thestryker wrote on Mar 15, 2025, 16:11:

Jivaro wrote on Mar 15, 2025, 02:55:
Thank you folks. It's far too late to return the CPU, but at least I will know why I have to replace it if everything explodes.

Intel extended the warranty on all of them (including OEMs though you might have to go through the OEM if that's the case) so you should be able to get a replacement and might still be able to even if it's a tray CPU.

https://supporttickets.intel.com/s/warrantyinfo

Thanks, I will check into it. This machine was built by buying the components separately at a local Best Buy, so the processor was boxed. Hopefully, that works in my favor.

Jivaro wrote on Mar 15, 2025, 02:55:
Thank you folks. It's far too late to return the CPU, but at least I will know why I have to replace it if everything explodes.

Intel extended the warranty on all of them (including OEMs though you might have to go through the OEM if that's the case) so you should be able to get a replacement and might still be able to even if it's a tray CPU.

https://supporttickets.intel.com/s/warrantyinfo

Thank you folks. It's far too late to return the CPU, but at least I will know why I have to replace it if everything explodes.

I wish I could upvote you RogueSix for that post. I second his caution on your cpu. What you do with the information is up too you though. I would heed his words. The 13th/14th series has degradation issues that will make your cpu fail sooner rather than later. The microcode updates are only placebo.

Jivaro wrote on Mar 13, 2025, 19:43:
For the game to run, I had to use the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility to change the performance core ratio from x57 to x55. Using x56 sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't. I have to do the same thing with Marvel Rivals, which is also an Unreal 5 game. I have an Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-14900K 3.20 GHz. If anybody can explain to me why I have to make this change I would be very grateful. I happened to find the fix in a Marvel Rivals thread back when it was released and now I find myself using it for every Unreal 5 game I play...but I don't understand the "why".

No offense but have you been living under a rock and missed the whole Intel 13th and 14th gen degradation debacle?

If you have to lower clocks to get an Unreal Engine 5.x game to run then chances are through the roof that your CPU is affected by the degradation as Unreal Engine games (especially during the initial shader compilation) have always been the no. 1 "benchmark" to expose Intel CPU degradation.

Did you ever install all the microcode fixes (there were three major ones) via BIOS updates? Your microcode should be 0x12B as that is the latest one.

Well, instead of writing an essay, I will just point you directly to the Intel forums (with further reading links).

I had an i9-13900K that I bought in October 2022 and that I deemed fine but the more details emerged from this story, the more I became convinced that I had a degraded piece of shit CPU in my PC. I never had a problem with Unreal Engine shader compilation or excessive crashing but for me it started with the nVidia drivers failing to install... just a simple "nVidia driver failed to install" error message and no further details.

There were some other oddities with my system as well that I won't list here to avoid an essay but long story short is: I RMA'ed my CPU in fall 2024, got a brand new 13900K from the Netherlands (I'm in EU-DE) and eBay'ed it because I got an AMD AM5 system as a replacement with an awesome 9700X CPU at first and then I was lucky enough to get my paws on a 9800X3D on launch day for €529. eBay'ed the 9700X and I'm a happy camper with a rock stable system ever since (though AMD still has its minor quirks sometimes).

BTW, I'm not quite buying Intel's explanations to this day because degradation is/was supposed to be irreversible (would be 100% plausible, too, right? ... can't fix degraded hardware via microcode updates).

However, my issues with the nVidia drivers went away completely after the first of three microcode updates so if you ask me there is probably more to it than Intel has admitted. Oh, well. It's a moot point for me now. Their RMA process was great and fast. From creating the ticket to new CPU in hand, it took them eight days IIRC (Germany - Netherlands - Germany).

If I were you, I would RMA that CPU ASAP. It's toast.

P.S.: Wikipedia also has a good summary of events. Intel extended the warranty for 13th/14th gen CPUs by two years, i.e. five years warranty total. If anyone has an unstable Intel system then I would RMA that CPU and make sure you have all the microcode updates installed (if you have the latest BIOS installed then this should be the case anyway).
A great plus of the warranty extension is that, if you have had it with Intel like me, you can sell the new RMA CPU with lots of leftover warranty. I got €334 on eBay for the RMA replacement of my two+ year old i9-13900K in November 2024. Ka-ching!

This comment was edited on Mar 13, 2025, 22:10.

Jivaro wrote on Mar 13, 2025, 19:43:
For the game to run, I had to use the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility to change the performance core ratio from x57 to x55. Using x56 sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't. I have to do the same thing with Marvel Rivals, which is also an Unreal 5 game. I have an Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-14900K 3.20 GHz. If anybody can explain to me why I have to make this change I would be very grateful. I happened to find the fix in a Marvel Rivals thread back when it was released and now I find myself using it for every Unreal 5 game I play...but I don't understand the "why".

Thermal throttling maybe so when you lower to 55x it does not happen and performs better because full speed is kept? The 14900 is a really hot one...

Have you ran HWiNFO64 to find out?

For the game to run, I had to use the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility to change the performance core ratio from x57 to x55. Using x56 sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't. I have to do the same thing with Marvel Rivals, which is also an Unreal 5 game. I have an Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-14900K 3.20 GHz. If anybody can explain to me why I have to make this change I would be very grateful. I happened to find the fix in a Marvel Rivals thread back when it was released and now I find myself using it for every Unreal 5 game I play...but I don't understand the "why".

This was an interesting snapshot of the game, and it's a little better than I expected. Their skill modifier system ended up being more interesting than I expected from the initial information. Each point you invest in a skill unlocks another slot to put in a modifier (appears to cap at 12 right now), but some of the modifiers can stack as well so they'd use up multiple slots. Early combat difficulty seems like it's in a good place (I only played melee), but I'm not sure how representative this will actually be as scaling in ARPGs is hard to get right (here's looking at you Diablo 4 which became a joke to play early on in the curve). Curious what pricing will end up looking like for early access.

The performance is in a weird place, but at the same time I expect this with every UE5 game. I didn't bother lowering settings from epic, but I did end up setting DLSS to Quality rather than using DLAA just to even out the minimums (was getting 35-60 fps with DLAA versus 45-70 with DLSS Quality). Still a lot of odd frame pacing and as weird as it may sound breaking containers tended to feel somewhat slow motion so I wonder if they have some physics calculations going for them.

My system: 265K/DDR5-7200/3080 12GB running 3440x1440 and it was installed on a PCIe 4.0 SSD

El Pit wrote on Mar 13, 2025, 07:09:
I liked and finished Titan Quest. But Grim Dawn which was made by some TQ developer veterans was much better IMO.

Definitely. As I said, I'm not a huge fan of clickfests but Diablo IV and Grim Dawn are the best in class games fo' sho'. I'm looking forward to starting a new character in GD after that new expansion (Fangs of Asterkarn) has been released but that's far future talk as I will be waiting for patches and a decent sale (as always).

VaranDragon wrote on Mar 13, 2025, 06:13:

RogueSix wrote on Mar 12, 2025, 20:00:
Not bad. It's lacking the polish/QoL and oomph of a Diablo IV but....

Yeah, I stopped reading after this. Diablo IV is absolute shite.

Nope. It's not. It has become my favorite Diablo. Diablo 2 was awesome back in the day, of course, but I played D2R and could hardly believe that this shit was ever popular after the short nostalgia honeymoon period wore off.

Is Diablo IV perfect? Nope. Not by a long shot. But for someone who isn't all that much into simpleton clickfests in the first place, it was the best experience I've had so far. The campaign is pretty good, the classes I was interested in were fun to play (Necromancer, Sorcerer, Rogue) and for the first time ever in a Diablo game, I took a character to max level 100 during season #2 (Frost Sorceress). I like how visceral it is. It feeds that power trip sentiment really well, no matter what class you play.

This is where the contrast to the much slower paced TQ2 really stood out. TQ2 is much less action-y and much less spectacle. Which is fine with me since not every game can be, or should be even, Diablo IV. Variety is the spice of life.

That said, what is not fine is, being inspired by this TQ2 demo and all, I just finally fired up TQ Anniversary Edition which has been rotting in my epic backlog for ages, that TQ Anniversary is pretty much unplayable on a modern system at native res. WTF?!? I thought the whole point of the AE was to sort of be a remaster but I guess not. The UI is not scaling and you can safely forget about playing this game at 4K. I had to lower the resolution to 1440p and even then stuff is still really tiny, even with the 'large UI' option enabled.

What a massive disappointment. Going by similar comments on the forums, I guess they really just made the AE edition and the DLCs to milk the fans. This puts quite a damper on my interest in TQ2. TQ AE is not that old. It came out less than nine years ago. It is unforgivable that they never bothered to update the UI scaling. Lazy mofos. TQ2 (Anniversary Edition) will be a steep discount purchase for me, tyvm.

I liked and finished Titan Quest. But Grim Dawn which was made by some TQ developer veterans was much better IMO. I will give TQ2 a chance and will watch gameplay videos after its release.

RogueSix wrote on Mar 12, 2025, 20:00:
Not bad. It's lacking the polish/QoL and oomph of a Diablo IV but....

Yeah, I stopped reading after this. Diablo IV is absolute shite.

What are the minimum system requirements? Can my old used MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti (N750TI-2GD5/OC; 2 GB of VRAM) play it?

Titan Quest plus its DLC was very fine once you use certain Masteries and summonings, sniper like bombings with certain ones.
And Grim Dawn from some of the devs is excellent.

But my favorite is Sacred 2 with free camera mod (from over the almost shoulder to really zoomed out capability).
The level of exploring and beautiful world still stands today with interesting interactions in the more complex quests.
You have a very good single player only "MMO" huge world to play as you want.

Darks wrote on Mar 12, 2025, 22:42:

WitcherOntheProwl wrote on Mar 12, 2025, 15:59:
Just requested access for the beta test. Seems like access was granted or will be. Shall wait and see.

Epic Is granting instant Access. not sure why Steam cant do the same.

They are doing it via a request system so Steam elitists can feel even more elite and exclusive than they already do!

Like ... omg I was invited because I am so speshul and cuz Gabe luvs me

WitcherOntheProwl wrote on Mar 12, 2025, 15:59:
Just requested access for the beta test. Seems like access was granted or will be. Shall wait and see.

Epic Is granting instant Access. not sure why Steam cant do the same.

jacobvandy wrote on Mar 12, 2025, 20:55:
As a reminder, the creators of Titan Quest and its expansion formed an indie studio after THQ closed down, and they made a successor on the same engine long ago -- Grim Dawn.

Yep and its got an expansion due this year!

As a reminder, the creators of Titan Quest and its expansion formed an indie studio after THQ closed down, and they made a successor on the same engine long ago -- Grim Dawn.

Was that sarcasm? Because sometimes it is hard to tell and I don't want to assume.

Riahderymnmaddog wrote on Mar 12, 2025, 20:03:
Ohhhh so I am being forced to choose between a masculine or feminine character. I uninstalled instead.

Brrrrruuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh...

Who shits a give? Just create a character and play the fucking game, man!