me) decided to put together a Steam Machine simulator. The screenshot above of the Avatar benchmark sequence represents some early testing of a unit built with a Ryzen 5 8500G paired with 2x 8GB of 5600MHz DDR5 and an RX 7600. Interestingly, the RADV Linux driver allows us to disable compute units, so we can match the 28 CU set-up of the Steam Machine (though that is not quite 100 percent accurate for reasons we'll get into in the video). LACT can be used to limit TDP to Machine spec, while MangoHUD monitoring ensures our GPU clocks are in the ballpark of those disclosed by Valve. Once I've got to grips with why it is locked to PCIe Gen 4 x4 and not x8, testing and capture shall begin.

John has three tasks. Primarily, he'll be our man working on the upcoming Metroid Prime 4 review but - of course - he'll also be returning to the big Xbox 360 launch showcase. And of course, as is the tradition, John will also be producing his Games of the Year video.

Oliver has stepped up to take a look at Assassin's Creed Shadows on Nintendo Switch. After that? Well, Mr Multicam will certainly have a lot of multicams to work through based on the second paragraph of this update. He's also producing his own Games of the Year video.

Tom is currently polishing off a video on the Xbox Series X and S ports of Silent Hill 2, stacked up against fresh re-capture of PS5 and PS5 Pro. Beyond that, how about looking at what Red Dead Redemption 1 is actually doing with its latest ports?

Alex is still working on his festive sponsored video - a look at the history of snow rendering in video games! If there are actual games to test in the wake of the FSR Redstone reveal later this month, we'll see how his availability looks.

Sam continues to power through work on our website and will be handing in some original content too.

Lots going on then, but please feel free to offer up your comments on any of the above, along with potential project suggestions. Have a great week!