What are the 30 year old plus gamers playing?

[BananaDunka]

We will have to agree to disagree about Hogwarts. I saw a very noticeable difference when I played it on release.

You knew it was going to happen, a new install of Hogwarts was done earlier as I had to have a proper eyeballs on to see properly this time round.

3440x1440 @ DLSS-Q vs 5160x2160 DLDSR @ DLSS-Q:

Hog(the RAM)warts Legacy - Imgsli

Looks like yeah, higher LOD textures are loaded at the higher resolution in this game.

Note the GPU utilisation between both, the CPU utilisation is identical, yet at DLDSR the 4090 is just ticking over 70%, it's not a CPU bottleneck issue since the CPU use between both resolutions is the same at a mere 30% package. As I said before, still in a poor state of optimisation. Interesting that there's barely any fps difference between them, probably due to the GPU/CPU use optimisation being pants.

Interestingly, walking around, I noticed that there are fewer traversal stutters, but they are still there and stuff still has to "load" as you walk through doors. I ran out the main hall into the courtyard and Earl Grey literally walked through the door before it could load and open lol.

RT reflections are still broken in that reflections are all screen space, they do that thing when you move the camera

That's why I stopped playing after 9 hours

 

[TNA]

You knew it was going to happen, a new install of Hogwarts was done earlier as I had to have a proper eyeballs on to see properly this time round.

3440x1440 @ DLSS-Q vs 5160x2160 DLDSR @ DLSS-Q:

Hog(the RAM)warts Legacy - Imgsli

Looks like yeah, higher LOD textures are loaded at the higher resolution in this game.

Note the GPU utilisation between both, the CPU utilisation is identical, yet at DLDSR the 4090 is just ticking over 70%, it's not a CPU bottleneck issue since the CPU use between both resolutions is the same at a mere 30% package. As I said before, still in a poor state of optimisation. Interesting that there's barely any fps difference between them, probably due to the GPU/CPU use optimisation being pants.

Interestingly, walking around, I noticed that there are fewer traversal stutters, but they are still there and stuff still has to "load" as you walk through doors. I ran out the main hall into the courtyard and Earl Grey literally walked through the door before it could load and open lol.

RT reflections are still broken in that reflections are all screen space, they do that thing when you move the camera

That's why I stopped playing after 9 hours

Did mrk just admit I was right all along?

Glad you finally see it

Yeah, the game does have some issues, but I am not picky. I come from the 8bit console era. Even beforw that actually where games were on casaste tapes and took ages to load up. So don't need perfection to enjoy a game. I played Crysis in the low 20fps range back in the day just to play it maxed out

 

[BananaDunka]

I am from the Commodore 64 era man, it doesn't get any whackier than that, putting in Robocop cassette tape into the loader, then going down for dinner whilst it loads, it was usually done by the time we got back up

 

[Nexus18]

You knew it was going to happen, a new install of Hogwarts was done earlier as I had to have a proper eyeballs on to see properly this time round.

3440x1440 @ DLSS-Q vs 5160x2160 DLDSR @ DLSS-Q:

Hog(the RAM)warts Legacy - Imgsli

Looks like yeah, higher LOD textures are loaded at the higher resolution in this game.

Note the GPU utilisation between both, the CPU utilisation is identical, yet at DLDSR the 4090 is just ticking over 70%, it's not a CPU bottleneck issue since the CPU use between both resolutions is the same at a mere 30% package. As I said before, still in a poor state of optimisation. Interesting that there's barely any fps difference between them, probably due to the GPU/CPU use optimisation being pants.

Interestingly, walking around, I noticed that there are fewer traversal stutters, but they are still there and stuff still has to "load" as you walk through doors. I ran out the main hall into the courtyard and Earl Grey literally walked through the door before it could load and open lol.

RT reflections are still broken in that reflections are all screen space, they do that thing when you move the camera

That's why I stopped playing after 9 hours

This is my pet peeve with games atm, a few games appear to load in higher detailed textures, assets etc. when your res. is higher, which is why the difference between 4k and 1440 (ignoring all upscaling etc.) can often look rather different and it not just being a case of better clarity/sharpness. Not sure what the reason is really as in the case of hogwarts, it can almost look like an HD texture pack just isn't activating correctly with anything less than 4k.

 

[TNA]

This is my pet peeve with games atm, a few games appear to load in higher detailed textures, assets etc. when your res. is higher, which is why the difference between 4k and 1440 (ignoring all upscaling etc.) can often look rather different and it not just being a case of better clarity/sharpness. Not sure what the reason is really as in the case of hogwarts, it can almost look like an HD texture pack just isn't activating correctly with anything less than 4k.

Perfect time that upgrade to the 4K Alienware monitor wouldn't you say?

Once on offer grab one. If you find you can live with the aspect ratio you will have an all round superior monitor. Don't worry about the high res in terms of fps. That is what DLSS is there for. Any game that will be demanding will likely have some kind of upscaling these days. With old games it won't matter as your gpu will have enough grunt to run those anyway.

 

[TNA]

Won't be long now for Blackwell GPU'S. Less than a year at this point I would imagine. 4090 performance or there abouts for a lot less money

Will go nicely with the 4K Alienware QD-OLED

 

[Nexus18]

Perfect time that upgrade to the 4K Alienware monitor wouldn't you say?

Once on offer grab one. If you find you can live with the aspect ratio you will have an all round superior monitor. Don't worry about the high res in terms of fps. That is what DLSS is there for. Any game that will be demanding will likely have some kind of upscaling these days. With old games it won't matter as your gpu will have enough grunt to run those anyway.

Thing is I know come the 4k+ versions of 21.9, I'll be wanting that A lot of faff to sell monitors compared to other pc parts. If I can get the dell for £600/700, I may give it a shot but not in any rush.

 

[TNA]

Thing is I know come the 4k+ versions of 21.9, I'll be wanting that A lot of faff to sell monitors compared to other pc parts. If I can get the dell for £600/700, I may give it a shot but not in any rush.

Yep. Around that price is my biting point too. But difference is I would keep it long term this time as it is pretty much the perfect monitor for me.

I would maybe sell after warranty is finishes or just before depending on how I feel.

 

[Proto]

You knew it was going to happen, a new install of Hogwarts was done earlier as I had to have a proper eyeballs on to see properly this time round.

3440x1440 @ DLSS-Q vs 5160x2160 DLDSR @ DLSS-Q:

Hog(the RAM)warts Legacy - Imgsli

Looks like yeah, higher LOD textures are loaded at the higher resolution in this game.

Note the GPU utilisation between both, the CPU utilisation is identical, yet at DLDSR the 4090 is just ticking over 70%, it's not a CPU bottleneck issue since the CPU use between both resolutions is the same at a mere 30% package. As I said before, still in a poor state of optimisation. Interesting that there's barely any fps difference between them, probably due to the GPU/CPU use optimisation being pants.

Interestingly, walking around, I noticed that there are fewer traversal stutters, but they are still there and stuff still has to "load" as you walk through doors. I ran out the main hall into the courtyard and Earl Grey literally walked through the door before it could load and open lol.

RT reflections are still broken in that reflections are all screen space, they do that thing when you move the camera

That's why I stopped playing after 9 hours

Hogwarts is also a good game for testing the hyperthreading/SMT problem.

The general idea is that HT/SMT can introduce unnecessary operating system thread management latency to games, as many don’t use that many threads, and therefore simply wait for a thread to finish before continuing. The OS and game are basically working against each other here.

The same basic principle that in pretty much all games higher single thread performance is the most important thing.

However, it’s also often said that disabling HT can cause perceivable stutter in many newer games. The idea here is that the OS can no longer leverage predicted latency to thread usage, and therefore take advantage of the extra 20% performance of HT without requiring the CPU to be fully loaded.

The issue with the latter is that this is very hard to catch on a basic FPS chart, as it’s very much constant and relative to the performance of the game.

Hogwarts shows this effect very noticeably.

 

[BananaDunka]

Hogwarts is also a good game for testing the hyperthreading/SMT problem.

The general idea is that HT/SMT can introduce unnecessary operating system thread management latency to games, as many don’t use that many threads, and therefore simply wait for a thread to finish before continuing. The OS and game are basically working against each other here.

The same basic principle that in pretty much all games higher single thread performance is the most important thing.

However, it’s also often said that disabling HT can cause perceivable stutter in many newer games. The idea here is that the OS can no longer leverage predicted latency to thread usage, and therefore take advantage of the extra 20% performance of HT without requiring the CPU to be fully loaded.

The issue with the latter is that this is very hard to catch on a basic FPS chart, as it’s very much constant and relative to the performance of the game.

Hogwarts shows this effect very noticeably.

Given that it's Unreal Engine 4 in Hogwarts, the devs should have seen this coming as other devs managed to mature their working in other games with UE4 given since it's quite ancient now! But I don't know if that's too much to expect since they have not yet even bothered to fix broken RT reflections, broken Ultra quality settings (this might actually be why it's loading the high quality textures in 4K and not 1440p when everything is set to Ultra), and the broken CPU/GPU utilisation.

Won't be long now for Blackwell GPU'S. Less than a year at this point I would imagine. 4090 performance or there abouts for a lot less money

Will go nicely with the 4K Alienware QD-OLED

Blackwell is ready to be announced next month by Jensen and release Q4 this year, interesting times are coming.

 

[Stu999]

Blackwell is ready to be announced next month by Jensen and release Q4 this year, interesting times are coming.

It’s leather jacket time!

 

[Proto]

Given that it's Unreal Engine 4 in Hogwarts, the devs should have seen this coming as other devs managed to mature their working in other games with UE4 given since it's quite ancient now! But I don't know if that's too much to expect since they have not yet even bothered to fix broken RT reflections, broken Ultra quality settings (this might actually be why it's loading the high quality textures in 4K and not 1440p when everything is set to Ultra), and the broken CPU/GPU utilisation.

The game comes across as a bit of Frankenstein. It pops from single to multiple threads in a very unpredictable manner. Like some elements are more CPU architecture mature than others.

I think the reason it shows lowered CPU/GPU usage at times is because of the multi thread predictability issue, which means it doesn’t necessarily need to be fully loaded and can leverage maximum potential performance by splitting over many threads.

This is also probably why it shows obvious stutter with HT off/ less threads despite similar or better overall performance.

However, I think the real reason for all the issues is likely something like having two separate teams working on the game at the same time. I think I read something along those lines somewhere.

That said, moving forward, I think this predictability model is going to become more important in games, giving reviewers a headache in terms of micro stutter detection, due to Alder Lakes’s big small architecture and Deep Learning Boost features, the latter of which were first introduced on a hardware level with Cascade Lake.

 

[rumple9]

Been having a blast with Command and Conquer Generals & Zero Hour expansion now its been released on steam

 

[Raggs]

Company of heroes 3 on a bit of a RTS binge also picked up all the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War games in the sales, never played those before.

Might even dust off my copy of world in conflict, never finished that one but tempted by terminator dark fate defiance looks decent.

 

[TNA]

Blackwell is ready to be announced next month by Jensen and release Q4 this year, interesting times are coming.

It is for me and @Nexus18. You on the other hand said you will be keeping your 4090 for 5 years

 

[Dyson]

Been having a blast with Command and Conquer Generals & Zero Hour expansion now its been released on steam

Same, absolutely loved it on release - Love it just as much now! The graphics have aged supremely well.

 

[rumple9]

Same, absolutely loved it on release - Love it just as much now! The graphics have aged supremely well.

Yes I also thought how well the graphics have held up for a 21 year old game - the explosions look great. Shame it can't be played online PvP through steam, I believe there are some third party servers hosting games but it requires a mod of some sort

 

[Noxia]

I didn't even realise half the games worked in the c&c collection without a load of faff.

 

[D3K]

Detroit Become Human.
Finally got round to this and as stunning as it was for it's time it's really missing RT effects. Gameplay I'm not sure about, seems to be non-stop QTE

HL: Alyx
never been able to stick the game for longer than an hour here and there but I think I'm sucked in now at chapter 5. Will hopefully see it through. One funny thing is how pathetic I feel in gunfights. In normal-screen FPS you get a feeling that you could easily gun down armies in real life if given the chance. VR is a bit of a wake up call for that idea

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Finally playing the Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk 2077 and enjoying it immensely.

Dogtown is an absolute toilet though. Makes Pacifica look like Kensington and Chelsea.