NandoCalrissian

To me it's definitely an improvement, I dislike plugging the case related cable especially. Now I tend to keep my cases and motherboards like forever so I have no idea when I will consider that.

@StooMonster true, albeit nvidia does support linux with closed source drivers, steamos is already closed source. So adding support to steamos shouldn't be a big task. It boils down to steam wanting to invest in SteamOs as an hardware os or only focus on their own hardware and let the community take it over for regular PC (e.g. Bazzite or nobara)

@themightyant yes I bought a fast 512GB for boot or one demanding game, and I have still a few sata SSD for my old or indie games. I just checked that I can find a 4TB sata SSD for 50US or so. Really wonder if a very large NVME isn't just a massive waste of money at this stage. I don't play more than one big game at once, if at all.

What a pity this doesn't work on Nvidia GPU they are 90 percent of the market.
Also I am curious to understand if this issue is impacting windows (also about 90 percent of the market I guess), with what's happening in the pc parts space anything that make older hardware more sustainable is great.

@SteamyDeck I am in a similar boat. My ps5 is basically collecting dust as most first party titles felt sam-y (third person action adventures bloated with mediocre collectables, inconsequential skill tree upgrades, and puzzles with forced voiced over hints and so on). I haven't finished GOW Ragnarok,Spiderman 1 and 2 (I did finished Miles) and haven't started GOT 1 and 2. I wanted to try Returnal but the long runs and the lack of difficulty settings put me off. I still game a lot mind you, the indies AA have filled my game time with joy, marvel and excitement on pc and switch (Hades, Breach Wizards, Balatro, Slay the spire etc...).

I have a bit of hope about Soros and the next Naughty Dog if they don't get cancelled last minute.

Great to have Will back at DF! I am really curious to see if the 9950X3D2 will bring any practical (measurable enough) benefits in game...

@Rich_Leadbetter Great question, I don't pretend to be an authority in this space, so what follows is entirely subjective. For me, clickbait is broadly about titles that give the impression of deliberately obscuring information I would need to decide whether the content is worth my time, regardless of whether the article itself delivers.

Allow me to share an example: "This common food can help you drop belly fat by 30% in 30 days" feels like clickbait, while "Asparagus can drop your belly fat in 30 days" does not. With the second title I have enough information to make my own call: either I already know about asparagus and its fat blasting properties, or I hate it so much I won't entertain reading an article about its benefits. Either way, that's my decision to make upfront.

Reading the internet in (the year of our lord) 2026 too often means clicking a link, quickly scanning through the article to find the information that was hinted at and obfuscated by the title, only to then decide whether I actually wanted to read it in the first place. I did exactly that with this DF article, which is what prompted me to comment.

DF content typically sets an exceptionally high bar for quality, honesty and clarity, which is precisely why a title that felt a little clickbaity stood out enough to warrant a comment.

Applying that logic here, a subjectively less clickbaity title might have been: "A single lighting quality setting can significantly boost Crimson Desert performance." I'm not particularly interested in the game, but that title would have given me enough to decide whether the technical breakdown of the lighting was worth my time.

I find the title of the article a little click baity, I prefer the more explicit titles that we usually get on the site.

@MittenFacedLass yeah it's pretty lame. I guess the one messing things up is cinematic, especially as it is used in the industry for things that are not related to IQ (like a 30fps cinematic mode). Low Medium High Ultra Ultra+ Max would be a little clearer

I use my switch 2 on handheld a lot and I have an extensive set of switch 1 games. So IAM a happy gamer.

@Darren1967 you are right they really don't care about leveraging the most recent graphic tech. Now I think they are technically very competent when they want to: John detailed how the character animation work on Mario Wonder that was proper advanced, refine gaming tech ( if I recall correctly).

@MemuAccount it's true and it's the saving grace of pc gaming. I still would like that HDR UX would be a "it just works" experience on windows by default. I wonder if the effort put in project Helix software will help make windows experience better for gaming.

@Synchrotone 100% , I tried to share a similar thought in my comment above, but your post is much better articulated than mine. I love how DF always strive for intellectual honesty vs some more inflammatory outlets like Gamer Nexus.

@Spodlude HDR is very very hard to get right for the end user. On Windows it's such a crapshoot I usually don't bother any more and stick to SDR on my Oled screen, which usually looks great.
On my ps5+LG OLED I used the settings from HDTV test videos and never changed it again, it automated and looks good.

@Rich_Leadbetter This new article is spot on! I hope the team didn't get disheartened by the extremely intense reactions of the first video/article. I think you missed the forest ( what meant Grace forced aesthetic surgery) for the tree (the cohesive light on the lamppost behind her), because I suspect the tech demo on hands/in motion feels a lot more impressive that the on/off stills that make it look like an Insta filter tech -that hangered the crowd-. I really love DF work because it balances thoughtful, respectful, technically ultra competent analysis with a very charming nerdy enthusiast about gaming tech, and games.
In that first video the later was a bit exceeding the former. I still liked it as it is (even if Grace face really bothered me) as it was true DF work for me.

Keep up the AMAZING work Rich and team, in my view your voice is an essential part of the gaming community.

@Thretosix what do you mean? From a hardware perspective they have been solid boxes.

At least the concept is interesting. Windows is very concerning though, one of my friend has built a small gaming pc plugged to his tv and he is hesitating to sell it away because every time he wants to use it something is broken at the software level, and requires some fiddling to fix.

I can't help but dream of an alternate history where XBox Series would have had an nvidia based soc with something like an 3060 or 3070. With DLSS thry could have provided 2 gen of improvement into one, even at a higher price point it would have been the god send console for enthusiasts.

As the target screen resolution should remain 4k (hopefully) basically a new gen will be sold on : high framerate, high IQ, high quality effects ( RT and material rendering).
I get the sense that's going to be a hard sell for non enthusiast gamers if the asking price is above 600usd (spoiler alert, it will be)

@Someguyperson I believe the corpo language means we are not the audience for the pitch. She is addressing her boss (so that she won't be fired at the next reorg) and the shareholders (so that the board doesn't fire her boss).

American corpo culture is now pervasive, please upstairs, talk the talk regardless of the walk, and don't get attached to anyone at the the working level because you will have to sacrifice them to maintain profit when the hyper growth slows down a bit.

It's eat or be eaten to the bone, with a glossy, flawless cover.

@rectangleboy yeah me too. A world where UE is the only engine used is a sad world.

Incredible, Capcom is knocking out of the park over and over again:

• non UE5
• single player games
• not broken at launch
• not broken on the current mobile platform

Hmmm is it Capcom doing something especially right or everybody else doing something especially wrong.

High on life, low on frames.

They will want to make a profit on the boxes, especially as if the audience is high end pc gamers most of the software will be sold via Steam. I don't see Steam giving MS a big chunk of their store sale on the box.

Its a very complicated setup, and I don't see any cost efficiency really.

Obviously I don't know anything.

Great review Rich! It's becoming a bit hard to decide which setting to use when. Maybe we need a flow chart

I don't why this tech could not be adapted to oled, with rolling black bar instead of BFI. Maybe i am missing something.

@DOOMndGLOOM yeah, i think its best to avoid the port altogether.

To be fair, Bethesda clearly lacked AVAILABLE time and money to do a proper job here. Or if it's not the case they lacked BUDGETED time and money.
It sucks. Bethesda games are simply not fit for purpose for DF tech enthusiast gamers.

This is a fantastic news for game preservation. Love it.

@ramu-chan I don't mind that DF does a bit of reviews, especially for titles that may get below thr radar. I would have ignored T2DNF but now its on my wishlist for the next time i go on a trip.

@BenderZoidberg yeah it seems that AAA SPU games they will have to 'Redo` most of the games. At this point the publisher might as well do a native remaster. But good luck to these guys, its an interesting project.

@JJtheTexan i can share with you my ram spray. Works better.
Seriously i recall some old tools on dos 6.22 that were compacting the ram on the fly, but i doubt this approach would work nowadays with the focus on secure computing.

I feel the enthusiast pc gaming space has been very toxic and unhappy: ssd, gpu, mb now ddr price hike, windows generally being both less stable and less configurable, terrible hdr support. It feels like buying a console and spend more time playing and less time working around issues is increasingly the smart choice.

@ramu-chan this is just a soda pop, my little soda pop!

I think the most likely scenario is that this gen nintendo starts to experiment with anti aliasing and wait the switch 3 to try a bit of ML based upscaling....
Naaah I am kidding, Nintendo won't use either, ever.

I have a wild idea, what if DF would repackage a bazzite distribution to make it great, DF Approved. It would be called something like DFighterOS and would come preloaded with Alex optimised settings and have Rich voice saying 'Bespoke' every time there's a warning dialog box. There could be some tasteful ads removable for supporters.

WHO IS WITH ME?

It does not feel it's going to happen.

Maybe a deeper question is why Valve keeps investing in VR? It didn't seem to really make an impact in the gaming market in the last 10 years. Would be great if DF shares some thoughts about this.

Seriously I'd buy a pro / next gen version of this to be my main TV console. Coming from owning XSX, PS 5, Switch, aging HTPC, my future setup could be :

• switch 2, next gen steam machine

PS 6 being an option for faster access to Sony exclusives, but honestly at this point I never play games at releases so it feels a bit unnecessary.

Question for Phil Spencer: is this a Xbox?

If yes it is a GREAT one thanks Phil!

In this new world of 'forever' generation I wonder how many system DF will have to test in its reviews :

• PS5, PS5 Pro, PS6
• XSX, XSS, Next gen pc that's also an Xbox
• pc Nvidia, pc amd x 3 ( end, mid, low end)
• Switch 2, xbox portable, steam deck, next gen steam deck

That's 22 systems, how the heck is DF going to cope?
(semi serious question, of course an answer is to only review the most popular systems, but there is really a massive fragmentation looming)

Fantastic news. I look forward to being a loyal DAU!

One comment though: the comment section would be greatly improved if it had the same basic features than Eurogamer : response threads, italic, spoiler masks, quotes etc...

As of now it's too barebone to start a really useful conversation, and it's a bit cumbersome to start something in the forum.

Mini bug: I had to login twice to get it to work.