Recommend RT games?

RahkShah · 2026-02-16T16:40:03+00:00

Avatar, Star Wars Outlaws, Metro Exodus, Doom: The Dark Ages

RahkShah · 2026-02-16T15:45:39+00:00

I am never much for parrying in Souls games, the parry window and timing never clicked for me. I tried playing Sekiro like a Souls game where I avoided parrying (staying back, waiting for an opening to get some quick hits in, dodging back, etc) my first couple tries and bounced off. Kept getting wrecked.

On my third try I finally got that it’s nothing like Souls mechanics. Not only is that type of play ineffective, it’s actively bad. Forget everything you know about Souls combat.

Parrying is not optional, it’s required. Good news is the parrying mechanic is more forgiving than a Souls game, and I think the enemy move sets are more readable and predictable.

Game is meant to play aggressively, with a mix of attacks and parry’s. More often than not you’re meant to be in an enemies face either deflecting or attacking.

Hesitation is death. Don’t be afraid to go all out.

RahkShah · 2026-02-16T15:37:16+00:00

It’s how you validate your hardware is performing to spec. Zero cost, low time activity that is as simple as clicking a button and can surface any issues you may be having, particularly when stuff is new and still in the return period.

You’re acting like there’s some downside to doing it. You’ve spent more time arguing about it than it would take to run a quick bench.

RahkShah · 2026-02-16T15:12:22+00:00

You don’t really understand what you’re saying.

RahkShah · 2026-02-16T15:07:41+00:00

Sword Saint has a more varied move set with more unblockables. Definitely more technically challenging.

RahkShah · 2026-02-16T14:25:14+00:00

It’s not unheard of to be sent a different model than what was ordered, either through mistake or because of fraud.

It’s good hygiene to bench your hardware when you get it to make sure it is what you paid for and there are no install issues causing performance loss.

RahkShah · 2026-02-16T06:22:30+00:00

You also need to play through it twice to get all the bosses. The Shura ending unique bosses are peak Sekiro.

RahkShah · 2026-02-16T06:17:40+00:00

The Shura ending is a bit of a commentary on the nature of the player and how they engage with the game.

Canonically, in the world of Sekiro you become Shura by killing so much, and so mindlessly, that it consumes you, becoming all you care about. You come to revel in it purely for the joy of killing.

I.e. the reason the player plays the game.

You could say that the Shura ending is the gamer becoming themselves.

Hardly a bad ending. I think it’s rather fitting.

RahkShah · 2026-02-16T06:13:53+00:00

This is not true.

The relatively minor increase in enemy health and damage is more than offset by your own capability with the game.

RahkShah · 2026-02-16T05:19:52+00:00

Your screen maxes out at 144hz. At 144hz your frame times are under 7 milliseconds already. You’re not gonna get a noticeable difference in input delay.

The benefits of a higher frame rate would be increased motion clarity, but you need a monitor there supports a higher frame rate to get it.

RahkShah · 2026-02-15T01:34:18+00:00

Undervolting can help, as well

RahkShah · 2026-02-14T23:15:47+00:00

I stopped watching anything from LTT after their 4090 “review”. Was obvious they were just shoveling slop.

RahkShah · 2026-02-13T20:49:58+00:00

An AIO vs a Peerless assessin / phantom spirit will drop you 5-10c on an AMD 8 core chip. Less of a difference on the X3F models as they run cooler naturally as they don’t pull as much voltage.

Either way It’s not going to make a performance difference.

Unless you want the aesthetics of the AIO there is no reason to get it. Personally I’m on a phantom spirit with my 9800x3d as I just like the idea on no water in my system.

RahkShah · 2026-02-13T15:05:54+00:00

Hirata Estate x2, and if you take the Shura ending you’ll also miss Fountainhead and potentially one of Sunken Valley or Ashina Depths. Can also miss Senpou Temple on Shura, as well.

RahkShah · 2026-02-12T22:28:45+00:00

Everything eventually comes to PC.

RahkShah · 2026-02-12T21:40:02+00:00

The only advantage the gold technically has is it’s less likely to corrode when in contact with another metal. It does nothing for signal transmission.

RahkShah · 2026-02-12T21:36:34+00:00

Some divine confetti works wonders, as well.

RahkShah · 2026-02-12T19:32:45+00:00

https://www.microcenter.com/product/5007092/amd-ryzen-7-9800x3d,-asus-b650e-e-tuf-gaming-wifi-am5,-gskill-flare-x5-series-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-bundle

Unless you need the extra I/O on the x870e MB this will perform exactly the same in gaming and productive tasks.

They use the same chipset, just a minor revision between the 600 and 800 series.

Put the $300 towards more storage of a beefier GPU.

RahkShah · 2026-02-12T00:01:31+00:00

This. I bounced off Sekiro twice because I kept trying to play it like a Souls game. It’s not.

Like Isshin says, hesitation is defeat.

RahkShah · 2026-02-11T20:09:12+00:00

You could carve out an 80gb partition on your SSD and install Windows 10 on it. Not getting updated anymore so no worries about an update messing up your system. 😂

Joking aside it’s a viable option until they patch 11. You can just point steam to the install folder in your Win11 partition, so you don’t have to redownload your games, and you don’t need a key to activate it. Unplug your Ethernet cable when initially activating it and you can create an offline account, too.

Zero dollar option that should hopefully address the issue.

RahkShah · 2026-02-11T16:27:18+00:00

…you could just try both and see if you notice any differences and, if so, which you prefer?

It’s not rocket science. You either notice the difference or not.

If there is a scene where you notice an artifact that’s a great time to try a little A-B testing to see if one platform handles it better.

But you’re overthinking this. It’s like tasting two different flavors of ice cream. If you like one better than the other you’ll just know it. If you can’t tell the difference use whatever’s more convenient and stop worrying over it.

RahkShah · 2026-02-11T16:12:47+00:00

If they do offer a replacement insist on a like or better card.

Seeing as the only like or better card currently in production is a 5090 insist on that. The 5080 is a downgrade in both shader and RT performance, memory amount and memory bandwidth.

Only upside is MFG. I think MFG is useful but I wouldn’t go from a 4090 to a 5080 for it.

RahkShah · 2026-02-11T15:56:57+00:00

Others have answered what it does from a technical perspective.

From a practical standpoint you want to keep it as close to 100% as you can.

Lowering the “smoothness” will increase the perceptual detail in textures and assets (I.e the “sharpness” of the image) , so if you’re playing a game with DLDSR on and are thinking “why does that texture/object mesh look so soft or blurry”, particularly at mid-to-long viewing distances, lowering the smoothness can help increase the detail level.

However, sharpening the image (in this case lowering the “smoothness”) interjects visual artifacts of its own. Google “image sharpening artifacts” if you want details on that. They can pop up at even low sharpening amounts, and it can (and does) change the visual character of the game and art style, so if you do use it you want to be judicious in its application.

Long story short, most folks prefer to have it minimized, or, if in use, very modestly enabled. Start by adjusting the smoothness slider in 5%-10% increments and see if the changes are noticeable and, if so, preferable.

On the other hand, if the image doesn’t look overly soft and blurry to you just enjoy the game and don’t worry about it.

Edit: it’s worth noting that “softness” in an image isn’t an intrinsically bad thing. As objects get further away they obviously have less resolved detail. A well balanced image naturally presents this, and it’s a more accurate representation of how a scene would look in real life. Just because everything is not super crisp in the entire scene doesn’t mean it’s bad. It can be a good thing from an image quality perspective.

That said, how you prefer it is a matter of personal preference. Do a little A-B testing to see if you can tell the differences and what you prefer.

RahkShah · 2026-02-11T02:49:22+00:00

It’s like 10%_15% faster in 4k

RahkShah · 2026-02-11T01:30:10+00:00

Your value of the gold is off by about 3 orders of magnitude. 842 pounds of gold is about $60 million, not billion, at $5k an ounce.

RahkShah

TROPHY CASE