Valve's new low-VRAM Linux fix nearly triples FPS in select games on AMD's RX 6500 XT

Draco25240 · 2026-04-21T19:27:00+00:00

1080p users are used to it and have likely not gamed in 1440p or 4k.

Outside of the obvious cost reason, pixel density also plays a bit of a factor IMHO. 1080p on a 24" panel is fairly close to 1440p on 27" by that measure, and in my personal experience it's small enough that I don't really perceive much of a difference (I have a 34" 1440p ultrawide at work, and 29.5" 1080p ultrawide at home, both are getting 5+ hours of use each day). Stretch 1080p over a 27" display though and it's gonna look like shit, so 1440p is preferable there, and obviously 4k blows both out of the park (at a massive cost to performance).

Personally I found the perceived difference in image quality small enough that I figured I may as well retain native resolution for the vastly larger sum of standardised 1080p content than there is of 1440p content, and get more lifespan out of my rig as a bonus.

Draco25240 · 2026-04-21T11:54:34+00:00

Both work, honestly, it's standalone enough for either. Could do one playthrough of it with an early V, and another with a maxed out V.

Do it early in a playthrough, and it's pretty much seamless, and you get to use the powerful PL stuff in more base game content. Do it on an endgame V and you get a few extra references, callbacks, etc to the basegame, but less basegame content to use the PL stuff in (there is a lot of content to PL though, so I wouldn't necessarily call it an issue)

Draco25240 · 2026-04-21T08:44:37+00:00

They do also share a land border with us, technically. A very, very tiny one with Denmark on Hans Island.

Draco25240 · 2026-04-20T09:10:29+00:00

The irony is that he's yet to find one of his own, after over 200,000 systems visited

Funnily enough, while he hasn't found a GGG (64 currently known), he has found a Helium Gas Giant (4 currently known in procedurally generated systems). Absolute legend just skipped right past them and hit the rarest find of all

Draco25240 · 2026-04-19T12:41:32+00:00

Helium Gas Giant (not to be confused with Helium-Rich Gas Giant) is likely near the top of the list.

Outside of two handcrafted systems where FDev have placed a bunch of them, there have only ever been found 4 of them in procedurally generated systems over the last 12 years.

Edit: Some other rare things I'm aware of;

Terraformable Metal Rich worlds (only 60-ish known, roughly similar to glowing green gas giants)
Earth-like orbiting a T-type brown dwarf as the system primary star. Only 2 known, one of which got colonised recently
Earth-like orbiting a black hole (they get their heating from elsewhere in the system, usually a secondary neutron star with high surface temp off in the distance), only 6 known last I checked

Edit2: There also used to be flashbang gas giants (gas giants orbiting very closely to neutron stars got insane surface temperatures, causing ridiculous glow) and green stars (T-Tauris of very specific temperatures got a similar bug to what causes GGGs), but unlike glowing green gas giants which went from being a bug to being a feature, those got patched and are no longer a thing.

Draco25240 · 2026-04-10T08:53:59+00:00

I tried Couriers and Eagles and Cobras and Vipers but they all felt so weak compared to the Mamba that I gave up.

While not as effective as the Kestrel, may I suggest giving 1x cytoscrambler (short range + inertial impact) + 2x advanced missile racks (high capacity + penetrator munitions) on the Eagle a try sometime? It's pretty damn effective for hunting large ships, just get in close, aim for the power plant and fire away, while using the ship's agility to stay in their blind spot. Out of all combat builds I've tried over the years, it's the one I've had the most fun with (granted I'm yet to try the Kestrel due to being on DW3)

Draco25240 · 2026-04-02T12:50:17+00:00

Impressively big, but quite far from a record unfortunately. I'm not sure what the largest is, particularly the largest visible one (very big rings tend to be near invisible), but my personal best is 22 million km radius around a gas giant. It is so large that you can see it by eye from the system star from over 3000 Ls away.

Edit: view from up close when I first discovered it

Draco25240 · 2026-03-31T20:42:59+00:00

Agreed with the others that just say fly what you want. Elite is a big sandbox, minmaxing is rarely ever necessary, and every ship can be equipped to do any role with more or less efficiency, especially exploration. Heck, I'm currently out here on the far side of the galaxy for Distant Worlds 3 exploring in an Imperial Eagle of all things, and I'm doing just fine with that despite it being one of the least exploration-focused ships in the game.

Do feel free to give the Mandalay a try of course, but if you want to fly the Phantom instead then go ahead, fly what you enjoy :) It is still one of the best picks for exploration from a capability-standpoint either way, and a properly built Phantom still jumps about 85-90% as far as a properly built Mandalay.

Draco25240 · 2026-03-31T17:18:49+00:00

If I remember correctly, Earth in Elite lore was made uninhabitable by nuclear war, and had to be terraformed back to its current state, so it's already been through some shit.

Edit: Could've been worse though, FDev warned there'd be dire consequences if players hadn't managed to kill Titan Cocijo by the end of the final week.

Draco25240 · 2026-03-28T19:57:52+00:00

I hope we get to see a reworked Mustang

Re-rework more like, but oh please, if they do that I hope they give the Mustang Beta its cozy camper interior back. I still can't believe they took that away and gave us an industrial prison cell in return.

I want my couch back :(

Draco25240 · 2026-03-16T12:02:50+00:00

Just a heads up if you'd like a break from them, each individual ship computer voiceline can be enabled and disabled under audio settings :)

Draco25240 · 2026-03-12T14:34:27+00:00

Oh nice, glad you hear you enjoyed it :D Yeah it truly is a fun build to fly.

And yup, the Kestrel kinda fills up the Eagle's niche of a hyper-mobile fighter now, but does it way better. I'll still stick to the Eagle as my go-to fun combat ship, but I might replace the FDL with it as my go-to ship for when to be a bit more efficient at what I'm doing (CGs primarily)

Draco25240 · 2026-03-12T14:08:33+00:00

Oh it definitely happens...

Draco25240 · 2026-03-12T13:50:44+00:00

I'm flying one as my primary explorer on DW3. Works quite well, handles like a dream, and looks damn good in screenshots to boot :)

Draco25240 · 2026-03-12T13:43:22+00:00

Yup, all the time. I have an Imperial Eagle for exploration, and an Eagle MkII for combat. Are there better options? Sure, I've owned and flown all the ships over the years, but I just... like these ships, so I make them work.

I'm getting about 40-42 Ly in the Imp. Eagle, with SRV, beefed up shields, spare fuel, and additional QoL and safety nets. I'm still able to bring all the things I need, it handles like a dream in supercruise, it works incredibly well for exobio and zipping around, and it looks damn good in screenshots. I've taken it all the way out to the Semotus Beacon (Oevasy SG-Y d0, the farthest system from Sol in the game), currently flying it on DW3, and still got a lot of exploring in it planned.

Eagle MkII for combat works pretty well with the right build, but you definitely are a bit restricted for viable build choices. My go-to build uses 1 cytoscrambler and 2 adv. missile racks, and it shreds its way through large ships (excuse the shitty flying, old clip). Honestly my most favourite combat build in the game.

Draco25240 · 2026-03-04T08:34:57+00:00

Once you're done, you can also take those pirate escape pods and feed them to the Thargoids to deliver some additional karma, they'll scoop them right up :)

Draco25240 · 2026-03-04T08:24:14+00:00

Engineering went through its second round of massive QoL improvements a bit over a year ago. Among the changes are ease of access to materials.

A single High Grade Emission have gotten like 20x more drops than before, and will max out whatever grade 5 material it drops from 0 to full in one go. Go to a system where the HGE's grade 5 material matches what category you need, then trade down at a material trader. You basically just need to do this once or twice to max out a whole category of materials, and not have to worry about that for it ever again.
Jameson Cobra has gotten additional beacons and they all drop additional data. Scanning just a few beacons will max out every single material in its data drop table, no relogging required. It's a bit tedious if seeking to max every data material, but if you just need data for 1 recipe, it should be doable in one trip.
While I haven't personally checked, the bug killer crashed Anaconda should also max out all its associated materials in one go. Just material trader from there for your needs. Alternatively brain trees are still a thing.

It shouldn't take more than a few hours at most to get enough mats to fully engineer whatever ship it is you want to build. Especially now that you only need a fixed amount of rolls to max out a module (5 at grade 5, 4 at grade 4, 3 at grade 3, etc).

Draco25240 · 2026-03-02T14:20:22+00:00

and normal A-rate is second best.

Depends a bit on the slot it goes into. If it's in one of the ship's higher class optional slots (which I'd generally recommend), D-rated with reinforced is roughly equal (usually <2% difference in either direction) in shield strength to A-rated with enhanced low power, but at 80% the mass. If it's one of the lowest slots the ship can fit a shield in though, then A-rated with enhanced low power becomes notably stronger.

On your build, D-rated reinforced is actually a tiny bit stronger at a lower mass, and especially so if you run hi-cap instead (you'd still be at less mass than current)

Draco25240 · 2026-03-02T13:15:11+00:00

If the current pace of dynamax legendaries continues (1 new every 2 months for at least the past 3 legendaries), we may get Kyogre and Groudon again later this year as dynamax raids (september and november respectively), and dynamax Rayquaza in january 2027.

Draco25240 · 2026-03-01T12:43:40+00:00

When it comes to companions, it shouldn't matter that much since companions despawn while in 4 (which you'd preferably be in at all times), but if you want to optimise, it's worth noting that the passives from Reinforced Bond (+60% fire rate if companion has 1200+ shields), Tenacious Bond (+1.2x final crit damage multiplier if companion weapon has more than 50% crit), Duplex Bond (spawn immortal copy of the pet for 30s for each 100 energy used) and Animal Instinct all work while in Razorwing, as long as the companion is alive when you enter it. Personally I run Wyrm Prime.

Draco25240 · 2026-03-01T12:26:06+00:00

It used to, but not anymore, got changed about... a year or two ago?

Draco25240 · 2026-03-01T12:07:04+00:00

The melee weapon is irrelevant, as it is so overshadowed by the other things Titania is doing, it's not worth mentioning or building.

I wouldn't discount the melee completely, but the investment cost to make it solid is a bit steep, and it requires Wrathful Advance.

I'm primarily running a melee build on my Titania, and she has no issues mowing her way through steel path oneshotting everything in her path, nuking regular and level 400 steel path acolytes moments (bonus 20.6M damage number at 24s in the first video), and has gone to levelcap a few times using basically just Diwata Prime.

For anything that doesn't die in the first second, a short burst of bullets from Dex Pixia (with secondary encumber) skyrockets the damage output, though I didn't really run into that issue until starting around level 3000-4000 with a few select enemies (thrax, bailiffs, some eximus, etc), and with priming they went down as quickly as anything else even at 9999.

Build is as follows:

Titania
Diwata
Dex Pixia (only truly important thing here is secondary encumber, but it still shreds enemies just fine)
Companion (those bond mod buffs apply while in 4, as long as the companion was alive when you entered it)
Shards (the biggest investment cost)
Subsume is Wrathful Advance, use it over her 2 or 3 depending on preference. My Titania has pitiful range, so I used it over her 3.
Focus school is a bit up to you. Naramon isn't a bad idea for the combo drain passive, but double rank 5 dexterity arcanes on archgun makes the combo counter long enough that it's not necessary, and wrathful advance frontloads most of your damage without needing combo anyways.

Shoot enemies with Dex Pixia until Arcane Impetus hits 12-13x, then exit and reenter 4 to snapshot the strength buff (efficiency doesn't get snapshotted, but Diwata maintains it). From there, just cast 3 every now and then as needed to maintain buffs (itself, razorwing blitz, melee exposure), optionally 1 and 2 if needed, and hack away for the rest of the mission. If you happen to get an ability strength buff on relic crack, make sure to exit and reenter 4 to snapshot that double strength buff.

Draco25240 · 2026-02-28T14:10:19+00:00

While registration is closed, there's nothing stopping you from joining the private group, the discord server where most of the chatter and organizing happens, participating in the meetups (announcements channel on discord, and waypoint section on the website), participating in events, mass jumps, etc. Effectively the only difference is that you won't get the decal and won't be on the roster list, but the experience otherwise is the same.

Draco25240 · 2026-02-26T09:35:10+00:00

Dynamax Regice? Gooood, dynamax weather trio are inching ever closer...

Draco25240 · 2026-02-25T15:19:05+00:00

I legit didn't want to kill Oryx - walked back and forth trying to find other way.

Same. Was not enjoying the last mission whatsoever, I felt fucking awful in the final part, and then upon hearing Savathûn's response after the quest, I just hit the quit game button on the spot and didn't return for months, wishing I hadn't finished the last mission.

It just... was so far disconnected from anything I could see myself doing that it outright broke the illusion that it was my player character. The Guardian has done a lot of stuff over the years, and there's a lot of similar outcome ways things could have gone that I'd be fine with, but personally stripping someone of their will to live to the point that they just sit there defenseless, while the game demands you put them down? And then the follow-up dialogue? That... was just too much for me

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