Topic: PC Gaming

@Link-Hero
That’s what I figured. My sisters each have one and they don’t seem anywhere worth the price.

Is it a bad idea to by a used or refurbished laptop. I’m thinking the Acer Nitro 5 might be the way to go, but it is a bit out of my price range if I buy a new one.

Also any suggestions for laptops are welcome, with a price range of 400$ - 600$.

@blindsquarel it's a pretty good gamble with both. But it is an option.

Lenovo Gaming Laptop IdeaPad 3i is the only other one I can think of but that might even be a bit out of the question.

@Owl1
I’ll add the Lenovo to the list. Would it be able to run Minecraft with good shaders? That’s probably the most graphics intensive I would go on it.

@blindsquarel Hopefully this video can go some way to helping you make a final decision. It's a pretty all encompassing look at the things to look out for, as well as the potential pitfalls people fall into when buying a new gaming laptop.

Jarrod's Tech has been around for some time now, with his specialism being gaming laptops. He's good friends with Hardware Unboxed, another channel I highly recommend for all things desktop and has built up quite a following, so a pretty reliable source, all things considered.

@blindsquarel just watch that video @Jalex__64 sent.

@Jalex__64 @Owl1
Alright, thanks for the help!

Looks like it finally happened. There is now a GPU on the market that is (almost) twice as fast as my 1660Ti at a price that's (more or less) the same as what I paid for my 1660Ti pre-COVID. And without the massive * on that statement like there was with the Arc GPUs. RX 7600, not bad. Although it is, unfortunately, only able to do that by consuming almost twice as much power. Which is a bit of a pain given I would be putting this in a SFF case with a 550W PSU. It would probably be fine but still, probably not enough for me to upgrade yet I don't think....

Now there is the 4060Ti which has power consumption sitting at around the same as my 1660Ti with the ability to perform a fair chunk more than 2X. Also with DLSS being substantially better than what the competition is doing. Different story there. Despite the whine about it, as a product? The 4060Ti looks pretty good. But only if you ignore the price and, well, the 4060Ti is still living in COVID era land and is absurdly overpriced. The RX 7600 is ~$460AU, the 4060Ti is ~$730AU.... absolutely ridiculous....

I usually go with around a 5 year upgrade cycle so, we're not that far off that now. But in some ways we're still a ways off that. The market is certainly looking nicer than it did a year or so ago but even so, it should be looking more compelling than this 4 years into my "5 year upgrade cycle"

Anyone here hyped about D4 Launch in 10 hours ?

After weeks of contemplating getting a Steam Deck, I got to try out my friend's for a bit this weekend.

And...I'm entirely put off by the form factor. It's not necessarily that it's too big overall (I was surprised by how light it felt, tbh), but moreso the ergonomics. Analog sticks are way too far in (and even too large for a handheld device, I'd argue). I can see this not been too bad for someone with larger hands, but it's definitely not for me. I also personally have no use for the touch pads, so they're a massive waste of space in my eyes.

My eye's on the ROG Ally but tbh I'm a little put off by it essentially running vanilla Windows. One of the things that impressed me the most about the Steam Deck was how well Steam OS captured the console experience. At £700 it'd also way too much money for something that (i) is only gonna be an alternative to my existing gaming laptop, and (ii) will probably only get a fraction of the action my Switch is getting anyway.

I honestly don't know what the internals of these things look like, but I think it's a shame that they're missing out on one of the Switch's coolest features: the modularity. I would love to have a Steam Deck-like tablet device that I could plug my joy-cons (or similar equivalents) into.

100% agree.

I am looking forward to The Talos Principle 2 to be honest. Love an intellectual challenge from time to time. Road to Gehenna fried my brain a tiny bit.

If anyone was interested in civ6 on PC. They have a mushroom kingdom mod that features peach, bowser and daisy as leaders. Each is a civ with unique characteristics. Thought it was worth a mention. My wife fell instantly in love with the mod.

Buy the non-remastered version from GOG.

I decided and pulled the trigger on the Steam Deck! It will be arriving around my birthday. What a nice excuse to order it

I can't wait to play my childhood (some really niche) PC games on it!

@Link-Hero Thank you for the info. I will be tinkering with the device a lot!

I will be installing the GOG Launcher for sure!

I will be testing stuff with the Proton Experimental stuff.

Of course, it is 100% digital! It is a PC after all and on PC I am 100% digital, there is no other way I am 100% physical on consoles only.

I know about verified etc. That does not bother me at all as I will be playing verified games and those that are played with a mouse only like Heroes of Might and Magic Series and point and click adventures

Other titles are Clive Barker's Undying, Pharaoh + Cleopatra, Zeus and Poseidon, Might and Magic series. Some really cool stuff!

After all people are playing World of WarCraft, StarCraft on it and they are totally playable. I mean how cool is that?

And just one day after they shipped my Steam Deck they have a 10% off the 64GB version

Luckily, they refunded me the 10% of the price in my Steam wallet after contacting them

The only games I own there are ALL of Half-Life games and Rising Kingdoms.

@Zuljaras I am very close to taking the plunge on SD myself.

I purposefully held fire, waiting to see if Switch2 would be announced in this week's direct.... but it is clear now that Nintendo will likely not make any firm confirmation until Christmas/holiday period passes.

I travel for work 80% of time, so PS5/XBS aren't really an option.... but I am desperate to play Baldurs Gate and also Armored Core 6 (both seem to be deck verified, and performance acceptable)

Debating what model to get though. I am very anti-tinkering and want the whole SD process to be as close to 'plug and play' as possible. As you purchased the 64GB, I assume you'll stick in a SD Card to ensure you have sufficient storage space etc?

@CJD87 Keep in mind that the 64GB is 10% off until 21st but the 256GB is 15% off and the 512GB is 20% off!

As for me I will be getting an SD card no more than 256GB as I will use it to play my favorite older PC games AND for emulation mainly the PS2 for Castlevania Curse of Darkness and Castlevania Lament of Innocence

The biggest things I can see myself put on the deck are probably Fallout 4, Elden Ring, DS2 and DS3. But that is far into the future!

The secret use of the Deck for me will be for some unpopular gaming experiences like StarCraft, WarCraft and GOG games