Thermaltake has expanded its CT EX ARGB Sync PC cooling fan series with new colour options, allowing PC enthusiasts to inject a personal touch into their builds. Dark green, pastel brown, yellow, and pink join the existing colour palette, offering new options to complement any system aesthetic.

Thermaltake's commitment to blending design and technology is evident in this expansion, providing customers with bold and unique colour options. The CT EX ARGB Sync fan series now boasts eight distinct colours: black, white, pastel green, pastel blue, dark green, pastel brown, yellow, and pink. Furthermore, the series offers 120mm and 140mm sizes in standard and reverse blade configurations, providing PC builders with all the flexibility they need to create personalised systems.

The CT EX ARGB Sync fans feature Thermaltake's newly enhanced MagForce 2.0, a magnetic connection system designed for effortless installation. This innovative design minimises cable clutter, resulting in improved cable management and a cleaner interior. Performance remains a key focus, with the CT120 EX delivering up to 68 CFM airflow and a 2.95 mm-H₂O maximum static pressure, while the CT140 EX offers up to 90.3 CFM airflow and a 3.07 mm-H₂O maximum static pressure.

Designed for chassis and radiator applications, the CT EX fans feature anti-vibration rubber pads to minimise noise. Nine addressable LEDs provide 16.8 million colours, all of which can be controlled via most motherboard lighting software. The Thermaltake CT EX ARGB Sync fans can be acquired as a single unit or in a 3-fan pack.

KitGuru says: Of all the colour options available for the CT EX ARGB Sync fans, which one do you prefer?

Earlier this week, we learned more about Microsoft's plans for an Xbox handheld. Rather than building a bespoke device itself, Microsoft is partnering up with an OEM to produce an Xbox-licensed handheld. While initially we didn't know which OEM Microsoft has teamed up with, that has now changed.

According to The Verge, Microsoft has opted to team up with ASUS for its Xbox-themed handheld. With that in mind, the device is expected to be similar to the currently available (and expensive) Asus ROG Ally. Microsoft previously revealed that it had been working with handheld makers like Lenovo and Asus to put together a version of Windows 11 more fit for gaming.

While we will see Xbox-licensed products like the upcoming Xbox handheld from Asus, Microsoft is still expected to be working on its own custom handheld in-house. Whether or not that product sees the light of day remains to be seen. Microsoft has cancelled multiple Xbox hardware projects in recent years, including the Xbox Keystone, a streaming device intended to turn any TV into an Xbox, with full access to Game Pass via Cloud Gaming.

Aside from upcoming handhelds, Microsoft is also currently working on its next-gen home console. The next Xbox is expected to arrive in 2027 and will be more ‘PC-like' and could end up featuring a SteamOS style setup with a gaming UI set as the default boot screen, with access to an advanced desktop view hidden away in the options somewhere.

KitGuru Says: If the Asus Xbox handheld is indeed real, then I don't expect it to compete with the Steam Deck on price and at that point, I'm not sure there's much of a market left.

Prior to its delays, Assassin's Creed Shadows wasn't going to be available on Steam at launch and the game was not going to be verified for the Steam Deck. Fortunately, the developers have put the last few months to good use. The game is now coming to Steam on day-one and today, we also learned that the game has been submitted for Steam Deck verification. 

Previously, Ubisoft had ruled out Steam Deck verification for Assassin's Creed Shadows, as the game's minimum PC requirements were higher than what the Steam Deck offers. However, after diving into the files and tinkering around, Ubisoft has now announced that the game will support Steam Deck at launch.

As is the case with many modern AAA titles with realistic graphics, we don't expect Assassin's Creed Shadows to look particularly, and it will no doubt require FSR upscaling to achieve a playable 30FPS even with the lowest settings. FSR doesn't add much in the way of visuals when trying to upscale to 720p from sub-HD resolutions.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is launching worldwide on the 20th of March.

KitGuru Says: Are you planning on picking up Assassin's Creed Shadows later this month? 

SteelSeries has unveiled its new QcK Performance mousepad series, a line of premium mousepads designed to cater to the nuanced preferences of individual gamers. Recognising that every player's style is unique, SteelSeries has focused on providing three different surfaces, allowing users to choose the one that best matches their needs.

The QcK Performance Series departs from “one-surface-fits-all” mousepads, allowing players to choose between three distinct textures: speed, balance, and control. This granular approach allows gamers to select the ideal surface to complement their gameplay, whether prioritising rapid mouse movements, precise control, or a blend of both.

The series is built with a focus on consistency and durability. It features high-quality neoprene foam that provides a stable and reliable base for high-speed mouse movements, minimising sensor skipping. This ensures a smooth and consistent experience, which is crucial for competitive gaming.

Developed in collaboration with esports athletes, the QcK Performance Series aims to elevate gameplay by providing surfaces tailored to specific playstyles. Available in L (490×420 mm) and XL (900×400 mm) formats, all variants of the QcK Performance series have a 3.5 mm thick base for extra consistency and comfort and stitched edges to improve durability. The L models cost €44.99 while the XL costs €54.99.

KitGuru says: Which format and variant of the QcK Performance mousepad series would you go for?

Over the last couple of years, a recurring rumour has claimed that a remake of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is on the way. More has come to light on this remake in recent months, with sources claiming that the game has been completely rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5. Now, it seems that a surprise release is just around the corner. 

According to two outlets, Nate the Hate and Video Games Chronicle, the Oblivion remake will be announced within weeks and will release well before the Summer. In fact, it is claimed that the game could release as early as April, so we could be looking at a very short wait between the reveal and eventual release date.

The Oblivion remake is reportedly being developed by Virtuos, a company that has primarily taken on support studio duties for the AAA games industry. Some notable franchises Virtuos has worked on include Call of Duty, Dark Souls, Bioshock, Uncharted, Tomb Raider and more. Virtuos is also working on the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 3 remake.

With this being a remake of Oblivion in an entirely different engine, some areas of the game have seen extensive changes. According to MP1st, stamina, HUD elements and combat have all seen notable reworks, so expect something closer to Souls-like melee combat.

KitGuru Says: If gameplay has changed too much then my excitement for an Oblivion remake drastically reduces. Still, nothing has been announced yet so don't put too much stock into any early details. 

Intel has appointed Lip-Bu Tan, former Cadence CEO and Intel board member, to lead the company as it navigates increasing losses within its foundry division.

This appointment follows Pat Gelsinger's recent departure as CEO, leaving a temporary leadership void filled by co-CEOs Michelle Johnston Holthaus and David Zinsner. Tan is expected to assume his new role on March 18th.

A prominent figure in the semiconductor industry, Tan brings a wealth of experience to Intel. He founded venture capital firm Walden Capital and has served on the boards of numerous technology companies, including SMIC, Flextronics, Mindtree, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Ambarella, Schneider Electric, Inphi, Nuvia, and Softbank.

Tan's relationship with Intel is multifaceted. He served on the company's board of directors from 2022 until his resignation in 2024, shortly after Intel announced significant workforce reductions and cost-cutting measures. However, his resignation was officially attributed to personal reasons.

Tan is known for his successful leadership at Cadence Systems, where he oversaw a remarkable 3,200 percent increase in the company's share price during his decade-long tenure as CEO. Wall Street appears optimistic that he can replicate this success at Intel, as evidenced by a surge in the company's share price following the announcement. This positive reaction came after Intel's stock lost more than half its value the preceding year.

KitGuru says: Intel spent a lot of money setting up its Foundry Services business. Recent reports indicate that Intel 18A, the first Intel node to be offered to outside customers, is just around the corner. 

We analyze the RTX 5070’s specs, pricing, gaming performance, ray tracing, and power efficiency

The Highlights

• The RTX 5070 has 6144 CUDA cores, a 192-bit bus, and 12GB of GDDR7 memory along with an advertised 2.51 GHz boost frequency
• NVIDIA’s claim that the 5070 is on par with a 4090 with MFG is simply not true
• NVIDIA’s marketing here is intentionally manipulative and a misrepresentation of reality
• Original MSRP: $550
• Release Date: March 5, 2025

Table of Contents

• AutoTOC

Intro

NVIDIA is selling lies and reviewers shouldn’t be afraid to mince words. That is precisely what the RTX 5070 is. It was marketed on the back of lies considering NVIDIA stated that the card, which has 12GB of VRAM, would offer 4090, which has 24GB of VRAM, performance for $549 with the help of AI. 
Here’s an NVIDIA-compliant comparison of the RTX 5070 with MFG against the RTX 4090 without any frame generation at all.

Editor's note: This was originally published on March 4, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.

Credits

Test Lead, Host, Writing

Steve Burke

Testing

Mike Gaglione

Video Editing

Vitalii Makhnovets

Camera

Tim Phetdara

Writing, Web Editing

Jimmy Thang

These are really abusive settings, stressing both cards heavily. But NVIDIA said the 5070 would be equal to the 4090 (watch our review), and we’re not even close. The 5070’s spiky behavior is exceeding 200 ms in this like-for-like comparison except that it has MFG. The 4090 isn’t perfect, but WITHOUT any frame generation at all, it’s hitting at worst about 50-60 ms, with an average closer to 26. 

Here’s what that actually looks like. Using NVIDIA’s own FrameView tool, we also get a glimpse into another problem: Latency. The PC Latency on the 4090 was around 51 ms during a like-for-like comparison. 51 is a lot better than what we saw in the 5070 with MFG 4X after 5 minutes of being in the game. That was 500-720 ms. Now, to be fair, if you only played Cyberpunk with these settings for about 15-20 seconds at a time, things look a lot better… 

The 5070 is getting absolutely clobbered for VRAM, which is just 12GB to the 4090’s 24GB. To call these the same is an absolute, flat-out lie. These cards are not the same. In situations where the card runs out of VRAM in particular, it can never dream to be a 4090. It is simply impossible. 

Here’s a quick chart showing passes 1 through 3 of the 5070 as it gets progressively worse with each benchmark pass as the framebuffer fills. The 4090, meanwhile, maintains its performance the entire time.

NVIDIA has got to stop lying. This isn’t just marketing, this is an actual, verifiable lie. But let’s just pretend MFG 4X is somehow a fair comparison against the 4090 in a scenario that’s maybe not VRAM constrained. It’s an OK technology, but it is not a like-for-like comparison because the images themselves are not the same. When you turn it on, it’s like Clive here has 6 feet. 

NVIDIA could have launched its RTX 5070 to mediocre or lukewarm reviews. Instead, it decided to openly lie on stage and manipulate its performance numbers to mislead consumers into thinking an otherwise lukewarm card is equal to the flagship of last generation. NVIDIA, this was avoidable. You are making all of the unforced errors right now. This was a completely unnecessary fumble. We could have just listed all the numbers and called it a day, but now have to start by writing about NVIDIA’s lies and marketing.

RTX 5070 Overview

The RTX 5070 is supposed to have an MSRP of $550. It’s hard to say what it’ll actually be for street pricing. But basing only off of MSRP, that makes this card $50 higher than the MSRP of the RTX 3070 at its launch in 2020 and $50 cheaper than the RTX 4070’s launch MSRP of $600. 

This looks like the patterned NVIDIA stutter-stepping of price slowly upwards, where they overshoot, then bring it back down. We saw this from 10 to 20 to 30 series.

The RTX 5070 GPU has an advertised 6144 CUDA cores, a 192-bit bus, and 12GB of GDDR7 memory. It might even have all of its ROPs. The 5070 Ti has an MSRP at $750 and carries 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, so there’s more bandwidth, a little more capacity, and an increase to 8960 CUDA cores, and it may even have all of the ROPs that you’re paying for.

Clocks on the 5070 are advertised at 2.51 GHz boost.

RTX 5070 Pricing

A quick glance at pricing breaks it down like this: 

There are 5 MSRP models of the 5070 Ti (read our review) on Newegg, which is just enough to technically claim the MSRP exists. The rest of them are higher, often $900 and over. Board partners have now directly repriced their cards, with VideoCardz noticing that MSI had eliminated all of its $750 RTX 5070 Ti cards just before the 5070 launch. 

As we write this review, following the VideoCardz news post, MSI has now reintroduced two $750 models, dropping from $820 and $840 to $750. NVIDIA has historically applied pressure to partners to make MSRP units available, so it wouldn’t surprise us if the VideoCardz story triggered a reaction to keep two models available. They can also achieve this with rebates.

As for things available right now, we found the RX 7800 XT Pulse for $530 and... that’s it. When we sorted Newegg to $450 to $650 for “in stock” and “sold by Newegg,” meaning no third-party sellers and no unavailable models, all we got were a bunch of refurbished units and the 7800 XT Pulse.

It really is crazy right now.

We’re going to get into the benchmarks next. This review contains most of the games that we benchmark since we’re preparing for the 9070 and 9070 XT launch. We currently have around 50-60 GPUs tested in our lineup, so to fit the charts, we need to remove a few from the chart.

Here’s what we’ve added and removed:

Cards Removed & Added

• We’ve added the RX 7900 GRE (read our review). We won’t be spending time talking about it today since it’ll be replaced tomorrow and will likely be a key comparison for the 9070 series, but it’s on the charts.
• We’re removing either the RTX 4080 (watch our review) or Super (read our review) in every chart, but keeping the other. We’ll favor the Super where we have data for it. These GPUs are within 1-3% of each other and are not worth the chart space. We have more interesting stuff to show.
• We’re removing the 2080 Ti (watch our review), 2080 Super (watch our review), and 2080 (watch our review). Most of these results are available in our previous charts for the 5070 Ti review and are directly comparable.
• We’re removing the 5080 with missing ROPs. You can find that data in a standalone article. 
• And, of course, we’re removing the 9070 and XT -- we can’t show that until tomorrow at the time of this writing.

RTX 5070 Benchmarks

FFXIV 4K

Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail is up first for a traditional raster title at 4K, without any bulls*** to artificially inflate numbers.

This game is actually playable on most modern hardware at this resolution. The RTX 5070 ran at 78 FPS AVG, landing it right between the 4070 Ti (watch our review) and the 4070 Ti Super. Maybe we should call it the 4070 Ti V3 instead. The 5070 Ti outperforms the 5070 by 25% here, the 4070 Ti Super is ahead by 11%, and the 7900 XT by 6%.

Going by name only, the generational lead over the 4070 (watch our review) is 30%, or 48% over the 3070 (watch our review) and 118% over the 2070 (watch our review), followed by 244% over the 1070. 

Unfortunately, the 5070 is not better than the 4090 -- but if we were to be artificially intelligent and actually intellectually dishonest, it might be!

FFXIV 1440p

At 1440p, the RTX 5070 Ti’s lead over the RTX 5070 is reduced to 22% from 25% at 4K. The 5070 is also reduced in its advantage over the 4070 Ti, now just 1% from around 6% at 4K. From 150 FPS to 172 FPS, we now have 3 GPUs from NVIDIA. If you want to make NVIDIA look as ridiculous as possible, you could maximize the size of the clown car by drawing a box from the 4080 Super at 202 FPS to the 4070 FE at 117 FPS. The result is 7 modern NVIDIA GPUs spanning an 85 FPS range. Divided evenly, that would be one GPU for every 12 FPS. In this situation though, 4 of them land within a 36 FPS range: The 5070 Ti, 4070 Ti Super (read our review), 5070, and 4070 Ti mean you can dial it into the individual decimals if you were so picky about your performance.

The 7900 XT (read our revisit) lands in the middle of all of these and has a 12% lead over the RTX 5070, assuming all ROPs are present on the 5070.

The 5070 is, again, not better than the 4090. 

FFXIV 1080p

Remarkably, we still have OK scaling at 1080p for most of these GPUs. The fact that the 9800X3D allows the 5090 (read our review) and 4090 to still have a slight gap at 1080p really speaks to how exciting AMD’s 9800X3D is.

Anyway, the 5070 ran this workload at 225 FPS AVG and fell below the 4070 Ti. No wonder NVIDIA wants everyone using MFG. The 4090, predictably, outperforms the 5070 massively. It’s a 67% gap here.

The 7900 XT now has a reduced lead of 9%.

Black Myth: Wukong - 4K

Black Myth: Wukong at 4K and rasterized had the 5070 at 40 FPS AVG, giving the 5070 Ti a 27% lead. The 5070 really struggled in this one and ended up tied with the 4070 Ti and, to its benefit, the 7900 XT. We’ll be curious to see how the 9070 does in this one… Surely we don’t already know as we’re writing this and definitely haven’t looked at the results and in no way would we ever encourage you to just wait and see what the results are…

If we were to randomly multiply the frames, it’d be better than the 4090 -- until you randomly multiplied the 4090 with lossless scaling. Jensen’s claim is like a schoolyard argument: The 5070 is infinity times better.

Black Myth: Wukong - 1440p

At 1440p, we re-introduce other 70-class cards of the past. The 5070 FE ran at 72 FPS AVG, with frametime pacing unremarkable. The 5070 is tied with the 4070 Ti and 7900 XT. Generationally by name only, the 5070 improves on the 4070 by 22%, the 3070 by 58%, and the 2070 non-Super by 137%.

The 5070 Ti leads the 5070 by 21% here.

Black Myth: Wukong - 1080p

1080p has the RTX 5070 down at 98 FPS AVG, allowing the 4070 Ti to gain a slight 2% lead. The 5070 Ti is ahead by 17.6% here, assuming all ROPs are present. 

Against the prior cards containing 70 naming, the 5070 is ahead of the 4070 by 18%, the 3070’s 63 FPS AVG by 56%, and the 2070’s 43 FPS by 126%.

Starfield - 4K

Starfield at 4K is up now. The RTX 5070 ran at 54 FPS AVG here, giving the 4070 Ti’s 59 FPS a 9% lead. It’d be interesting if AMD’s 9070 performed similarly to the 7900 XT here since the Hellhound is 20% ahead of the 5070. We’ll find out tomorrow.

The 5070 Ti has a larger lead over the 5070 in this test than the last 1080p benchmark, running a 68 FPS AVG for a 27% advantage over the 5070 FE. Performance of the 5070 over the 2070’s 22 FPS is about 145% ahead.

Starfield - 1440p

1440p significantly reduces the 5070 Ti’s uplift over the 5070, bringing it down to 22% from the prior 27%. The 7900 XT, which is an important comparison in this test for... reasons, runs at 98 FPS AVG with comparable lows to its neighbors. That has it 18% ahead of the RTX 5070’s 83 FPS AVG. 

As for the RTX 4070, the 5070 leads by a paltry 10.6%, then 48% over the 3070’s 56 FPS.

Starfield - 1080p

At 1080p, the 5070’s 104 FPS AVG planted it between the 4070 and 4070 Ti again, with an unimpressive 9% improvement on the 4070. The gap shrinks as the resolution decreases in this game. The 5070 Ti is now ahead by only 19%, down from 27% at 4K. As for AMD, its RX 7900 XT is 15% ahead here, down slightly from the 1440p advantage.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 - 4K

Dragon’s Dogma 2 at 4K is next. This game is relatively heavy on the GPU in our test area, but is unique for its ability to also produce a heavy CPU load in cities.

The RTX 5070 ran at 56 FPS AVG here and had good frametime pacing represented in the lows, but then again, so did everything around it. It’s proportional.

The 5070 very slightly leads the 4070 Ti. 

As for the 4090: We’re still somehow not matching the RTX 4090, which is up at 98 FPS. We must have mistyped the =5070*4 formula that Jensen prescribed reviewers. 

The 5070 Ti leads the 5070 by a much larger 31% in this benchmark, producing one of the most notable jumps yet. The 3090 Ti ran at 64 FPS for a 14% lead over the 5070, which might seem totally non-sequitur and unrelated, but it isn’t.

Anyway, the 7900 XT held a 61 FPS AVG in this one, with the XTX just past the 5070 Ti. 

Dragon’s Dogma 2 - 1440p

At 1440p, the RTX 5070 basically ties the RTX 4070 Ti again. The 7900 XT’s 104 FPS AVG is just a 9% lead here, with the 4070 Ti Super a slight step above that. The 5070 Ti has a 25% lead over the 5070 here, posting one of its better 1440p comparative results.

Somehow, and we don’t know how this happened, the RTX 4090 just seems to be better than the RTX 5070. That’s just so weird. Maybe we should run NVIDIA Multi-Fraction Generation to divide the 4090 down to a 5070.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 - 1080p

At 1080p, the 5070’s 126 FPS AVG has it just behind the 4070 Ti. The 7900 XT leads by only 7% here, with the 5070 Ti knocked down to a 21% lead from 25% at 1440p. The 5070 Ti’s 151 FPS AVG is also about the same as the 7900 XTX, which has its own slight advantage.

As for the 4090, well, ours really must be broken since it’s not making the 5070 look good enough.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - 4K

Cyberpunk is up now. We have a more limited data set with this since we updated the game to v2.21 and have been working on re-running everything.

At 4K, the 5070 ran at 41 FPS AVG. That put it 6% ahead of the 4070 Ti and 144% ahead of the 2070, or 68% ahead of the 24 FPS result of the 3070. As for the 5070 Ti, its 50 FPS AVG gives it a 22% lead here, with the 7900 XTX (watch our review) ahead of that at 57 FPS AVG. The 7900 XT has a noteworthy 13% lead against the 5070 here.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - 1440p

At 1440p, the 5070 ran at 89 FPS AVG and had lows at 75 FPS 1% and 71 FPS 0.1%. The 5070 Ti at 108 FPS is about 21% ahead, not changing much from 4K. The 7900 XT is ahead of the 5070 in AVG, 1%, and 0.1%, holding a 12% lead in average framerate.

Once again, the 4070 Ti basically ties the 5070, with the latter slightly ahead this time.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - 1080p

1080p reintroduces other 70-class cards: The 5070 Ti ran at 167 FPS AVG, with the 5070 at 138. That’s still 21%. The 4070 hasn’t been rerun here yet, but the 3070 is present at 85 FPS, yielding a 62% lead to the 5070, followed by the 2070 at 60 FPS for 130%, then the GTX 1070 at 35 FPS AVG. That’s about a 293% improvement to the 5070.

AMD’s RX 7900 XT seems like it’ll be particularly relevant soon. This one ran at 150 FPS AVG, with lows expected at 116 and 104. That’s an 8.8% improvement over the 5070.

Dying Light 2 - 4K

Dying Light 2 is up now. This is another of the heavier games, especially with RT later.

At 4K, the 5070 ran at 56 FPS AVG and struggled in this title, allowing the 5070 Ti an advantage of 25%. The 7900 XT doesn’t look great by comparison here, at 55 FPS AVG itself.

As for the 4070 Ti, it’s again roughly equal. 

Dying Light 2 - 1440p

1440p has the 5070 at 106 FPS AVG, now trading places with the 7900 XT. The 5070 Ti’s lead is reduced to 22%, with the 4070 Ti now falling slightly behind the 5070.

By generational naming, the 4070 ran at 78 FPS AVG (so the 5070 is 36% better) and the 3070 was at 67 FPS AVG (or 60% better on the 5070).

Resident Evil 4 - 4K

Resident Evil 4 is up last for raster testing. We’re almost through these.

At 4K, the 5070’s 78 FPS AVG has it just behind the 4070 Ti that we’ve been tracking. It’s also about 6 FPS ahead of the 7800 XT, so measurably different but functionally equal. The 5070 Ti’s 107 FPS AVG positions it 36% ahead in this one, which is a huge gain and among the largest we’ve seen. The 7900 XT seems like a good AMD comparison, landing at 100 FPS AVG and leading the 5070 by 28%.

Resident Evil 4 - 1440p

At 1440p, the 5070 held a 152 FPS AVG and trailed the 4070 Ti by 8 FPS. The 5070 Ti is 30% higher framerate here, down from 36% at 4K. As we’ve seen, the gap tends to close at lower resolutions, although it’s still a huge gap in this game.

The 7900 XT is now up at 186 FPS AVG, with a reduction in the percentage advantage to 22% from 28% at 4K.

Generationally, the 5070 runs 23% faster than the 124 FPS on the 4070, 54% faster than the 91 FPS on the 3070, and 157% ahead of the 59 FPS for the 2070.

Resident Evil 4 - 1080p

Finally for raster, we’re now at 1080p for Resident Evil 4. This one is interesting for the further closing of the gap between the 5070 and 5070 Ti, which now ranges from 282 FPS to 224 FPS for a 26% improvement on the Ti. The 7900 XT is about 18% higher framerate here.

RTX 5070 Ray Tracing Benchmarks

We’re moving on to ray tracing now. NVIDIA has historically held significant advantages in some games for ray tracing.

AMD says it has significantly improved its ray tracing performance. We explained why the company is claiming this in our news piece covering the 9070 announcements, so this will become highly relevant in tomorrow’s reviews.

Ray Tracing - Black Myth: Wukong 4K

Black Myth: Wukong is up first. This is one of the two titles in this RT test suite that heavily favors NVIDIA. We’re testing with upscaling here.

At 4K, the RTX 5070 ran at 40 FPS AVG. That has the 5070 Ti at 30% ahead, with the 4070 Ti about tied with the 5070. AMD doesn’t appear until the 7900 XTX, down at 20 FPS AVG. That’s a massive lead of 99% over the 7900 XTX. The 5070 doubles the 7900 XTX’s performance.

That’s not good for AMD’s last generation. We’ll see if that lead can be halved with the new generation. The 5070 leads the RTX 3080 by 44%. Based on math from AMD’s claims in its presentation, that’s about where it should land here. Too bad no one knows if that’s a good reference point yet.

Ray Tracing - Black Myth: Wukong 1440p

At 1440p, the 5070 Ti ran at 88 FPS AVG, the 5070 at 73 FPS AVG (between the 4070 Ti and 4070 Ti Super), and the original RTX 70-class card ran at 24 FPS AVG. AMD’s best here, as of today and not tomorrow, is the 7900 XTX at 37 FPS AVG.

Ray Tracing - Black Myth: Wukong 1080p

Now for 1080p. The 5070 held a 97 FPS AVG here, encroaching on the 4090 but still not beating it. The 5070 Ti leads the 5070 by just 15% in this situation, with the 5070 now ahead of the 4070 Ti and Ti Super cards after slow gains in the other resolutions. The 7900 XTX ran at 49 FPS AVG, closer to a 4060 and behind the 3070. AMD named the 3080 in its slideshow announcing the card. If it lands near that mark, it’d be around or ahead of the 66 FPS AVG result for the FTW3.

Speaking of: EVGA really knew what was coming when it left the GPU market.

Ray Tracing - Dragon’s Dogma 2 4K

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is back with RT now. This one is more balanced between the vendors.

At 4K, the 5070 ran at 49 FPS AVG, establishing a 9% lead for the 7900 XT. That’s a similar gap to what we saw without RT. The 5070 Ti leads by 30% again here, with the 7900 XTX leading that. 

Ray Tracing - Dragon’s Dogma 2 1440p

At 1440p with RT, Dragon’s Dogma 2 puts the 5070 at 83 FPS AVG, reducing the 5070 Ti’s lead to 24%. The 7900 XT sits between both, with the 7900 XTX ahead of the 5070 Ti.

Based on the charts AMD has released, the math would position the 9070 and 9070 XT as flanking the 5070 Ti, but we’ll find out soon enough.

Generationally, the 5070 leads the 4070 by 23%, the 3070’s 51 FPS by 62%, and the 2070 non-Super by 145%.

Ray Tracing - Dragon’s Dogma 2 1080p

Down to 1080p, the 5070 Ti’s lead over the 5070 is now 22%, with the 7900 XTX still leading the Ti and 7900 XT still leading the 5070. The 4070 is relatively close to the 5070 here, now with an 18% advantage to the 5070. 

But maybe the 4090 can breathe some excitement into it. The 4090 ran at 169.2 FPS AVG. If we multiply the 5070 by a billion, that’d put it at 107.4 billion FPS AVG, which is an uplift of 6,347,516.73%. This is clearly the card to get. And as we all know, it’s not possible to multiply the 4090 by arbitrary numbers with lossless scaling because then that would hurt 50-series marketing.

Ray Tracing - Dying Light 2 4K

Dying Light 2 with RT is next. This first one is 4K upscaled. The RTX 5070 ran at 44 FPS AVG here, just below the 4070 Ti. The 7900 XTX held 46 FPS AVG in this one, again showing AMD’s prior deficit in RT performance. It’s not as bad as in Black Myth, but considering the original pricing of the 4070 Ti and 7900 XTX, AMD was in a position that was hard to fight from. We’ll see how the 9070 series compares tomorrow.

Ray Tracing - Dying Light 2 1440p

At 1440p, the 5070 beats the 7900 XT by 13%, falls behind the 4070 Ti, and allows the 5070 Ti, which is basically an RTX 4080 v3 or v4, a lead of 27%.

Ray Tracing - Dying Light 2 1080p

At 1080p upscaled, the 5070 produced 116 FPS AVG and again sat just below the 4070 Ti, with the 7900 XTX and 7900 XT flanking the 5070. The 5070 Ti ran at 141 FPS AVG, which will be the number for AMD’s 9070 XT to target.

Generationally, the 5070 leads the 4070 by 25% and 3070 by 58%.

Ray Tracing - Resident Evil 4 4K

Resident Evil at 4K upscaled is next. This one has the 5070 at 91 FPS AVG, roughly tying the 4070 Ti once again. The 7900 XT leads the 5070 by 18%, with the 5070 Ti leading by 29%. The 7900 XTX sits ahead of that at 134 FPS AVG.

Ray Tracing - Resident Evil 4 1440p

At 1440p, the 5070’s 149 FPS AVG put it 23% ahead of the 4070 and 70% ahead of the 3070. The 7900 XT leads the 4070 Ti and 5070.

Ray Tracing - Cyberpunk 4K RT Ultra

Finally for RT, our new Cyberpunk results with the updated game version.

First, with 4K and RT Ultra, the 5070 ran at 17 FPS AVG. This is without upscaling and is intentionally the heaviest workload we run.

That positions it right between the 7900 XT and 7900 XTX. That’d be unfortunate positioning if AMD weren’t launching something with better RT in a day, but we’ll have to check in tomorrow for the rank.

The 5070 Ti continues its trend of being NVIDIA’s third or fourth iteration of a 4080 card and leads the 5070 by a huge 56% here. The workload is just too heavy for the 5070 to handle and it has neither the bandwidth or compute capability.

Ray Tracing - Cyberpunk 1080p RT Ultra

Here’s RT Ultra at 1080p. The 5070 held 64 FPS AVG with these settings, putting the 5070 Ti about 32% ahead. The 7900 XTX trails the 5070 here, unfortunately for AMD’s former flagship.

Ray Tracing - Cyberpunk 4K RT Medium

We also run RT Medium for Cyberpunk. We’ve found that RT Ultra and RT Medium can significantly affect the hierarchical ranking of NVIDIA and AMD, so we run both. NVIDIA runs away at Ultra.

With these settings and at 4K still, the 5070 now runs at 22.5 FPS AVG. This reduces the 5070 Ti’s lead to a more normal 35%. The 5070 just didn’t have the ability to keep up at 4K/RT Ultra.

RTX 5070 Thermals

We’ll keep thermals short and simple. Using our usual benchmark of Port Royal at 4K and looping, we measured the 5070 FE at steady state at around 74 degrees Celsius for GPU core temperature. The memory temperature was about 76 degrees. Both of these numbers are acceptable; memory is well within spec and is completely fine. Core has some room for a hotter computer case. The core temperature isn’t impressive, but is acceptable, and there’s a little bit of buffer there.

The 5070 FE’s fans ran at about 2500 RPM to maintain this temperature. We skipped acoustic testing this time since we have the two 9070 reviews we have to get through. 

RTX 5070 Power Efficiency

For efficiency as usual, we use a power interposer in between the GPU and the power supply. That means we’re intercepting slot power and the PCIe power through the cables and we do that so we can isolate the GPU entirely, measure its power consumption during a workload. Then we take the frame rate numbers to do some simple math and produce an efficiency number. 

In these charts, you’ll get a few things. You’ll get the total power consumption for that workload in watts and you also get its efficiency in FPS per watt not workload-normalized so we allow it to run at the frame rate that it can naturally run at. 

Efficiency: FFXIV 4K

For efficiency with Final Fantasy 14 at 4K, we ended up with this data. This chart isn’t as dense as our 1440p chart that’s up next.

The 5070 FE ran at 0.33 FPS/W here, pulling 233W during the workload. The 5070 Ti pulled 264W, allowing it an improvement in efficiency to 0.37 FPS/W. AMD’s prior RX 7900 XT wasn’t particularly efficient, giving NVIDIA a large advantage in efficiency for the 5070. The FPS was close enough to be mostly observably equal to a player, but the 7900 XT ran at just 0.25 FPS/W from its 324W power draw during the test.

We’ll have to see what the 9070 series does to improve this, as this has been one of AMD’s GPU weaknesses over the years.

Efficiency: FFXIV 1440p

At 1440p, the 5070 ran at 0.65 FPS/W. That puts the 5070 Ti as about 12% more efficient than the 5070 when producing a variable workload. The AMD 7900 XT pulled 325W in this test, landing at 0.53 FPS/W. Its framerate is higher, but the power is also disproportionately higher, which hurts its efficiency despite a higher framerate.

Efficiency: FFXIV 1080p

At 1080p, the 5070 hits nearly 1 FPS/W. The 4060 Ti has passed it for efficiency, with the 5070 Ti improved by 0.11 FPS/W on top of the 5070’s 1.0 result. The 7900 XT is down at 0.75 FPS/W and is still pulling about the same power as previously.

Efficiency: F1 24 4K

F1 24 at 4K and with ray tracing is up next. In this one, the 5070 produced 0.17 FPS/W, pulling close to TDP at 246W in order to produce its hardly playable framerate. The 5070 Ti ran at 0.20 FPS/W, with the 4080 ranking at the top for its balance of power and framerate. Note that bar size changes from numbers that look the same are valid -- it’s just from the hidden decimal places.

The 7900 XT ran at 0.12 FPS/W, a significant fall from the 5070’s result. The 9070 series has a lot of work to do here.

Efficiency: F1 24 1080p

At 1080p and still with RT, the 5070 ran at 0.55 FPS/W, again giving the 5070 Ti a 13% efficiency advantage. We’re curious to see where the 9070 and 9070 XT land. The 7900 XT isn’t competitive in efficiency, with a lot of this particular result being because of its relatively low RT performance last generation. That’s what AMD is trying to tackle.

Efficiency: Black Myth 1080p

In Black Myth without RT and at 1080p, the 5070 Ti held a 0.53 FPS/W rank, putting it in the second slot. The 5070 is at 0.48, with the 4060 Ti still trading back-and-forth depending on the test. The 7800 XT was at 0.31 FPS/W, with the 7900 XT just below that. The 5070 is not NVIDIA’s most power efficient card due to the performance trade-offs, but is relatively efficient overall.

Efficiency: Dragon’s Dogma 2 RT 1440p

In Dragon’s Dogma 2 at 1440p and with RT, the RTX 5070 ranked at 0.36 FPS/W, sandwiching it between the 4090 that it’s not better than and the 5090. The 7900 XT is down at 0.28 FPS/W, yielding an efficiency benefit in a non-normalized framerate workload of 29%. That’ll be the mark for the 9070 series to hit.

Efficiency: Starfield 1440p

Finally, in Starfield rasterized at 1440p, the 5070 ran at 0.43 FPS/W and landed just below the 4090, which it remains not better than, again. The 7800 XT (read our review) from AMD ran at 0.32 FPS/W, so AMD has a lot of ground to gain here tomorrow. This will be an area we’ll focus to test for improvements, as theoretically, it should be better than it was.

RTX 5070 Conclusion

One thing’s for certain: NVIDIA’s marketing about the 5070 being a 4090 was wrapped entirely in bull**** and built on a foundation of manure, which is only fitting for a company whose CEO is never found without a leather jacket.

The GPU market is insane right now. The fact that we sorted Newegg for $450 to $650 GPUs and got basically one is insane. The current buying experience matches that of the COVID-era boom around late 2020 and the 2017 crypto mining boom. That makes it hard to evaluate value, and broadly speaking, we’d say to just wait for things to cool off if your current machine can last you a bit longer. You’ll likely save money as pricing settles. If that doesn’t matter to you, maybe time will -- and unless you get lucky and snipe an early stock of the cards, you may at least save some time.

As for its value, we’re going to kick the can to tomorrow’s reviews of the 9070 XT and 9070. We don’t think you should buy this card until you learn about AMD’s competition, as the on-paper price is in similar territory. We’ll see how the in-reality price is for both of them.
Check back for the 9070 XT and 9070 reviews.

AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D uses their 2nd Gen V-Cache technology to give the 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X an overhaul that transforms its behaviour. Against all the odds it is excellent at gaming and also at productivity tasks. Our benchmark charts in this review will likely bring despair to Intel.

Time stamps

00:00 Start
01:04 Technical data
01:58 3D V-Cache / Chipset Drivers
02:32 Hardware
03:20 BIOS / Latency heatmap
03:47 Cinebench 2024 Multi Core
03:59 Cinebench 2024 Single Core
04:14 Geekbench 6 Multi Core
04:25 Geekbench 6 Single Core
04:31 Cinebench Multi Core Per £ of cost
05:15 CPU Power Consumption
05:28 Cinebench 2024 Multi Core Per Watt
05:59 7Zip v24 Benchmark
06:05 AIDA 64 Memory Bandwidth
06:27 3DMark Time Spy
06:45 Far Cry 6 (1080p)
07:02 Far Cry 6 (1440p)
07:10 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (1080p)
07:29 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (1440p)
07:48 Assassins Creed Mirage (1080p)
07:59 Assassins Creed Mirage (1440p)
08:16 Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p)
08:33 Cyberpunk 20277 (1440p)
08:45 Total War Pharaoh (1080p)
09:02 Total War Pharaoh (1440p)
09:16 Closing Thoughts

Alongside this Ryzen 9 9950X3D, AMD is also releasing the 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X3D that we have reviewed HERE.

If you check out that review you will have the background information you require to understand why moving from two 6-core CCDs in the 9900X3D to 8-core CCDs in this 9950X3D is a much bigger deal than it sounds..

There weren't a lot of MMOs trying to compete with WoW throughout the 2010s and the ones that did try ultimately ended up shutting down. One MMO that falls into this category is Defiance, an ambitious project that was supposed to share cross-promotional elements with a TV series by the same name. Ultimately, the show was cancelled and the MMO servers went offline, but a comeback appears to be just around the corner. 

Defiance first launched back in 2013 and featured some of the same characters that appeared in the show. However, outside of a few familiar faces, there was very little tying the two projects together. As a result, when the Defiance TV series was cancelled in 2015, the game was not put in jeopardy. Instead, it rebranded as Defiance 2050 and continued operating through to 2021, when the servers were finally taken offline.

Now, the independent studio and publisher, Fawkes, has acquired the rights to both Defiance (2013) and Defiance 2050, with plans to bring the MMO back online, starting in April this year.

Fawkes identified a passionate community around Defiance as its core reasoning for bringing the game back. Many fans still discuss this game in forum threads and YouTube videos about the game are still popular now, even years after the game going offline.

As Fawkes looks to revive Defiance, it has set up a Discord channel for gathering feedback on future game updates. If you are a Defiance fan, be sure to join the Discord to find groups to play with once the game returns, and to share ideas on what changes could be made to bring the game up to 2025 standards.

KitGuru Says: Did you play Defiance at all back when it first came out? Would you be interested in seeing the MMO return for good? 

Hot on the heels of the successful launch of Portal RTX, Nvidia announced plans for an RTX reimagining of Half-Life 2. The mod, known as Half-Life 2 RTX, has been in development for years but we'll finally have the opportunity to play it for ourselves later this month. 

On the 18th of March, the Half-Life 2 RTX demo will be made freely available on Steam. The demo includes the first two levels of the game, complete with reworked textures and materials to fully take advantage of ray-traced lighting effects. Like Quake RTX and Portal RTX, Half-Life 2 RTX will give players access to a full suite of Path Tracing tools, so you can adjust away to really see what is possible with RT once pushed to the limits.

The demo will be available starting on the 18th of March and the full final game will be made available for free to all Half-Life 2 owners. Unfortunately, we don't have a final date for the full game, but it is also worth having patience, as the game is essentially being developed as a volunteer project by the folks at Orbifold Studios, exclusively using the RTX Remix tool set.

Alongside the release of the HL2 RTX demo, Nvidia is also releasing RTX Remix in full this month. The latest version of the software includes support for RTX Neural Rendering and DLSS 4, so we expect to see many more classic games ‘remade' with RTX Remix in the years ahead.

KitGuru Says: Will you be downloading the Half-Life 2 RTX demo when it drops next week?

GDC is kicking off and as is the case every year, Nvidia has more than a few announcements ready to go. The big news this year? RTX Remix is officially launching, complete with support for DLSS 4 and RTX Neural Shaders, enabling developers to bring ray-traced effects to classic DX8 and DX9 based games. 

At this point, Nvidia's research shows that 90% of RTX GPU users utilise features like DLSS, ray-traced graphics and Nvidia Reflex. At this point, over 100 games and apps support the latest version of DLSS, DLSS 4, which brings Multi Frame Generation to the table, while hundreds of other titles support DLSS 3 or older versions. Support for frame generation and super resolution technologies has seen an uptick across the games industry, with some modern titles even factoring in ‘Frame Generation' capabilities when putting together minimum and recommended hardware requirements for new PC games.

We are unlikely to see support for DLSS drop off amongst game developers anytime soon, as Nvidia also claims it has shipped more RTX 50 series GPUs in the last few months than it did when RTX 40 series GPUs first launched back in 2022.

Here are some of the rapid-fire announcements from Nvidia at GDC:

• RTX Kit now available for Unreal Engine 5, bringing RTX Mega Geometry and RTX Hair to UE5 titles.
• RTX Remix is now officially available to all aspiring modders looking to freshen up old titles. The first major showcase of this tookit is Half-Life 2 RTX, with a free demo launching on Steam next week.
• Nvidia ACE AI-powered NPCs are now being used in the real world. The feature debuts in InZOI and Naraka: Bladepoint Mobile PC version this month, with more titles set to use Nvidia's ‘Smart NPCs' in the future.
• Nvidia ACE plugins now updated for Maya and Unreal Engine to further enhance game development with AI tools.

Interestingly, while the demo for Half-Life 2 RTX is being made available this month, complete with the first two levels of the game, a date for the full release has not yet been shared.

KitGuru Says: Nvidia's AI game development tools are gaining traction. It will be interesting to see if ACE-powered NPCs in a game like Naraka: Bladepoint can be easily differentiated from a typical NPC. For me though, Half-Life 2 RTX is the big announcement here and after years of teasing, I'm looking forward to finally diving in. 

HBO’s The Last of Us was a huge hit when it released back in early 2023, amassing 10s of millions of viewers and winning a ton of awards. With the show’s second season set to premiere in almost exactly a month, HBO/MAX have released the first official full-length trailer – with it raking in over 150 million views in just 72 hours.

As reported by TheWrap, the recently-released ‘official trailer’ for HBO’s The Last of Us season 2 has garnered a ton of interest across the board.

According to the publication, in the first 3 days since its release the trailer has managed to surpass 158 million views across all the various social media platforms.

Not only does this make it the most-viewed trailer for any HBO/MAX show, but also represents a 160%  growth over Season 1’s trailers.

Given the fact that Season 1 ended up seeing an average of 32 million viewers per episode in the US alone, it’s safe to say that Season 2 is set to be huge for both Sony and HBO.

KitGuru says: Did you watch the trailer? Are you ready for The Last of Us Season 2? Will episode 1 break viewership records? Let us know your thoughts down below.

Back in 2022, EA officially announced that they were reviving the long-dormant Skate franchise. With the game planned to launch some time this year, the team have been hosting a bunch of closed alpha tests. In a not-so-surprising move, despite being in an alpha state, EA has now added microtransactions into Skate.

As reported by Insider-Gaming, EA recently sent a message to all the early alpha testers in which they announced the introduction of microtransactions into Skate – with it reading as follows:

“To ensure we achieve these goals at Early Access we have enabled the option to purchase and use virtual currency (San Van Bucks) in our ongoing Closed Alpha playtest. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated in providing a great experience at Early Access launch.”

To be somewhat fair to EA, Skate is planned to be a free-to-play title upon its full release, and so it would expectantly include microtransactions.

That said, even if this is being used to test the stability of the service, it is somewhat of a bad look to feature such monetisation during Skate’s pre-released state.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this latest move by EA? Is it anything to be worried about? Could a free-to-play format work well? Let us know your thoughts down below.

Since its release back in 2020, Microsoft’s Flight Simulator has seen a great number of updates on a consistent basis. Marking the 19th major world update, Microsoft Flight Simulator (and its 2024 sequel) are revamping a number of regions including Brazil, Guyana and more.

Making the announcement on their blog, the team at Asobo Studios officially unveiled World Update XIX, writing, “This long awaited and oft-requested Microsoft Flight Simulator: World Update XIX is filled with excitement and beauty that enhances over half the land mass of South America with its coverage of Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.”

As always, these refreshed regions are accompanied by a bunch of further additional content, with Update XIX bringing:

• 75 points of interest
• 4 TIN Cities
• 7 Airports
• 3 Discovery flights
• 3 landing challenges
• 3 bush trips (MSFS)

Alongside the above (which is available right now), 2024’s Microsoft Flight Simulator in particular is set to get a couple unique additions on the 17th of March, namely:

• New helicopter landing challenge
• New Rally Race
• New low-altitude challenge

Given the scope of Microsoft Flight Simulator it is understandably frustrating to have to wait potentially years to see your country properly represented in the game. That said, it is nice to see the team continue to build upon MSFS – making it as accurate a representation of the full world as we are likely to have for many years.

KitGuru says: Will you be hopping back into Flight Simulator? What regions are you still waiting to get updated? Let us know down below.

Each month, Sony updates its PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium libraries with a line-up of current and classic titles. For March, Sony is adding a solid dozen titles including the OG Armored Core trilogy.

Set to join PlayStation Plus Extra/Premium on the 18th of March, this month’s line-up is as follows:

• UFC 5 | PS5
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown | PS4, PS5
• Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions | PS4
• Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation Code Fairy | PS4, PS5
• Arcade Paradise | PS4, PS5
• Bang-On Balls: Chronicles | PS4, PS5
• You Suck at Parking | PS4, PS5
• Syberia – The World Before | PS4, PS5

PlayStation Plus Premium:

• Arcade Paradise VR | PS VR2
• Armored Core | PS4, PS5
• Armored Core: Project Phantasma | PS4, PS5
• Armored Core: Master of Arena | PS4, PS5

While the Extra tier sees a bunch of welcome additions including the underrated Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and the nostalgia-filled Arcade Paradise, the Armored Core trilogy is easily this month’s biggest draw.

Announced back in February, these additions mark the first time in a long time that FromSoftware’s original mecha games have been made available.

While PlayStation’s PS1/2 emulation leaves quite a bit to be desired, these inclusions are more than welcome nonetheless.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this month’s additions? Which games will you be hopping into? Did you check Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown out back when it first released? Let us know down below.

Avowed marks the biggest first-party Xbox game for 2025 so far, with the Obsidian Entertainment-developed RPG arriving on Microsoft’s console (and PC) just under a month ago. Being Microsoft, the company rarely shares sales figures for its games. That being said, according to the game’s director, the higher-ups at Xbox are “happy” with Avowed’s player numbers.

In an interview with Eurogamer, Avowed’s Creative Director Carrie Patel spoke on a wide range of topics from the game itself to the studio’s culture and more.

When asked about the performance of the game in the weeks following Avowed’s launch, Patel unsurprisingly offered no concrete data.

That said, according to the director, “I've certainly been very happy, and all the folks I've talked to, both at the studio level and at the Xbox and Microsoft level, have been very happy with the reception to our game – to the number of people playing it, the amount of time they're spending in it.”

While this in and of itself is welcome to hear, Microsoft’s history of celebrating a game’s success only to then close down the studio does put a damper on any metrics they choose to share.

For the sake of Obsidian Entertainment, hopefully the suits at Microsoft are indeed pleased with the results so far.

KitGuru says: Have you been playing Avowed? What do you think of it? Let us know down below.

Revel in the return of the Assault, Engineer, Recon, and Medic; say goodbye to Specialists!  If you preferred the way that the last Battlefield broke down your abilities this is bad news,…

NVIDIA hasn't been pushing the envelope with Blackwell, and that hasn't changed for the RTX 5060 Ti, RTX 5060 or RTX 5050 if the leaks are to be believed.  The RTX…

If like to jam on the guitar and are looking for a way to carry a wide variety of pedals and amps with you and don't have roadies to cart everything around…

We put the 9950X3D through numerous gaming and productivity benchmarks, efficiency tests, and more

The Highlights

• 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread CPU with a 5.7 GHz max advertised boost clock and 128MB of L3 cache
• The 9950X is a better value for pure productivity and the 9800X3D is a better value for pure gaming
• The 9950X3D is a compelling CPU for both heavy production workloads and gaming
• Original MSRP: $700
• Release Date: March 12, 2025

Table of Contents

• AutoTOC

Intro

The quick version up front: The 9950X3D is comparable to the 9800X3D in most gaming scenarios, sometimes trading places; in production, it’s similar to the 9950X. The biggest change has been to the setup, which AMD says should now be simplified from prior dual-CCD parts with one faster CCD and one extra V-cache CCD. Historically, setting this up properly has made it necessary to isolate drives. If you were to install a 7600X and upgrade to a 7950X3D later, the easiest thing to do would be a clean Windows install (although there were ways to avoid this). That should be fixed now, but we’re still keeping all our drives isolated.

AMD is launching its R9 9950X3D CPU. This is a 16-core, 32-thread part with a listed MSRP of $700. The $600 MSRP 9900X3D will be launching alongside it, but wasn’t sampled, which is normally not a good sign.

Editor's note: This was originally published on March 11, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.

Credits

Test Lead, Host, Writing

Steve Burke

Testing

Patrick Lathan
Mike Gaglione

Camera, Video Editing

Vitalii Makhnovets

Writing, Web Editing

Jimmy Thang

But as we all know, MSRP often doesn’t hold at launch as new silicon gets sold at higher prices. We just uploaded an entire video digging into that. In either case, for these CPUs, we definitely wouldn’t pay over MSRP since the 9950X (read our review) is available regularly for $545, with the 9800X3D (read our review) for gaming at $480 (which is MSRP) as we write this. That may change, of course.

Today, we’re reviewing the 9950X3D. It’s been a long review cycle the past 3 months, so we’re going to keep this one simple and focus on the numbers.

9950X3D Overview

Let’s get straight into it today. We’ll start with the specs.

The AMD 9950X3D is part of the Zen 5 architecture that launched with the 9700X (read our review) and other CPUs last year. The 9800X3D swooped-in a little later and cleaned-up what was a confusing and messy launch, largely making major moves for gaming CPUs and giving us something to be excited about as it’s a really good CPU.

The 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread CPU with a 5.7 GHz max advertised boost, 4.3 GHz base clock, and L3 cache at 128 MB. TDP target is 170W.

For comparison, the normal 9950X also has a max advertised boost of 5.7 GHz, base of 4.3 GHz, and TDP of 170W. These are shared. The cache changes, at 64 MB of L3.

The 9950X3D has two CCDs, with one of the two CCDs bearing extra cache. This is stacked vertically. As we described in the 9800X3D review, the cache this time is flipped so that it’s closer to the substrate than the lid, pushing the cores closer to the IHS. In the 9800X3D review, we demonstrated how this helped significantly with cooling.

9950X3D Testing

We’re keeping it incredibly simple this time. As always, you can find our test bench information published here. 

For gaming tests, we have all new data including the latest Windows updates and microcode for everything. That means we’ve refreshed the data set and wiped out what we had, so every CPU you that has been run was done in the last 3 days or so. We got the important ones in there. For production, we were able to salvage a lot of data since it’s the same.

We’ve been completely buried by one GPU after another in an onslaught of benchmarks and follow-ups the last few weeks, so for this one, we’re sticking to the basics.

Let’s just get into it.

Frequency Tests

Frequency - Blender All-Core

Frequency analysis is up first. We do this testing to ensure the CPUs are functioning as expected and to help explain the performance later.

First up is the Blender all-core workload. In this test, the 9950X3D had a frequency plot that started at about 5250 MHz, but settled closer to 5020 MHz to 5080 MHz during testing. This chart is intentionally zoomed-in to make it easier to see, so the scale purposefully does not start at 0.

For comparison, the 9950X non-3D (read our review) had higher peaks, but similar valleys. It ranged from 5010 MHz to 5080 MHz. In terms of average frequency over the course of the test, the 9950X3D averaged 5038 MHz all core to the 9950X’s 5036 MHz, but the X3D CPU did so with fewer peaks and more level frequencies in the middle of its range. We think this will be beneficial to it in gaming. 

The 9800X3D 5220 MHz all-core, putting it well above both. This will help it in some specific workloads, but obviously the lower core count will set it back elsewhere.

Frequency - Cinebench 1C

The next chart is for frequency in a Cinebench single thread workload. This has the 9950X3D up in the range of 5650 to 5725 MHz, which hits AMD’s advertised frequency of 5.7 GHz. The 9950X holds its frequency steadier and with fewer dips between tile cycles, but is overall comparable.

The 9800X3D holds 5225 MHz throughout the test so it’s lower than both when in a single-threaded workload in this situation.

9950X3D Game Benchmarks

Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 is up now. This one had the AMD R9 9950X3D at 155 FPS AVG, technically becoming a new chart topper. The 9800X3D was our chart topper last time and is now functionally tied with the 9950X3D as the best CPU on the chart.

The good news is that the 9950X3D doesn’t appear to be suffering from its dual-CCD approach, so parking is functioning properly and the CPU is not hamstrung by its extra threads. 

The 9950X3D outranks the 7950X3D by similar margins as the 9800X3D did: It’s 23% higher average framerate, with lows comparable for the average. The 7950X3D (watch our review) outdid the 7950X, which we’re using old data for but should be no greater than 2-3% different based on our study of this test, by 29%. That’s with proper setup for the 7950X3D this time.

As compared to the 9950X at 101 FPS AVG, the 9950X3D outdid it by 54%. The 9950X is closer to the 7950X (watch our review) for performance, which makes sense. This game really benefits from the extra cache.

In fact, an easy example of this is the 5700X3D (read our review) vs. the 5600X3D (read our review): In some games, the 5600X3D outperforms the 5700X3D because of its higher clock rate. In this instance, the cache and core count was more beneficial than the frequency.

The 5800X3D (watch our review) remains an excellent CPU, up at 119 FPS AVG. The 9950X3D and 9800X3D outrank it by about 30%. As for Intel, it remains uncompetitive here. The 285K is getting crushed by two prior Intel generations for reasons discussed in that review, and that’s with new Windows updates.

Stellaris

Stellaris is one of our favorite CPU benchmarks because it looks at time rather than framerate, which is the most tangible to a user and the most directly influenced by the CPU. Players of 4X or other grand strategy games like Total War with the campaign map, Galactic Civilizations IV with turn pacing (and that’s a great game, if you haven’t played it), and Civilization would also see value here.

For Stellaris, the 9800X3D and 9950X3D both perform at the top of the chart. The 9800X3D outperformed the 9950X3D with a reduction in simulation time of 5%. That’s near error, but not quite. This seems to be a combination of a higher base clock and utilization.

The 9950X3D is definitely working as expected, though, because it’s outperforming the 9950X significantly. The simulation time requirement drops by almost 15%, from 32.3 seconds to 27.6 seconds.

This is the one game where Zen 5 in particular had stronger gains over Zen 4, with the 9700X doing well here and proving that. That’s from IPC uplift overall, where Zen 5 is benefitted.

Intel’s 285K is competitive with the 7800X3D and 9700X, at least. The 14900K (read our review) and 14700K (read our review) are within error of each other.

Dragon’s Dogma 2

In Dragon’s Dogma 2, the 9950X3D leads the chart. It landed at 132 FPS AVG here, passing the 9800X3D by a measurable but irrelevant 3.2%. Both CPUs lead all of Intel’s, although Intel at least lands its prior two generations ahead of the 7950X3D and 7800X3D with the game’s updates. This game really seems to benefit from extra cache, with the 9950X3D leading the 9950X by 46% and the 9800X3D leading the 9700X (although they have other differences) by 41%. Dragon’s Dogma 2 remains heavy on CPUs in NPC-intensive areas.

The 285K continues to impress with how much of a downgrade it is from not only AMD’s current generation, but Intel’s past generations.

We added the older results for the 3700X and 2600 to this chart. We noticed that performance on older generations hasn’t changed much. At most, there might be a 5% change here, but we don’t think so. Even with that though, anything is an upgrade.

Intel has seen the most upgrade since our last round of tests. This game has gotten updates, so it’s possible some of those were targeted at Intel. Windows updates could also affect it. We consistently saw uplift across Intel’s CPUs. That’s shifted the relative ranking of the 14th and 13th gen against the 7800X3D (watch our review).

Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail - 1080p

Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail is up now. In this one, the 9800X3D ran at 380 FPS AVG, with the 9950X3D at 373 FPS AVG. We observed relatively wide run-to-run variance in some of these results, so the error bars are wider than typical. The 9800X3D leads the 9950X3D by just 2%, so they are functionally equal.

The 9950X3D bests its 9950X non-3D variant by 50 FPS or so, or 16% here in average framerate. The 1% lows are also significantly improved, indicating that frametime pacing is keeping up with improvements in the average framerate.

The improvement over the 7950X3D is 5.8%.

Intel’s closest CPUs don’t appear until the 14900K at 310 FPS AVG. This is mostly interesting because there was a time when Final Fantasy’s prior benchmark versions were entirely dominated by Intel, with the clean division halfway down the chart. This is actually what we’re seeing now favoring AMD, relegating Intel to the bottom. That’s flipped in recent years and generations.

Intel’s 285K underperforms against its prior two generations. There was no change in performance against last time for the 285K. Intel’s one advantage in this test is frametime pacing, where the 0.1% lows indicate that Intel’s CPUs generally have more consistent frame-to-frame intervals than AMD’s CPUs, although not by an amount that’d change your experience in a noticeable way.

The 5600X3D outperforms the 5700X3D in this game. This has been known and is because of the higher clock speed on the 5600X3D, which proves more valuable than the extra cores.

Final Fantasy XIV - 1440p

At 1440p, the top of the chart truncates as a result of GPU limitations on the RTX 4090 (watch our review). We’ll move to a 5090 (read our review) for our full revamp of CPU testing for the next major architecture, but for now, this is where we cap-out. We’re sure this is deeply disappointing to all 12 of you who have an RTX 5090.

The 9800X3D and 9950X3D are about the same once again. The 7950X3D is also now about the same, as is the 9700X, thanks to the external limitations. This is a good reminder that the gains once scaling graphics are most seen in time-based situations or in seriously heavy CPU games like Dragon’s Dogma 2, but otherwise, most of the time you’ll get the most uplift from a GPU.

Starfield

In Starfield, we had the 9950X3D at 171 FPS AVG, leading the 9800X3D’s 165 FPS by 3%. The 9800X3D was notably ahead of the 7800X3D and the 9950X3D continued that, though neither had as revolutionary of a gain as we’ve seen in other benchmarks.

The 14900K trails the 7800X3D, improving upon its prior round result in a meaningful way; however, because of the improvements we’re seeing in the prior generations, the 285K now falls back behind Intel’s 14900K in this test. The 285K still regresses and generally embarrasses Intel, trailing even the 13700K (watch our review). Intel has continually tweaked its microcode on these prior generations, so it’s possible that they rolled-out a microcode that had lost some performance at some point and they’ve regained some now with the 13th and 14th series. We update BIOS to the newest version for each round.

Against the 9950X at 124 FPS AVG, the 9950X3D improves by 37%. That’s one of the larger gains. Of course, if you’re not going to use the extra cores, the 9800X3D makes more sense for value.

Cyberpunk 2077 - 1080p/Medium

Cyberpunk 2077 is back in our CPU test suite again with the Phantom Liberty expansion. Tested at 1080p/medium here, the 9800X3D and 9950X3D both ran at about 219 FPS AVG and were well within run-to-run variance at only fractions of a frame per second apart. The 7800X3D trails, but not by much. It’d be roughly the same experience as these two.

The lead of the 9950X3D over the 9950X is 37% again, matching some of the other games. The Intel 200 series outdoes the prior generations here, finally, with the 285K at 170 FPS AVG. Unfortunately, that’s still below the AM4 5700X3D and 5600X3D.

F1 24 - 1080p

F1 24 at 1080p is up now. This one has the 9950X3D and 9800X3D again roughly tied, with the 7800X3D not far behind. The advantage is only 7%. The 9950X3D leads the 9950X non-3D variant by 29%, slightly reduced from the advantage seen in other games. We might be hitting a GPU limit here.

Intel’s 14900K is its closest competition, released in 2023, with the 285K down at 9950X levels. The 5600X3D and 5700X3D results show again that this game likes frequency and IPC to some extent.

F1 24 - 1440p

1440p is almost exactly the same in the bottom half, with the top switching around due to GPU overhead and limitations on GPU scaling. The 5800X3D falls down the ranks as the 14th and 13th gen handle the overhead a little better and with more stable frametime pacing, which helps the average. Otherwise, things are about the same sans limitations of scaling for the 9950X3D.

9950X3D Production Benchmarks

We’re moving on to production tests now. This is where the 16-core CPUs do well. Historically, we’ve seen the X3D variants of all of these CPUs underperform against the non-X3D parts due to power allocation to allow higher boosting. Extra cache doesn’t help in our testing here normally. We’ll see if the 9950X3D breaks that general trend.

Blender Rendering

Blender testing hasn’t changed since our October round. We ran validation on several CPUs and the results came out basically identically, so we can keep a lot of data for more comparisons. This should help those of you on older hardware because we’ve got more present here.

The 9950X3D required 6.6 minutes to complete the render, which is about tied with the 9950X. It was technically faster, but in reality, these are tied. That’s good news for the X3D part, though: Past X3D CPUs, like the 7950X3D, have been technically slightly slower than their non-3D equivalents. That’s not because of scheduling or parking, but because the frequency is slower in an all-core workload.

Another good example is the 7800X3D, which was slower than the 7700X by time required, or 5800X3D as slower than the 5800X. The 9950X3D is the first to break this trend in a big way. Technically, the 9800X3D looked like it was doing that against the 9700X, but the power target was what brought most of that change.

The 9950X3D outperforms the 285K here, with about a 7% reduction in total time required to complete the render.

Chromium Code Compile

Chromium code compile in Windows is another where the data set hasn’t changed, so we were able to salvage it after validation. The 9950X3D required 81 minutes to complete the compile, which is comparable to the time required for the 9950X, but technically improved. This puts it marginally ahead of the freshly retested 285K, with a reduction in time required to compile from 285K to 9950X3D of 4.7% less time required. The 14900K required 88 minutes here, with the 265K at 98 minutes. 

The 9950X3D is the new leader in our compile test. This is not going to be representative of every type of code compile, just like none of these tests is representative of every angle of a use case; however, the way we test it, the 9950X3D is the new leader short of going to Threadripper.

7-Zip Compression

Data for decompression and compression can’t be salvaged, so it’s all new.

In 7-Zip file compression testing, the 9950X3D led the chart at 206,643 MIPs, or millions of instructions per second. That has it just ahead of the 9950X by 3.3%. This is one of the tests where cache can help, depending on its implementation. The 5600X3D and 5600X are good examples of this: The X3D part has a lower advertised frequency, but manages to still roughly tie the 5600X.

The 9950X3D outperforms the 7950X3D by 8.5%, which completed 191K MIPS. The 14900K is next at roughly 189K MIPS, then the 13900K (watch our review). The 285K follows all of these, down at 179K MIPS. 

Core count clearly matters in this test: The 3950X 16-core CPU is outperforming the 5900X 12-core CPU and 9700X 8-core CPU.

7-Zip Decompression

In 7-Zip Decompression, we measured the 9950X3D at 277K MIPS, with the 9950X non-3D at 272K MIPS. You wouldn’t really benefit from the 9950X3D in a meaningful way in either compression or decompression in this workload. The 9950X achieves all of the performance already, so you’d need use cases that more directly leverage the cache to get value out of the 9950X3D.

Intel’s 14900K is its closest competitor, followed by the 14700K and then the 285K.

Adobe Premiere

We saved some of the data for Adobe Premiere as well. The biggest swing was to Intel’s 12th to 14th Gen CPUs here, where we saw some movement from the Windows updates recently. Most of the other parts stayed relatively stationary. Any 12th to 14th Gen CPUs with data prior to this round would move around a bit, so be aware of that; however, just to try and offer some extra data that’s still mostly comparable, we’ve left those parts here. Most of this data is brand new.

The 9950X3D scored 11600 points in the Puget suite aggregate extended scoring for Premiere, which puts it at the top of the chart. It bests the 9950X by 5.8%, with the 14900K closest to it, then the 285K. The improvement over the 7950X non-3D is 7%.

9950X3D Efficiency

We’ll keep power and efficiency testing short this time and just show a couple situations.

Starfield

In Starfield, the 9950X3D ended up at 1.7 FPS/W, putting it behind the 7950X3D and 7800X3D, but tied with the 5700X3D and 9800X3D. The 9950X3D pulled 98.8W when playing this game, and Starfield is one of our games that most heavily loads the CPU (but is still nothing like an all-core Blender workload).

The 9950X non-3D part pulled 168W in this same test, putting it down at 0.7 FPS/W. That means the 9950X pulled nearly 70W more than the 9950X3D, or about a 70% increase in power consumption despite running at a lower framerate. In terms of FPS/W, the 9950X3D is both higher framerate and lower power, and so it is far more efficient. It’s still not as efficient as the low-power 7800X3D, though.

7-Zip Compression

7-Zip compression shows that the 9950X3D can still be power-hungry. In our compression efficiency testing, the 9950X3D pulled 203.8W. That put it at 1014 MIPS/W, which makes it less efficient than about half the chart. The CPU is the best performer, but not for efficiency and that’s because it’s pulling 204W, its efficiency has decreased compared to some others.

The 9950X scored 979 MIPS/W and pulled the same power at 204W, making it less efficient than the 9950X3D. The 7800X3D is a lower performer overall, and in big ways, but has such impressively low power consumption that it ends up being the most efficient.

Of course, if you were serious about running this kind of workload all the time, you’d still want something more powerful than the 7800X3D.

7-Zip Decompression

Decompression testing looks better for the 16-core parts, with the 7950X3D proving incredibly efficient here, followed by an impressive result from the 7950X non-3D with ECO Mode enabled. The 9950X3D ran at 1358 MIPS/W, putting it slightly ahead of the 9950X. They’re still in the middle of this chart though.

9950X3D Conclusion

That’s it. You have the numbers.

For the quickest recap: For gaming, you can think of the 9950X3D like a 9800X3D. We didn’t run into any major issues with the 9950X3D here. That in and of itself is kind of an accomplishment for AMD. The company has really struggled over the years with the dual CCDs, where one has the extra X3D cache on it. Over the years, it’s taken them some time to get to a place where it’s not regressive and where it’s a little easier to set up. The 9950X3D does appear to do that in our experience so far and that is a major improvement for AMD. It’s taken them some generations to get there.  

If you have the funds and are looking to build a purely gaming computer, we think you should scale it down and go for a 9800X3D. It’s just not that big of a difference as the 9800X3D often trades places with the 9950X3D and you save some money. 

Intel, on the other hand, is out of this conversation right now. They are not part of the high-end expensive CPU for gaming build scenario at the moment. 

Meanwhile, the 9950X makes sense for production-heavy builds that don’t have an explicit use for that extra cache. There’s definitely use-cases for this out there. We see a little bit of that in our 7-Zip testing, but for the most part in the things we test, it doesn’t tend to benefit from the extra cache in non-gaming scenarios. 

Where the 9950X3D, and the other X3D 16-core parts, shine is a more limited use case where you have some mix of really heavy production and really heavy gaming. If you do a lot of compression, decompression, maybe render things on the CPU, are heavy into Premiere, or do a lot of code compiles and play a lot of games, then that’s kind of the use case for the CPU. 

If you’re in one camp or the other exclusively, then you can save some money by going for either a 9800X3D or a 9950X.

We wouldn’t pay more than MSRP for the 9950X3D. CPUs tend to stick closer to MSRP, but can still have stupid prices from some retailers or third-party sellers.

Corsair is bringing its popular Custom Lab service to Europe, allowing gamers to create personalised peripherals that reflect their style. Corsair Custom Lab offers a one-stop shop for creating custom gear, allowing users to express themselves through mice, keyboards, and mousepads, with plans to expand the product offerings.

Corsair Custom Lab allows customers to personalise the appearance of gaming peripherals, enabling them to curate a workspace aesthetic that is uniquely their own. Users can select from various colours and themes, ranging from retro gaming designs to futuristic graphics, giving them a canvas for self-expression.

The K65 Plus Wireless gaming keyboard, the M75 Wireless gaming mouse, and the MM300 mousepad are the first products available through Custom Lab in Europe, but expect more to come. Corsair Custom Lab will be accessible through all EU Corsair webstores, with keyboard layouts for North America, the UK, Germany, and France available at launch.

The Corsair Custom Lab platform is now live on Corsair websites in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Poland. Artist series selections currently available on the US website will be offered to EU customers at a later date.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: Corsair's Custom Lab is a nice option for users who want to avoid the hassle of customising keyboards or searching for specific parts in various stores. However, that comes at a price, literally.

With both Nvidia and AMD having launched new-generation graphics cards this year, it is now time to take a look at the state of the market. Nvidia's RTX 50 series GPUs have been available since the end of January and as of last week, the AMD RX 9070 series GPUs are also available. Early stats indicate that AMD is currently outselling by volume.

The team at ComputerBase (via 3DCenter) has revealed the results of its latest survey, finding that around 60 percent of 4,200 readers surveyed have bought an RX 90000 series graphics card over an RTX 50 unit. Of those surveyed, around 25 percent opted for a current-gen Nvidia GPU, while a further 20 percent opted to pick up an older generation graphics card instead.

These results confirm something industry onlookers had already suspected – RTX 50 stock is in extremely low supply and AMD did a much better job building up stock for its RX 9070 launch compared to Nvidia's RTX 5090, 5080 and 5070 launches.

As the stock situation fluctuates, we expect these results to eventually change. As Nvidia provides multiple higher-end options compared to AMD, we would expect Nvidia to still accrue more money from GPU sales, even if it doesn't shift as much overall volume over the coming months.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Have you attempted to pick up a new-gen graphics card in recent weeks? Were you successful or have you struggled to find stock?

BlizzCon is coming back in 2026! The ultimate celebration of Blizzard's games and the vibrant community that unites players will again grace the Anaheim Convention Center on September 12th and 13th, 2026.

BlizzCon is a cherished tradition for Blizzard and its fans. For many, it goes beyond simply showcasing games. It's where fans celebrate their shared passion for Blizzard's universes. Since its inaugural event in 2005, BlizzCon has been a staple for fans of its work. Now, nearly 20 years later, Blizzard aims to elevate this iconic event to new heights.

After skipping 2024 and 2025 (Blizzard confirmed we wouldn't get one this year), BlizzCon is returning in 2026. Blizzard plans to deliver an exceptional experience for all attendees, building upon BlizzCon traditions such as the Opening Ceremony, in-depth panels, the Darkmoon Faire, friendly competition, and hands-on gameplay.

Expect to learn more details between now and the event's date. Users can always subscribe to BlizzCon's newsletter to be notified when tickets go on sale and receive access to BlizzCon news, special offers, and announcements.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: Have you ever gone to a BlizzCon? Would you like to?

Moon Studios' critically acclaimed Ori series has achieved a remarkable milestone, surpassing 15 million copies sold across Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

Thomas Mahler, the series' director, celebrated this achievement on social media, noting that it's “not too shabby” for a genre that many considered dead when development of the first game started. Funny enough, Steam now receives new metroidvania games every week or so, and in part, that could be explained by how Ori revitalised the genre.

Adding to this accomplishment, Mahler revealed that these sales figures do not include players who experienced the games through Xbox Game Pass. As such, the game has likely been played by well over the 15 million players who've bought it.

In other news, Moon Studios has announced its independence following months of negotiations with what remains of Private Division. The studio is now focusing on its action RPG, No Rest for the Wicked, which is currently in early access. The announcement was made during a recent Wicked Inside Showcase, where the studio revealed what's coming to its latest game.

The studio unveiled the game's upcoming update, “The Breach,” scheduled for release on April 30th, 2025. This update will introduce new content, including new regions like the Lowland Meadows and Marin Woods, weapon archetypes such as Gauntlets and Wands, and various cosmetic and performance enhancements. The update also focuses on replayability, implementing QoL improvements like direct teleportation to your house, an enhanced storage system, and a Hardcore mode.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: Have you ever played an Ori game?