Valve has rolled out the new Steam Deck 3.4.6 OS stable update, which brings the Mesa 23.1 graphics driver update, adds support for Vulkan ray tracing and fixes some previous issues. The latest update was anxiously awaited by those playing either Forza Horizon 5, Resident Evil 4, or the new Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty game.

According to the release notes, the new update fixes a significant focus issue with Forza Horizon 5. The aforementioned Mesa 23.1 graphics driver update is bringing both functional as well as performance fixes. Mesa 23.1 fixes graphical corruption issues in both Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and Resident Evil 4. The new driver also adds Vulkan ray tracing to the DOOM Eternal game. Unfortunately, there is no word on DXR ray tracing support, although the RDNA 2 GPU certainly has hardware support for it.

With only a couple of days to go until the AMD RX 7900-series benchmarks go live, some alleged benchmarks from both the RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT have leaked on Twitter. The two cards are being compared to a NVIDIA RTX 4080 card in no less than seven different game titles, all running at 4K resolution. The games are God of War, Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Watchdogs Legion, Red Dead Redemption 2, Doom Eternal and Horizon Zero Dawn. The cards were tested on a system with a Core i9-12900K CPU which was paired with 32 GB of RAM of unknown type.

It's too early to draw any real conclusions from this test, but in general, the RX 7900 XTX comes out on top, ahead of the RTX 4080, so no surprises here. The RX 7900 XT is either tied with the RTX 4080 or a fair bit slower, with the exception being Red Dead Redemption 2, where the RTX 4080 is the slowest card, although it also appears to have some issues, since the one percent lows are hitting 2 FPS. Soon, the reviews will be out and everything will become more clear, but it appears that AMD's RX 7900 XTX will give NVIDIA's RTX 4080 a run for its money, if these benchmarks are anything to go by.

Update Dec 11th: The original tweet has been removed, for unknown reasons. It could be because the numbers were fake, or because they were in breach of AMD's NDA.

As most of the DOOM Eternal fans are informed, on June 29th, the latest installment in the DOOM series of games, DOOM Eternal, will be receiving a huge upgrade coming to all PC gamers. For the first time, PC players will get to experience NVIDIA's best pieces of technology, coming in a form of raytracing and NVIDIA Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS). To celebrate that, the folks over at Bethesda Softworks and id Software have partnered with NVIDIA to launch a limited edition DOOM Eternal bundle. Called the "DOOM Eternal GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Limited Edition Demon Slayer Bundle", it will be a very scarce bundle made only in 300 copies.

Containing NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card, the bundle is all about performance. However, what makes it special and different from buying a regular card is that it includes some additional products. For starters, the bundle includes Titanium Slayer Collectible mini-figure with matching aesthetics of the GPU, making it a real collectible item. Next up is a Titanium DOOM Eternal-GeForce RTX t-shirt, and an exclusive "DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods" oversized 15.75-inch x 35.44-inch mouse pad. Additionally, a $100 Bethesda Store credit and DOOM Eternal Deluxe Edition game code is included as well. Together, it forms a bundle that is limited to 300 pieces and costs 1450 USD. To join the raffle to purchase this bundle, you can enter here for North America, and here for Europe. Unfortunately, people from other regions can not enter. The raffle starts today, June 23, 2021, 5:00 AM (MST), and ends on July 7, 2021, 11:59 PM (MST). Winners will be announced on July 8th.

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin 2021 drivers. Version 21.3.1 beta comes with support for the new Radeon RX 6700 series. It's interesting that they didn't specify the RX 6700 XT, which means other SKUs such as the RX 6700, could be right around the corner. Next up, the drivers come with optimization for "DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods, Part Two." The drivers also introduce many new feature updates. Radeon Anti-Lag technology now supports DirectX 12 games. The Radeon Boost performance enhancement has been updated with support for DirectX 12 and Variable Rate Shading on select titles. The Performance Tuning section of Radeon Software now comes with an internal stress-test. The drivers also introduce support for new Vulkan API extensions, including VK_KHR_synchronization, VK_EXT_4444_formats, VK_EXT_conditional_rendering, and VK_KHR_sampler_ycbcr_conversion.

Among the issues fixed with Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.3.1 include high CPU utilization for Radeon Software, even when idling; Oculus VR headset causing system crashes when connected to GCN (pre-Polaris) GPUs; corrupted or missing textures for "Minecraft DXR," a crash with "Call of Duty : Modern Warfare" with raytracing enabled on RX 6000 series GPUs, improper lighting with "Star Citizen" on RX 6800 series; Enhanced Sync + V-sync causing black screens on Vulkan games; and a black screen on Hybrid Graphics systems; a crash with Bethesda Launcher, color corruption with Epic Games Social Overlay; display flicker or corruption on high refresh-rate multi-monitor configs using RX Vega series GPUs, and audio loss on TV displays connected to the video card's audio output.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.3.1 beta

DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods-Part Two is the concluding chapter to the DOOM reboot franchise from 2016. The DLC, will release on March 18, 2021, part of the Year One pass, although there's no word from Bethesda on standalone availability. It picks up where Part One left off. Having awaken an ancient evil, you must rally the scattered Sentinel forces across the realm to wage an epic battle against the Dark Lord himself. The campaign includes several new missions across vast realms, new enemies, and new super-weapons. You also ride a Sentinal dragon, and maybe even pilot an ARC Mech against a Titan (fingers crossed)!The trailer video follows.

AMD released the latest version of the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition drivers. Version 20.10.1 beta comes with optimization for "DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods, Part One;" "Watch_Dogs: Legion," "DiRT 5 early access," and "World of Warcraft : Shadowlands Pre-Patch." Among the bugs fixed with this release are audio instability issues for AV receivers pulling digital audio from HDMI ports on Radeon RX 5000 series graphics cards; Windows Desktop experiencing flickering in multi-display setups with one of the displays running a Vulkan API game full-screen; uploading or streaming to YouTube using Radeon Software not working correctly; "Genshin Impact" not displaying correctly in the gaming tab of Radeon Software; some legacy Windows screensavers causing a crash on RX 5000 series graphics cards; and graphics corruption noticed on high refresh-rate multi-display setups. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.10.1 betaThe change-log follows.

Doom Eternal has been called one of the best first-person shooters ever. If you haven't already experienced its unique brand of fast-paced, push-forward, first-person combat, now's the time to blast your way into id Software's critically acclaimed game coming to Xbox Game Pass on October 1 and Xbox Game Pass for PC later in 2020.

In Doom Eternal, you step into the armor of the Slayer, an unstoppable and unyielding force with a singular mission - Raze Hell and save humanity. Battle demons in an epic single-player campaign that takes you to Earth, to Mars, through Hell, and across dimensions never seen before.

NVIDIA on Thursday posted a taste of the performance on offer with its new GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card. In a gameplay video posted on YouTube with performance metrics enabled, the card was shown running "DOOM Eternal" with details maxed out at 4K UHD resolution, where it clocked over 100 frames per second, or roughly 50% higher than the RTX 2080 Super. In quite a few scenes the RTX 3080 manages close to 120 FPS, which should be a treat for high refresh-rate gamers.

Throughout the video, NVIDIA compared the RTX 3080 to the previous-gen flagship, the RTX 2080 Ti, with 20-30% performance gains shown for Ampere. Both cards have identical image quality as the settings are constant between both test beds. NVIDIA is positioning the RTX 3080 as a 4K gaming workhorse product, while the top-dog RTX 3090 was pitched as an "8K 60 Hz capable" card in its September 1 presentation. The RTX 3090 should offer 4K gaming with high refresh rates. DOOM Eternal continues to be one of the year's bright spots in PC gaming, with a new DLC expected to come out in October.The NVIDIA presentation follows.

When id Tech's lead developer announced that id Tech 7 the game engine responsible for Doom Eternal could run at 1000 FPS many assumed current hardware wouldn't be able to hit the mark. Polish hardware retailer X-kom in collaboration with Bethesda has achieved this feat with only consumer hardware and some serious liquid nitrogen overclocking. The challenge was part of the QuakeCon at Home event and saw X-kom push the Intel Core i7 9700K to 6.6 GHz paired with an ASUS RTX 2080Ti Strix overclocked to 2.4 GHz. The motherboard used was the ASUS Maximus XI APEX which was powered by a 1200 W Be Quiet Straight Power supply.

Bethesda over the weekend posted a teaser to the very first expansion of DOOM Eternal, one of 2020's brighter spots. Titled "The Ancient Gods, Part One," (which indicates more parts); the DLC is an expansion of the original's campaign, and appears to pick off from it. Urdak (a dimension that's compared to Heaven) is in tatters and swarming with demons following the events of "Eternal," and Doomguy is resurrected by Father (creator of the universe) to clean it up. The teaser features a monologue by Father that sounds an awful lot like Vega. "Am I the Father?" were its last words as it was consumed by Urdak's computers. The 30-second teaser shows us an Urdak-like locale, demons with a new blue buff, possibly as they're resurrected by the summoner (which makes a comeback from DOOM (2016)). We also see a new more formidable makyr heavy enemy than the walking piñatas from "Eternal." Beth will post an extended trailer on August 27, at Opening Night Live of Gamescom 2020.The teaser follows.

Today, noblechairs are excited to launch the official noblechairs HERO Gaming Chair - DOOM Edition! The "DOOM Edition" will be available to purchase through many retailers worldwide. noblechairs recently announced their partnership with games publisher, Bethesda Softworks, and have already released an officially licensed Fallout Edition gaming chair.

The DOOM Edition by noblechairs has been designed to take distinctive elements from the game - making it a must have for enthusiasts and fans of the DOOM franchise. The chair comes with an all black base, blood-red accents and an exceptional design throughout. It features multiple rune markings, including the iconic glyph on the front of the chair, the mark of the DOOM Slayer.

Hot on the heels of a June story of a 11th Gen Core "Tiger Lake" processor's Gen12 Xe iGPU playing "Battlefield V" by itself (without a graphics card), Tech Epiphany bring us an equally delicious video of an AMD Ryzen 7 4700G desktop processor's Radeon Vega 8 iGPU running "Doom Eternal" by itself. id Software's latest entry to the iconic franchise is well optimized for the PC platform to begin with, but it's impressive to see the Vega 8 munch through this game at 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels) no resolution scaling, with mostly "High" details. The game is shown running at frame-rates ranging between 42 to 47 FPS, with over 37 FPS in close-quarters combat (where the enemy models are rendered with more detail).

With 70% resolution scale, frame rates are shown climbing 50 FPS. At this point, when the detail preset is lowered to "Medium," the game inches close to the 60 FPS magic figure, swinging between 55 to 65 FPS. The game is also shown utilizing all 16 logical processors of this 8-core/16-thread processor. Despite just 8 "Vega" compute units, amounting to 512 stream processors, the iGPU in the 4700G has freedom to dial up engine clocks (GPU clocks) all the way up to 2.10 GHz, which helps it overcome much of the performance deficit compared to the Vega 11 solution found with the previous generation "Picasso" silicon. Watch the Tech Epiphany video presentation in the source link below.

id Software's Marty Stratton clarified the issues introduced in Doom Eternal following its Update 1. Via a Reddit post, the developer informed its audience that Denuvo's introduction into the game with Update 1 (a move that sparked a review-bomb on Steam and a quick backpedaling from the company regarding its inclusion) said that the anti-cheat software actually wasn't responsible for the reported issues.

The developer said that the actual performance issues introduced with Update 1 lie in changes in the graphics memory handling code, as well as some bugs introduced alongside customizable skins. The developer also went on to say that the decision to include Denuvo post-release wasn't one forced by publisher Bethesda, but an entirely in-house one, and that the subsequent decision to remove the protection has nothing to do with Denuvo's software quality. Of course, the addition of an always-on DRM solution to Doom Eternal as a post-release patch still stands, as users that previously acquired the game did so without knowledge of its eventual addition. Look after the break for a complete transcript on the comment.

Someone at Bethesda or id Software thought it was a good idea to retrofit "Doom Eternal" with the vastly unpopular Denuvo DRM as an anti-cheat component, two months following its March launch, as part of "Update 1" (a major game patch). This invited the wrath of gamers as they review-bombed the game on Steam. The game's executive producer Marty Stratton took to Reddit, to announce that Denuvo will be removed in the game's next update (without announcing a timeline), while defending it. Stratton maintains that the performance issues noticed in Update 1 are not related to the Denuvo implementation. If you've read our comprehensive review of Denuvo, where we go into the technical aspects of the DRM solution, you'll know that it can be implemented in a number of ways, some of which inflict performance penalties.Image Courtesy Modern Vintage Gamer

Doom Eternal has been review-bombed over the weekend, as disgruntled players took to Steam to show their thoughts on the the game's Update 1. The issue isn't in the update itself or it changing core gameplay functions; rather, it's based on the inclusion of Denuvo's Anti-cheat mechanism for the multiplayer component of the game, which is also running in the single-player campaign - considered to be the core of any Doom game.

Players are against the inclusion of Denuvo and its monitoring subroutines due to it having a a kernel-level service that monitors gameplay. Gamers are noting performance decreases, framerate drops, crashes, and deleted Saves after the game's latest update. Others are voicing their discontent at the fact that Denuvo has been added post-purchase of the game; players that might not choose to buy the game over that detail have already bought it, and refunds are apparently not being entertained. Doom Eternal's previous 90% user review score on Steam now stand at a measly 50%, which is absolutely undeserving of the game itself. Doom may be Eternal, but its community feedback sure isn't.

NVIDIA today released GeForce software version 445.87 WHQL. The drivers come game-ready for "Minecraft with RTX" beta. Optimization is also added for "Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2: Campaign Remastered," "Saints Row: The Third Remastered," and "SnowRunner." Among the issues fixed are a BSOD noticed with "Rise of the Tomb Raider" in DirectX 12 mode, a black flickering in "Doom Eternal," some DirectX 11 games failing to launch with Image Sharpening being enabled, and a graphical corruption when waking up a notebook display from sleep. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 445.87 Game Ready DriversThe change-log follows.

AMD released the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition drivers just in time for Asia and ANZ regions to begin "razing hell" with DOOM Eternal. Version 20.3.1 adds day-one optimization for DOOM Eternal, including an up to 5 percent performance improvement with "Ultra Nightmare" graphics settings. Optimization is also added for "Half Life: Alyx" and the Vulkan API mode of "Ghost Recon: Breakpoint." The drivers also add a few Vulkan extensions: VK_EXT_post_depth_coverage (only supported on RDNA or later graphics architectures); VK_KHR_shader_non_semantic_info, VK_EXT_texel_buffer_alignment, and VK_EXT_pipeline_creation_cache_control. Grab the drivers from the link below and raze hell!

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.3.1 BetaThe change log follows.

NVIDIA today posted GeForce 442.74 WHQL Game Ready drivers. These come with optimization and bug fixes for the weekend's biggest release, "DOOM Eternal," which goes live in Asia and ANZ in a few minutes from now. Besides this, the 442.74 WHQL drivers address just one bug: an issue with "Red Dead Redemption 2," where task-switching with alt+Tab in the middle of the game may result in a black screen. Grab the drivers from the link below and start slaying!

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 442.74 WHQLThe change-log follows.

Bethesda today released the final system requirements for its upcoming massacre-fest Doom Eternal. The game, which is geared for release just 10 days from now (March 20th), promises to be one of the most impressive (and fluid) games in recent times, if the original, modern Doom is anything to go by.

Bethesda has even gone so far so as to list preferred specs for gamers that want to play in 4K at 60 FPS or in 1440p at 120 FPS: and these are pretty abusive, with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti being required - likely because of its gargantuan 11 GB VRAM. AMD's Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel's Core i9-9900K are the requirements here, alongside 16 GB of system RAM. Check after the break for a breakdown on recommended specs for other resolutions and quality settings, and for Bethesda's trailer showing off customization options for your DOOM slayer. Do you have what it takes to run the game?

In heartbreaking news to slayers prepping for the hotly anticipated addition to the franchise, DOOM Eternal, id Software announced that the game's release has been delayed to the 20th of March, 2020, from its earlier 22nd November 2019 release. In its announcement, id Software put quality-assurance as the main reason behind the delay. The developer assured gamers that the game will be worth the additional 5 months of wait. id also announced a few updates, namely Invasion Mode, a gameplay mode that allows you to "invade" another player's game as a playable demon, a Nintendo Switch version that follows the other platforms, and the availability of DOOM 64 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

The next chapter in the smash-hit reboot of the genre-defining FPS, "DOOM Eternal," is releasing on November 22nd, 2019. Everybody's favorite run-and-gun monster-slaughter simulator will be released on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. It will also come to Google Stadia as a streamed game, just a week following the platform's launch. The premise of this game is simple, Hell has come to the Earth, and brought the Doom Slayer with it. "Eternal" also includes new multiplayer game modes, including "battlemode," where two player-controlled demons face a fully-loaded Doom Slayer. The game is up for pre-order on Steam, if you're already sold on the game by watching its E3 2019 trailer."DOOM Eternal" story trailer follows.

Bethesda had concerned a few people last year when they had announced most of their new games would be available on the PC platform only via their own store and launcher, at least initially. People were quick to speculate whether this was Bethesda wanting a bigger share of the pie than Steam would allow, which is hilarious in hindsight with everything Epic Game Store related since then, and also whether this was because they were worried that Fallout 76, the first of these games affected by said decision, would have generate refunds galore on Steam as a result of bugs, bugs, and more bugs. Today Bethesda took to social media to make good on their promise, saying that all their upcoming games will be simultaneously available on both Steam and the Bethesda Store, including Rage 2, Doom Eternal, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, and Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot.

Interestingly, it will still be a while before Fallout 76 will make its way on Steam, which does not help its cause as far as far as having a depreciating player base goes. The move in general also plays into the larger dynamics of PC game stores, with game exclusives suddenly becoming a valid point of consideration as the competition from Epic Games heats up. It is also interesting to see how few complaints there are online of how these games are not available on, say, the Epic Games Store, or Discord, or GoG, and points further to the loyalty-factor of the populace complaining about exclusives on PC game stores in 2019.

We knew this was coming, especially after Google's teaser from earlier this month. Project Stream was a proof-of-concept in collaboration with Ubisoft, to see whether AAA gaming was possible over the internet. Things were smooth most of the time in our own experience, but there remained questions over how the concept would translate over to a finished product, especially with infrastructure challenges on the client side of things. Google's keynote at GDC just wrapped up, and the main focus was Stadia- the now named cloud gaming service borne out of Project Stream.

Stadia is built with instant access in mind. An example demo came in the form of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which was used in the public test before. It is integrated with partner YouTube channels such that a trailer for a supported game would have an option to play said game, which would then launch immediately. Stadia is built with support from a wide partner network including AMD, Unity, id Software, and more, with details seen past the break.

Developed by id Software, DOOM Eternal is the direct sequel to the award-winning and best-selling DOOM (2016). Experience the ultimate combination of speed and power as you rip-and-tear your way across dimensions with the next leap in push-forward, first-person combat. Powered by idTech 7 and set to an all-new pulse-pounding soundtrack composed by Mick Gordon, DOOM Eternal puts you in control of the unstoppable DOOM Slayer as you blow apart new and classic demons with powerful weapons in unbelievable and never-before-seen worlds.