QubaXR

Back in 2007 I built myself a gaming PC with two brand new GTX 8800 cards (SLI, baby!) and nearly cooked/choked them to death in first week of operation. What I learned back then was that nVidia drivers did not create a proper fan curve that would ramp up with rising temperatures and that I needed a piece of 3rd party software named Afterburner to keep my system cooled.

It's been nearly 20 years and probably a dozen different graphic card models since then. I have just finished installing a render box for my wife with a 3090 in it. Installed the drivers. Installed the Afterburner. Tuned it.

Then it dawned on me: Is this still a necessary step? What would happen if I did not install Afterburner? Don't nVidia drivers control the fans properly?

Logic dictates it would be crazy for the official drivers not to keep the card cool, but I've been doing it one way for so long that I am too afraid to experiment (risking hardware damage?).

When you're afraid to let evidence lead you, next best thing is surely asking strangers on the internet - so here it goes: Is MSI Afterburner necessary? What would happen if I don't install it? Do YOU have it installed?

Some of the reviews of this game mention a major story line...

would you say it makes sense to play Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth not having completed all the mainline Yakuza games?

For context - Yakuza: Like a Dragon was my first game in the series. Like many, I've fallen in love with the madness, the cheese, the comedy and the world of the series and started playing the Kiryu saga of Yakuza 0 - 6. I am currently on number 3, and wondering if it makes more sense to soldier on, play through all originals before picking the latest entry, or to just jump in and enjoy the new title.

In other words: How much do you recon would Infinite Wealth spoil the original series, or how much would not playing original series spoil my enjoyment of Infinite?

Really curious about people's thoughts.

A week ago or so I posted a tan colored cutie that popped up in my garden. Wasn't quite sure of what it was. I think now it's pretty clear - and also has 5 friends all within few feet of each other.

Activision Blizzard is not a good company. They have an abysmal track record for how they treat their employees, history of misogyny and abuse. Since the departure of Blizzard's founding members, the quality of many of their games took a noise dive.

They got one thing very right though, and that's account-level, platform independent save system in Diablo 4.

Being able to seamlessly switch between my PC, PS5 and Steam Deck is probably the coolest thing I experienced in gaming in a very long time. While it would be awesome not to have to buy the titles individually on each platform, it's a huge step in the right direction.

I can only wish more games supported cross-platform saves, because now that I'm used to it, I can really feel the absence of this feature in other titles.

(It would also help a lot with games preservation, if you could easily use old save files on newer platforms and remasters - as long as it's not all server-bound)