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We look at how NVIDIA has downsized essentially all of its gaming GPUs in terms of relative configuration compared to each generation’s flagship

The Highlights

• This article expands upon our "RTX 4080 problem" by looking at the entirety of the RTX 50 series, including how the RTX 5070 looks an awful lot like a prior 50-class or 60-class GPU.
• NVIDIA is giving you the least amount of CUDA cores for a given class of GPU than ever before.
• GPU prices have crept higher across the board, but NVIDIA's, in particular, have lost step with what we came to expect from generations of GPU launches.

Table of Contents

• AutoTOC

Intro

NVIDIA is giving you the least amount of CUDA cores for a given class of GPU than ever before. 

Today an RTX 5070 is comparable to a GTX 950 (watch our review) in some ways when you run some numbers. An RTX 5080 isn’t distant from a 2060 (read our review) in some considerations. The relationship between the number of CUDA cores the flagship has and the number of CUDA cores the lower-tier GPUs has been getting worse basically across the board. The amount of money you have to spend, even adjusted for inflation, to buy the GPUs has been staying flat or rising.
When this happens in any other product category it’s called shrinkflation.

Editor's note: This was originally published on April 3, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.

Credits

Host, Writing

Steve Burke

Writing, Research

Jeremy Clayton

Video Editing

Vitalii Makhnovets

Writing, Web Editing

Jimmy Thang

Chart - Percentage of CUDA Cores Relative to Generational Flagship

We’ve already talked about the pricing issues and availability, but what we’re doing now is revisiting a topic that we ran about 2 years ago in a video called the RTX 4080 problem, in which we explored why no one was buying 4080s (watch our review) at the time. It wasn’t just the money but because the relationship of what you got for the money. We’re taking the concepts where we broke out the pricing, the components, the die area, etc. and applying it to the 50 series and, in short, it has not gotten better.  

We just have 2 main charts to go through in this article but they’re really interesting. Now that NVIDIA has shipped everything except for the 60-class card, we’ve got a good amount to look at. The real goal of this is to explore the relationship between the money and what you get for it, but we’re also going to compare some of the cards against prior generations and doing some inflation adjustments.  

We started working on this piece for the 5080 launch and then realized it’s going to get worse. So, we waited for the 5070, which is now here (unfortunately). Let’s get into the data for this.

This chart compares the percentage of the Flagship CUDA core count that each configuration is. Due to architectural changes, we’re not interested in the raw count of CUDA cores, but the percentage occupancy of the maximum config for the flagship die.

Our chart plot tracks each same-named GPU class across NVIDIA generations on a percentage scale representing how many CUDA cores each has relative to a larger configuration. The GPUs are all shown relative to the CUDA core count of that generation’s top gaming, non-Titan GPU – the 5090, 4090, 2080 Ti (watch our review), 1080 Ti (read our revisit), and so on – which we’re calling the Flagship-class. If you see 100% anywhere, that means it is equal in CUDA core count to the flagship.

We went with the 3090 (watch our review) for the 30 series rather than the late-arriving, cash-grab, full die 3090 Ti (watch our review). We had to make a judgment call.

The Flagship-class is plotted relative to the largest die’s maximum possible core count. The GTX 780 Ti (watch our revisit) is one of the few exceptions where NVIDIA made a flagship with the full non-cut-down die. 

The GTX 780 (watch our revisit) had 80% of the CUDA cores that the flagship 780 Ti did. The RTX 2080 (watch our review) brought that down to 68% of full CUDA count, then just 59% for the 4080, but it gets worse. The 5080 is a mockery of an 80-class card with only 49% of the flagship-class CUDA count configuration. We don’t care if the die is different or not for this chart, just the config.

The 3080 temporarily bucked the trend at 83%, which was great. This correlates with its incredibly good value and performance at launch with positive reviews. Back in our review of the 3080, we said, “The card performance overall is impressive. It’s a big recovery from the 20 series when we reviewed it and called 3 of the cards a waste of our time because they were 1080 Tis and then complained for 55 days about how there was no RTX and the cards were named RTX. So this was a big turnaround for NVIDIA.”

That also, however, aligns with the reviews we and others gave to the 3090 and 3090 Ti. For example, in our 3090 Ti review, we stated, “For us, hard pass on this. 8-12% for $2,200 is insane.”

And with an overclock back then, we were able to nearly equate the 3090’s performance with the OC 3080. That’s how close they were.

The odd 80 Ti/Super class from the 20 series to 40 series occupy the space between the 80 class and the flagships. There’ll likely be another between the 5080 and 5090. 

The Super refreshes really should be called the “oopsies” edition GPUs. NVIDIA rolls these out when they make an “oopsies” on price and public sentiment, using Supers to meet halfway on price. Our hope is that the 5080 and 5090 gap ends up again as an “oops, let’s fix this” rally from NVIDIA with a mix of the 2080 Super’s (watch our review) or 4080 Super’s relatively sane pricing along with the 3080 Ti’s (watch our review) aggressive configuration. That might start to help fix this a little bit. 

The 70 Ti/Super class drops hard. The 1070 Ti (watch our review) had a 68% CUDA core configuration for this class, falling to just 41% for the 5070 Ti (read our review). By this logic, the 1070 Ti offered far more GPU relative to the 1080 Ti than the 5070 Ti is to the 5090.

Next, we’ll expose NVIDIA’s grand switcheroo between the 70 and 80 class GPUs. 

From the 770 series to the 3070 (watch our review), the CUDA core count of the 70-class cards once reliably was between 53-59% of the flagship’s CUDA core count. 

Then the 4070 bore only 36% of the CUDA cores the 4090 had, and the card falling in the 50-60% range was now the 4080.

Moving into the present, the RTX 5070 has an anemic 28% of the flagship’s configuration. If you were to extend the 70-class line out on its previous trend, you’d arrive around the same position as where the 80-class is now. Strictly speaking in proportions and if we want to do funny percent math, the 3070’s (watch our review) core allocation relative to its respective flagship was 100% higher proportionality against the 5070’s.

The 60-class is where it gets really bad.

That 28% figure for the 5070 is lower than almost every 60 class configuration. The 60 class traditionally occupied the 30-40% range with a high outlier in the 20 series at 44%. This tracks with the fact that we were softly positive on the 2060 at its release – more positive than the 2080. The 3060 returned to the low 30% range, but the 4060 got slashed to 19%. Here’s what we said of the 4060’s worse cousin, the 4060 Ti, “The RTX 4060 Ti 8GB is one of the worst GPU launches from NVIDIA that we’ve ever covered.”

And that brings us to the 50-class. The 19% on the 4060 is where the 50-class has sat multiple times. NVIDIA covered this segment during the 20 series with the 16 series GPUs, which we didn’t plot for sake of simplicity. Moving forward, the 3050 was a 24% configuration, and it’s no wonder why the 4050 got canned – it would be like scraping the bottom of the barrel so hard that you just get splinters.

But what’s crazy is that the 5070 barely clears the 27% config of the old GTX 950. That’s just sad.

Now that we’ve established the trends, let’s keep all of that in mind and analyze pricing in the same way.

Chart - Inflation Adjusted Prices

This line plot tracks the launch price of all the same GPUs in each class, adjusted for inflation from the month of each GPU’s launch to January 2025.

Right away, we see that the flagship class has changed massively. The 780 Ti, 980 Ti (watch our revisit), and legendary 1080 Ti fall within a consistent $100 spread. The 980 Ti was slightly cheaper at a $650 launch price, which is $865 after the inflation adjustment. The 1080 Ti sits at $912, in stark contrast to the massive jump of the 2080 Ti at $1,510 adjusted. That’s a 66% cost increase gen-on-gen for the customer. It was technically available for $1,000, but in very limited quantities, and the vast majority went for $1,200, which is what we adjusted from.

The price went up again for the 3090, with a slight relief in the 4090, before jumping again to the $2,000 mark with the 5090. It undoubtedly costs more for NVIDIA to make a 5090 than it did to make a 1080 Ti, but there’s no argument that more than double the retail price is painful for a consumer.

The 80 class has also risen, though not to the same extreme degree as the flagship class. The GTX era 80s had inflation-adjusted prices between $734 and $886. There was a slight bump to just over $1,000 in the 20 series, followed by relief to the mid-$800s at the 3080, before rising insurmountably to the 4080.

When taken alongside the CUDA core configurations, all of this underscores both just how good the 3080 was and how terrible the 4080 was. The 3080 had a spike in core allocation and a return to “normal” pricing, while the 4080 fell off core config cliff and the price went up at the same time. Coming to the present, the 5080 is back at the same relative price as the 2080, but at a much worse relative CUDA core count.

The 80 Ti/Super class is an oddball – as if NVIDIA hasn’t been able to decide whether it’s better as a later, better value 80 class alternative like in the 20 and 40 series, or if it should be a weirdly positioned, poor value cash-grab like the 3080 Ti.

The 70 Ti/Super class has risen in price across the generations that it’s existed, from roughly $500 at its introduction in the 10 series to $849 in the 40 series. AMD Radeon GPUs were competitive in this price bracket back in the 10 and 20 series days, which is likely the reason why we see this aggressive pricing during that time period. From the 30 series onward, NVIDIA’s dominance has allowed this class of card, specifically, to sit comfortably between the 80 and 70 classes.

The 70 class has managed to stay relatively flat from one end of the chart to the other. The all time low price was in the GTX 900 series at $440, and the high point was the 20 series at about $750. That’s a large swing, but it’s stayed relatively flat since then.

The 60 class paints a similar picture. The inflation adjusted price line is generally flat overall with a slight downward trajectory since the 20 series, but in that same time the core config has gone into the dumpster. We don’t know anything about a theoretical future 5060, but we’d bet it won’t be a pleasant addition to this data set.

Finally, the 50 class hasn’t seen much action, but it hasn’t seen many releases in recent years – probably because the 4060 took its actual place. Judging by the 3050, NVIDIA is probably unwilling to launch a GPU for under $250 again, let alone the $145 mark of the 1050 (watch our review).

Additional Segmentation

Over the years, the means of product segmentation have migrated. Product segmentation isn’t inherently an evil thing, and especially in the world of silicon where the costs are enormous to make any of these products, but it can be applied in ways which just don’t feel good as a consumer. Segmenting the 1080 Ti at 11GB versus the Titan cards at 12GB didn’t feel particularly bad. It was obvious what they were doing, but the affected user base was much smaller.

Some of the other ways NVIDIA has historically segmented its products include splitting double precision out into only the highest-end cards, which at one point included Titans. Another is by forcing users over to Quadro for verified drivers as an additional layer of liability reduction for big organizations.

Neither of these two segmented features are noticeable to the vast majority of end users, so it doesn’t feel as bad to the consumer. Over time, that has drifted to VRAM increasingly, which now means there is a new developing class of users. 

For the gaming audience, we get situations where a $750 video card can find itself in situations of unplayable stuttering and latency nearing 800 ms PCL due to VRAM overload and swapping.

Joining the scientific user base that once needed double precision, or now might need various machine learning capabilities, there is now the segmented customer base of so-called “creators.” Not just YouTubers, but anyone making 3D art, games, or similar media.

These users are being pushed into the 90-class, which is further diminishing the capabilities of the highest-end gaming cards or pushing those high-end gaming consumers into price categories of professionals who use their GPUs to make money. It’s easier to shrug it off knowing it’ll make back the time, even if it’s still unpleasant.

“Arbitrary” Naming

Back in our RTX 4080 Problem video, we talked about how all of this is predicated on the assumption that the names mean anything. Like Whose Line Is It Anyway, sometimes it feels like the names are made up and the prices don’t matter.

We’ve been open about our opinions about this changing over the years: At one point, it did feel like names were somewhat arbitrary. It is just a name, and it’s ultimately the specs and price that matter. But the shift came over the last couple generations, where we came to appreciate that what’s in a name is important.

NVIDIA has used the 80-class cards to establish an expectation in customers, and regardless of whether NVIDIA intends it to still be perceived as the high-end as opposed to some mid-range card (which it is now), the fact is that their consumers do perceive the 50 name as intended to be high-end.

This is sort of a death of the author scenario, but then NVIDIA doesn’t want to name a $1,000 video card a “5070.” That creates new problems. 

NVIDIA has died as the author, and the consumer is now in control over what these names mean. To quote someone in the industry, it’s the “perception of reality” versus the reality. 

If NVIDIA wants to establish a reality where an 80-class card is half of a 90-class card, they can do that; however, if the end users perceive that a 5080 should be a true high-end device, that’s all that actually matters. NVIDIA is also responsible for this. The company spent a decade establishing the 80-class cards as the top-of-the-line, behind only the Ti class cards. It has now bifurcated those two lines and created a large gulf between them.

And this is getting worse with 5070 cards that are now more similar to older 50-class cards.

And so while the name itself is technically arbitrary as compared to the specs, the name matters. It defines an expectation. 

Let’s explore that philosophy a bit more. If Toyota suddenly starts shipping rebadged Yugos that it calls Camrys, that’s going to cause problems with the customer base. That’s what NVIDIA is doing. If the AMC Gremlin is sold under literally any name, it’s going to cause problems.

The point is, the RTX 5080 is a Yugo. Or a Gremlin. Or a Ford Pinto. And NVIDIA has spent a decade branding it as a supercar (and it was at one point a supercar). 

Conclusion

Zooming back out, we think the overall picture is clear. NVIDIA has downsized essentially all of its gaming GPUs in terms of relative configuration compared to each generation’s flagship. All of the lines go down. The chart from earlier had a lot of words to say one thing: Line go down = bad. We don’t want the line to go down. We want the line to stay the same or go up.

The 80 class is now in line with former 70 class GPUs and the 70 Ti/Super class is now in line with former 60 Ti class territory. The last 60 class card was configured like a 50-class of yore. 

Some might argue that the 4090 and 5090 being such monsters skews the comparisons, but we think that’s more of a perception issue based on NVIDIA's success at pushing the cost of the high-end higher. NVIDIA’s flagship GPUs have been very large pieces of silicon since the 20 series, and the CUDA config cutting had barely begun at that point, and the MSRP wasn’t as high as it is now.

The price of NVIDIA’s GPUs has generally gone up over time, even accounting for inflation that does things like turn the former $700 1080 Ti into a $912 GPU in today’s money. But then you look at $900 GPUs in today’s money and that’s a 9070 XT. And the 9070 XT isn’t positioned where the 1080 Ti was. The closest GPU might be the 5080 at $1,000 and that also doesn’t feel like a 1080 Ti by price. Flagships, however, are the worst, rising from that level to $2,000 with the 5090. Non-flagships haven’t risen quite as much, but it’s still significant. In this case, line go up = bad. For the consumer, anyway.

The 70-series here is one of the most textbook examples of shrinkflation. While the price point has stayed fairly consistent for a few generations, remember that the relative CUDA core configuration has dropped by a huge amount during that time. It’s gone from $610 with a 56% configuration in the 30 series, down to $550 with an embarrassing 28% core configuration in the 50 series.

NVIDIA is giving you a half-size slice of the GPU pie with the 5070 than it did with the 3070, but it’s charging you basically the same amount of money for the privilege.

All of the GPUs are victims of the configuration cutting we talked about. Even the technically-cheaper-than-they-used-to-be 70 and 60 class cards are providing less of a share of the capabilities of their respective flagships than they used to. 

And AMD isn’t immune to this, of course. We have an entire article dedicated to the company’s fake MSRPs that delves into this. NVIDIA, however, holds 90% of the market, and it’s important for you to understand how your money is disproportionately losing value when it’s spent with NVIDIA versus many years ago.

We don’t have an answer for this. It’s sort of too big, but it’s important to know about and to start thinking about. Maybe enough people will pay attention to this so that it will help them make informed purchasing decisions.

Nvidia has not yet officially announced its RTX 5060 or RTX 5060 Ti graphics cards, but we've been learning about both via leaks for several weeks. It would appear that official news is just around the corner, as popular PC testing tool, AIDA64, has just been updated with details for the incoming RTX 5060 Ti. 

The latest update for AIDA64 is now available. The latest update adds Greek language options to the app for the first time. However, the highlight for us is the addition of GPU details for the RTX 5060 Ti and the Radeon RX 7650 GRE, both of which have yet to be publicly announced.

Here are the full patch notes:

New features & improvements

• Greek  localization
• Improved support for Intel Panther Lake CPU
• Asus Astral-RTX5000 Series GPU sensor support
• New hot key option to reset SensorPanel position
• Improved support for Zhaoxin KX-6000G and KX-7000 Series processors
• MSI MEG Ai1600T PSU sensor support
• GPU details for AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE
• GPU details for nVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti

What’s new since AIDA64 v7.00

• SensorPanel Core template
• Dark Mode with 5 dark themes
• Revamped user interface with configurable toolbar
• Icelandic  and Irish  localization
• System Stability Test: optimized clocks measurement
• High Contrast Mode improvements
• SensorPanel: pin to monitor
• Preferences: optimized opening latency
• Kernel driver security improvements
• Razer PWM PC Fan Controller sensor support
• CheckMate benchmark utilizing AVX, AVX2 and AVX-512
• Support for Intel Meteor Lake-PS CPU
• Improved support for Intel “Arrow Lake”, “Lunar Lake”, “Panther Lake” processors
• Preliminary support for Intel “Diamond Rapids” and “Nova Lake” processors
• Improved support for hybrid processors
• Improved support for Zhaoxin ZX-7000 CPU
• AVX-512 accelerated benchmarks for AMD Ryzen 9000 “Granite Ridge” CPU
• AVX-512 accelerated benchmarks for AMD Ryzen AI “Strix” APU
• AVX-512 accelerated benchmarks for AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series processors
• AVX2 optimized benchmarks for Intel Core Ultra 200 “Arrow Lake” CPU  and Intel “Meteor Lake” SoC
• Further optimized SHA3 benchmark on AVX-512 capable processors
• Enhanced support for AMD TR5 socket motherboards
• Enhanced support for B840, B850, B860, X870, X870E chipset motherboards
• Chipset information for AMD TRX50 and WRX90
• Microsoft Windows 11 2023 Update support
• Preliminary support for Intel “Clearwater Forest” and “Panther Lake” CPU
• ACPI 6.5 support
• NZXT Kraken 2023 and Kraken Elite sensor support
• Corsair HX1200i 2023 PSU sensor support
• Asus ROG Ryujin III Series, Gskill WigiDash, Turing (Turzx) LCD support
• Support for Microsoft Windows 11 2024 Update
• GPU details for AMD “Granite Ridge”, Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12GB, Radeon RX 7600 XT
• GPU details for Intel Arc A310E, Arc A350E, Arc A370E, Arc A380E, Arc A580E, Arc A750E
• GPU details for nVIDIA GeForce RTX 4000 Super Series, RTX A400, RTX A1000
• Retired Queen benchmark
• Discontinued support for Windows 95, 98, Me

Recent reports have claimed that the RTX 5060 series of GPUs will launch later this month, with the RTX 5060 set to be available in 8GB and 16GB configurations. Both GPUs are expected to launch at the same price as the last-generation RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 TI.

KitGuru Says: Are you waiting on the RTX 5060 announcement before making an upgrade? 

The configuration of Nvidia's upcoming lower-end GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs is still mostly unconfirmed, but rumours and reports have given us an idea of what to expect. The latest report comes from newly found shipping manifests, which show the memory bus of a GB206-based graphics card.

While previous reports linked PG152 board designs to the rumoured RTX 5060 Ti, RTX 5060, and RTX 5050 “Blackwell” GPUs, the reported “128-bit memory bus” specification for these cards has drawn scepticism from some. Many had hoped that Nvidia would opt for a wider 192-bit bus for its next-generation budget-friendly options, rather than seemingly revisiting design choices from the GeForce RTX 4060 series.

Image credit: VideoCardz

Unfortunately, it seems Nvidia has indeed chosen the 128-bit memory bus for the upcoming entry-level graphics cards. VideoCardz found shipment manifests with the IDs “PG152 SKU 25” and “PG152 SKU 10”, believed to correspond to GeForce RTX 5060 and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti graphics cards, respectively. The manifest's description linked these to a 128-bit memory bus.

Despite the 128-bit memory bus, these “Blackwell” GPUs are expected to leverage GDDR7 memory, increasing the bandwidth compared to the predecessors. This upgrade pushes bandwidth to 448 GB/s, a significant improvement over the 272/288 GB/s the older models offer. Based on the latest reports, the Nvidia RTX 5060 series is expected to be announced next week, with a release following soon.

KitGuru says: Should Nvidia have chosen a 192-bit memory bus for the RTX 5060 series GPUs, even if it came with a price increase?

Enthusiasts delving into the overclocking potential of AMD's latest Radeon RX 9070 series found something we haven't seen for some time. In a throwback to the days of widespread BIOS modding, it appears that some Radeon RX 9070 non-XT GPUs can be flashed with the BIOS from their XT counterparts, increasing power limits and unlocking more performance.

As PC Games Hardware (via VideoCardz) reported, this BIOS flashing effectively unlocks higher clock speeds and a greater TBP. However, it's crucial to understand that this modification does not alter the core count or memory specifications, which are currently identical across both SKUs.

By modding the BIOS of these cards, users can overclock these cards more aggressively. One modder claims that the flashed card achieves performance levels comparable to or exceeding the reference RX 9070 XT. The performance uplift is substantial, with users reporting gains of 15-20% compared to the stock RX 9070 non-XT.

While the performance gains are enticing, there are potential drawbacks. Reports indicate that ULPS (Ultra Low Power State) mode may become dysfunctional, and some users have experienced system freezes. Furthermore, there are hardware considerations, such as the power delivery system, which might not be adequate for the extra that will go through it. If you want to go through this route, ensure that your card can handle it.

KitGuru says: If you had an RX 9070, would you mod it with the RX 9070 XT BIOS? 

The heavily rumoured remake of Bethesda's beloved 2006 RPG, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, might be coming soon. According to the latest reports, the game is ready to be launched and could be shadowdropped later this month.

The report from Jeff Grub from GiantBomb matches the previous rumours and claims that Bethesda was considering a simultaneous reveal and release strategy for March or April. Note, however, that there was also an earlier report pointing to a release in June.

Reports indicate that Virtuous is developing the supposed Oblivion remake. Moreover, it's supposed to be a “full remake” using Unreal Engine 5 with significant overhauls to various gameplay mechanics. The game's existence was initially hinted at in documents from the 2023 Microsoft vs. FTC lawsuit related to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. These documents listed an unnamed Bethesda title referred to as “Oblivion Remaster”, slated for release in fiscal year 2022, which didn't happen.

KitGuru says: Would you like to see a TES: Oblivion made with the current technology? How would you idealise it?

The KitGuru Reader Survey helps us understand what kind of products you are keen to learn more about in 2025/2026. It takes less than 5 mins to complete and it really helps us to target our editorial efforts. As a thank you to those of you who participate, we are offering the chance for you to win one of THREE brand new Sapphire RX 9070 XT graphic cards! 

This survey has been designed to be quick and easy – and it's open to everyone – whether you’re a casual reader or a hardcore enthusiast. You can enter with a click and you can choose to answer/skip any questions – it won't affect your chance of winning. You can also choose to do the survey and opt out of the prize draw.

So what can we tell you about the prizes?

Well, Sapphire has donated three of its brand-new Radeon 9070 XT graphics cards, each worth up to £800.

They are built for speed, visual fidelity and AI-enhanced performance. This latest GPU is ready to take your system to the next level – whether you’re gaming or creating.

So if you’ve got a few minutes spare and a passion for tech, please click here to start.

Share your views and you could be one of three lucky winners installing Sapphire’s latest powerhouse into your PC.

Terms and Conditions: This giveaway is open worldwide starting at 3pm on 8th April 2025. Entries must be received by 11:00AM GMT on Friday 28th April 2025. In compliance with GDPR, we will not collect or store any personal information as part of this competition. Once the winner has been contacted and their prize received, personal details will be deleted from our email servers. Your details will not be shared, we respect your privacy.

KitGuru says: We really appreciate you taking the time to complete this survey. Good luck!

Assassin's Creed Shadows ended up being one of Ubisoft's most technically-sound launches in quite some time. Still, there is always room for improvement and we're starting to see those improvements in action today with the rollout of the game's first major update. 

The first major patch for Assassin's Creed Shadows rolls out for PC and consoles today. There are a few highlight-worthy additions with this update. For starters, players will finally be able to reset their mastery nodes, so you can freely respec your character to try out different play styles.

Another Quality of Life change with this update is the ability to sell and dismantle items in bulk, and when you get on your horse now, you can set it to auto-follow the path to your next objective, which will make traversing the map easier. Traversal in Assassin's Creed Shadows is already a bit of a challenge, as you don't have as much freedom of movement in the mountainous terrain compared to past Assassin's Creed titles.

The new patch also fixes a bunch of quest bugs and a few other improvements. You can find the full patch notes HERE.

KitGuru Says: Have you played Assassin's Creed Shadows since launch? Have you had a chance to try out the new update? 

Supergiant's roguelike sequel, Hades 2, has been well received on PC so far, but the game has yet to release on consoles. The console version was finally revealed as part of the recent Nintendo Direct, but it appears the game will remain a Switch 2 console-exclusive for a while. 

Supergiant has confirmed that Hades 2 will be a Switch 2 console exclusive at launch. It is unclear how long this exclusivity period will last but it will likely be somewhere around 6 to 12 months. The first game also had an exclusivity deal at launch, although that time around it was with the Epic Games Store, keeping the game off of Steam. Hades 2 had its Early Access launch on Steam this time around.

While Hades 2 has been announced for the Switch 2, the game does not have a release date yet. Currently, the title is still in Early Access on PC and it is unclear if the 1.0 update will arrive before the end of this year.

The Nintendo Switch 2 will be available starting on the 5th of June.

KitGuru Says: Hades 2 is already a hit on PC and is consistently ranked amongst the most-played games on Steam Deck, so it will no doubt be a hit on the Switch 2 as well. 

We recently learned that Nintendo Switch 2 games would cost as much as £80 at launch, and some Nintendo Switch 1 titles with upgraded Switch 2 versions will have expensive £20 upgrade packs. It would seem that the majority of Switch 2 Edition games will be selling around the £65 mark. 

As spotted by Eurogamer, UK retailers like Argos, Smyths and John Lewis have begun advertising Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Party Jamboree and Kirby are all carrying a £64.99 pre-order price tag.

The outlier is GAME, which has added an extra £2 onto the price – a common practise for GAME with most brand-new releases.

If you already own these games on Nintendo Switch, you can upgrade to the Switch 2 edition by purchasing an upgrade pack. Titles like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom will have paid upgrades, while other games like Super Mario Odyssey will have free updates for the Switch 2.

KitGuru Says: The pricing situation around Switch 2 games is not great, especially when you consider Nintendo's historical lack of meaningful price cuts and the age of some of these titles. Breath of the Wild came out in 2017, and yet it is being re-released at £65 eight years later. 

It's been two years since NVIDIA introduced its Ada Lovelace GPUs, kicking things off with the RTX 4090 and finishing up the initial lineup with the SUPER family At CES, the company unveiled its new RTX 50 "Blackwell" family which features a brand new architecture and several changes such as new cores, AI accelerators, new memory standards, and the latest video/display capabilities. NVIDIA recently released the third fastest card within its "RTX 50" portfolio, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti retains its enthusiast positioning, with the green team promising lots of performance at a price point […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/review/galax-geforce-rtx-5070-ti-1-click-oc-16-gb-gpu-review-solid-performer/

The next round of titles upgrading to DLSS 4 have been announced. The new RTX 50-exclusive component for DLSS 4 is Multi-Frame Generation, allowing AI to boost frame rates further.

Wild Assault is the headlining DLSS game this week. The title offers 20 vs 20 PvP battles with animal-themed abilities. The game sports DLSS 4 with Multi-Frame Generation, as well as Nvidia Reflex to combat latency.

The Finals is a game that had already adopted DLSS 3 with Frame Gen technology, but a new update to the game this week will introduce the latest DLSS model, along with Multi-Frame Generation.

Entoria: The Last Song is another game updating with DLSS Multi-Frame Generation this week. Nvidia has also announced that it has enabled the DLSS Super Resolution override in the Nvidia App for The Last of Us Part 2, so you can run the game using the latest transformer AI model for better visuals.

KitGuru Says: Are you planning on picking up any of this week's new DLSS titles? 

Ahead of its official premiere on the 13th of April, reviewers have gotten their hands on the full 7-episode Season 2 of HBO’s The Last of Us. Just like the first series, Season 2 has received a ton of positive reception – though slightly less-so than the first.

The review embargo for Season 2 of HBO’s The Last of Us has been lifted, with dozens of publications across the web sharing their thoughts on the second series.

With a Rotten Tomato score of 93% from 41 reviewers, The Last of Us Season 2 appears to officially be a hit, with critics praising the show as an adaptation.

One of the few complaints however is the fact that due to it being split into multiple Seasons, the story of Part II so far feels understandably incomplete.

For some context, Season 1 of HBO’s The Last of Us was massive on all fronts – from reviews, to viewership figures and of course, accolades – being nominated for a total of 24 Emmys and seeing a Rotten Tomato score of 94%.

Assuming Season 2 does just as well as the first, HBO’s The Last of Us could become one of the most consistently-praised video game adaptations yet. It will be interesting to see what fans think of the show when it premieres on the 13th of April.

KitGuru says: What do you think of the early reviews? Are you more or less excited for Season 2? How do you think the story is being split up? Let us know down below.

The 2nd of April marked one of the most important dates the video games industry has seen in quite some time, owing to the big unveiling of the Nintendo Switch 2 – showing us everything from the hardware, games and even the system’s release date. Unfortunately, much of what has been revealed so far shows Nintendo is squandering the good will it built up during the Switch 1 generation. 

Prior to discussing Nintendo’s recent decisions which has much of the community up in a tizzy, it’s worth looking back at both Sony and Microsoft during the times when they were seemingly at their peak.

On the Microsoft front, there was the infamous Xbox One reveal and that it entailed. Coming off of the 7th-generation, Microsoft was feeling bold. Bolstered by the success of the Xbox 360 both in terms of sales but also brand loyalty, the Xbox was in the best position it had ever been.

Cut to the reveal of the Xbox One and all the years of goodwill seemed to evaporate over the course of a single showcase, as Xbox made it clear that they weren’t using their success to further entrench themselves into the games industry, but instead wanted their 84 million Xbox 360 players to get an Xbox One in order to engage with Microsoft’s other services/endeavours. Be it TV, streaming, Kinect, TV or more TV, the outlook wasn’t the best initially.

Coupling this with a notable excess in price compared to the PS4; the (eventually cancelled) always-online requirements; no game sharing; and the forced bundling of a Kinect for whatever reason, put both fans and outsiders on the backfoot.

Of course, as we know, Sony capitalised on this hard, leading to the PS4 having one of the most successful runs for the company – which is interesting considering where PlayStation was at just one generation prior.

Moving on from Xbox, Sony too has fumbled the bag on multiple occasions. First, there was the PS3. Following an insane run which saw the PlayStation 2 sell over 160 million units – becoming the best-selling console of all time to this day – Sony’s hubris got in the way, taking what could have been an assured victory and turning it into a narrow one.

The OG PS3 was a solid console which seemed to offer enough of a boost compared to last-gen. Unfortunately, with 160 million PS2’s out there, Sony believed that they were untouchable – a feeling which almost cost them the entire generation.

Speaking of costs, one of the biggest shocks from the PS3 reveal was the announcement of its price: $599 USD for the 60GB model (equivalent to roughly $950 today). As mentioned however, Sony did quickly learn from their mistakes, and while the likes of the console’s pricing could be adjusted, their use of a CELL processor for the system would in some ways haunt them for the rest of the generation.

Sure, the PS2 was an undeniable hit and so any developer who wished to be successful would have to work on a port for Sony’s console. Unlike the PS2 however, the PS3 spent much of its generation in second place. So, in taking the extremely high price tag, a bespoke and somewhat hard to develop for processor and a generation spent catching up to the Xbox 360, you’re left with a console which was gimped by its own creator’s decisions.

This wasn’t PlayStation’s sole mistake however. Jump forward a couple years and the console maker found itself in almost the exact same position as before – but in the handheld space. The PSP was massive for Sony, being able to stand side-by-side with Nintendo’s juggernaut that was the DS. Though the handheld ultimately sold just over half the units of the DS (80 million vs 154 million), the PSP was still considered a clear success, offering a different yet-equally-as-valuable handheld experience. As with all the other examples above, Sony’s hubris got in the way of its success.

Unlike the PSP, Sony’s PS VITA doubled down on seemingly all the wrong things. Though the hardware was undeniably superior in almost every way to the PSP, its (modest) increase in price compared to the PSP ($249 vs $199) left many fans feeling sour at the time. In addition, perhaps one of the most damning decisions was with Sony opting for proprietary SD cards with the PSVITA, costing significantly more than generic storage expansions.

One final mistake from Sony was in their beliefs that 3rd-party support could save the console. Given the fact that there were 80 million PSPs out there, it made sense for 3rd-party devs to bring their titles to the platform – or even better, create brand new games specifically for the PSP.

When it came to the VITA however, its paltry performance in selling just 10-15 million units meant that fewer studios/publishers were willing to risk spending time and money on a port for a console which was deemed a commercial failure. Sony did of course try to fix some of these mistakes with the refreshed LCD PS VITA – but it was unfortunately too late.

Finally, we’ve reached the primary point of discussion – Nintendo and the Switch 2. Of course, the Switch needs no introduction, with the system selling over 154 million units since 2017 – nipping on the heels of the PS2’s podium position. Not only did the console sell like crazy, but so too did all the software, with even critically-mixed titles such as Super Mario Party easily pushing over 20 million copies.

In fact, since the launch of the Switch, Nintendo has sold a total of 1.36 billion software units. For comparison, the company’s two other most successful consoles (the DS and Wii) sold fewer than 1 billion games each.

Was the OG Switch perfect? Nope. The handheld itself was rather rickety, with hardware failures in one form or another being quite commonplace. The system was also woefully underpowered compared to the competition, and featured a butt-ugly non-laminated LCD screen which made all games look so much worse.

Despite all this and more, the Switch has gone on to become the second-best selling console of all time – looking set to surpass the record held by the PS2; a record which many believed would never be broken.

So, 8 years on from the Switch’s launch and Nintendo has finally properly showed off its successor. In many ways, the Switch 2 Direct offered fans everything that they could’ve hoped for.

Not only are we getting an open world Mario Kart; a new 3D Donkey Kong and a Kirby game from Sakurai himself; but the system even comes bundled in with a free Astro’s Playroom-like experience to give fans a tour of all the Switch 2’s many hardware upgrades.

Well…turns out the ‘Switch 2 Welcome Tour’ will in fact not be a free pack-in title. Instead, Nintendo announced that this (what ostensibly seems like a basic hardware demo) will be a premium product – requiring everyone to pay for the privilege of knowing how their system works.

The genius behind Astro’s Playroom was in its ability to allow PS5 owners to not only have something to play on their new console, but also offered easily one of the best explanations for what makes the PS5 unique. Unfortunately, the Switch 2’s Welcome Tour marks but the first in a long string of seemingly foolish decisions.

While the Switch 2’s tech demo will (hopefully) be a relatively cheap purchase, many of Nintendo’s other titles are set to push beyond the current industry standard of $70 for the biggest AAA gamers.

Mario Kart World – easily the biggest title at the Direct owing to its open-world nature and day-one release date – won’t cost $60. It’s not even going for $70. No, those who wish to purchase Mario Kart World will have to cough up $80 for the pleasure.

Yes, the Switch 2 is technically a next-gen console, but considering the fact that its games in many ways still look comparable to PS4-generation titles, the massive price hike seems somewhat arbitrary. Combined with the fact that Nintendo games rarely see a reduction in their value, and you’ll likely be paying just as much for Mario Kart World half a decade from now. Somehow though, things get worse.

Not only will you have to spend up to $80 to buy a Switch 2 cart, the actual cartridge itself may not even include any on-disk data. Instead, some physical Switch 2 games serve purely as a DRM check – meaning you’ll need to fully download the game regardless of whether you own a physical copy or not.

Of course, while this is not unique to Nintendo, the company remained one of the few to seemingly continue to support physical media and all its benefits. With the Switch 2 however, buying a physical copy won’t just be more expensive, but is in all aspects the worst of both worlds – charging you more for a product which is more awkward to play when compared to digital media (costing extra for an inferior experience). The Switch 2 Ls don’t end there however.

One of the few criticisms voiced by fans of the Switch was the fact that its UI was simplistic, basic and lacked any real customisation – a far cry from Nintendo’s previous console generations. It seems all Nintendo took away from the Switch 1 however was its overwhelming success – and so the Switch 2’s UI looks nearly identical and just as plain as its predecessor.

After all, having such a basic UI must have contributed to the Switch’s success, right? Well, I’d argue that the Switch 1 succeeded in spite of its boring UI (a fact which I have discussed previously) – but I guess Nintendo doesn’t seem to think so.

The hits keep coming for the Switch 2 unfortunately, with another mistake being the console’s price. While it was of course expected that the Switch 2 would cost a bit more than the OG console, there was a reason as to why Nintendo opted to wait until the end of the showcase to give away pricing details.

Compared to the original Switch, the sequel console will cost quite a bit more, retailing for $449.99 vs. the OG Switch’s $299.99. And, just like with their software, Nintendo consoles rarely go down price-wise – especially in the past decade.

Unless they completely flub the pricing like they did with the 3DS, expect the Switch 2 to remain a nearly $500 handheld. Worse yet, when the inevitable OLED version is announced, don’t be surprised if it’s even more costly.

Has Nintendo made it clear enough yet that they intend to charge an arm and a leg for the Switch 2? Well, if you weren’t convinced yet, their final few initiatives might cross the line for you.

As expected, the Switch 2 will see a select number of last-gen titles be ported forward with enhanced visuals and performance. Unlike the industry standard however – which has such upgrades either costing nothing, or a relatively accessible $10 – Switch 2 is once again upping the price ceiling.

Though some games will be free, many of the most anticipated enhanced titles will charge up to $20 for a Switch 2 Edition upgrade (with others going for $10). Though many will gladly pay $20 to experience Zelda at 4K 60fps, it sets a dangerous precedent for the rest of the industry (just like with all the other aforementioned decisions made by Nintendo regarding Switch 2.)

Finally, we’ve reached the once-mysterious C button. While we did not know its function previously, the recent Direct confirmed it to be a ‘Game Chat’ button – letting you easily and quickly connect with other Switch 2 owners through audio and video sharing. Being able to communicate with friends online is of course welcome (especially compared to the OG Switch’s Nintendo mobile app requirements for online chat), but as with everything Switch 2, its functionality won’t be free.

Over the generations we’ve gotten used to paying for online services on consoles. That said, having a dedicated button on your controller which only functions if you pay for a monthly subscription feels somewhat icky and manipulative.

All this and more has led to quite the rapid and substantial backlash, with fans and detractors alike stating that you should not buy the Switch 2 at launch to send a message to Nintendo. Will this work? Probably not. That being said, as illustrated above, console manufacturers have somewhat managed to eff up almost every single time following a successful generation.

Will the OG Switch’s success manage to help Nintendo overcome Switch 2’s community backlash? We will have to wait and see. Regardless, this new pricing has all-but-ensured that Grand Theft Auto VI will launch at $100. Thanks Nintendo.

KitGuru says: What did you think of the Direct? Did all the news following its conclusion put a damper on your hype? Will $80 be the new AAA standard? Let us know down below.

Ever since the PS3 and Xbox 360, game achievements / trophies have become a core part of a majority of titles – with some dedicated folk playing games specifically for their trophies. Nintendo has so far refused to implement such an achievement feature on their systems. Unfortunately, with the Switch 2 it seems nothing is changing in this regard.

Following the official blowout unveiling of the Nintendo Switch 2, we have gotten a ton more details on any and all aspects of the system. When it comes to the long-requested feature of universal game achievements, pending Switch 2 owners will unfortunately be out of luck.

When asked directly by the publication Polygon during an interview with vice president of player and product experience ‘Bill Trinen’, Nintendo confirmed that Switch 2 won’t be introducing any such achievement system – offering a simple “nope” in response to the question.

Interestingly, the console maker does appear to be experimenting with the function somewhat, as the upcoming companion app for The Legend of Zelda will include in-app trophies – they just won’t be native to the system itself.

Nintendo games are typically rife for completion, and so it is surprising to see the company continue to refuse the addition of what has become a common-place feature. Perhaps we’ll get a proper achievement system when the Switch 3 comes around in a decade’s time.

KitGuru says: What do you think of achievement systems? Does it encourage you to 100% more games? Why is Nintendo still refusing to adopt such a feature? Let us know your thoughts down below.

After reviewing Palit's RTX 5070 Ti GamingPro OC last week, today we are taking a step down the product stack to check out its more affordable sibling, the RTX 5070 GamingPro OC. Offering a very similar feature-set, with dual-BIOS support alongside ARGB lighting and a triple-fan cooler, this card hits the market at around £600 here in the UK and it seems like you can actually go out and buy one… but should you? We find out today.

We were fairly unimpressed with the RTX 5070 in our day one review, and since then both of AMD's RDNA 4 challengers, the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT, have hit the market. While Palit's RTX 5070 GamingPro OC isn't an MSRP card, it's certainly one of the more affordable options, so let's see what it can bring to the table.

First, a quick spec recap. RTX 5070 marks the introduction of a new Blackwell die – GB205, where RTX 5070 is not quite full implementation but comes close. Comprised of five Graphics Processing Clusters (GPCs), each holds up to eight Texture Processing Clusters (TPCs), with a total of 24. Each TPC is home to two Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), giving us 48, and each SM still holds 128 CUDA Cores, meaning the RTX 5070 has a total of 6144 shaders. We also find 48 RT cores, 192 Tensor cores, 192 Texture Units, and 80 ROPs.

This time around, however, there's no node-shrink, and GB205 remains fabricated on TSMC's N4 node, as per the RTX 40 series. As such, rated clock speed has not stepped forwards this generation, with the RTX 5070 rated at 2512MHz, though Palit has increased this to 2572MHz.

The memory configuration is similar to its predecessors, too. We still find 12GB of memory operating a 192-bit interface, the primary difference being the jump to 28Gbps GDDR7 modules, increasing memory bandwidth to 672 GB/s. L2 cache still comes in at 49MB.

Lastly, the RTX 5070 features a 250W TGP. This is something we focus on closely in this review, using our enhanced GPU power testing methodology, so read on for our most detailed power and efficiency testing yet.

Back in 2022, Hideo Kojima officially announced a film adaptation of the previously-PlayStation exclusive Death Stranding. This project was later confirmed to be in the works under a partnership with notable indie distributor A24. Though we’ve heard little from the project since, the Death Stranding film has now found its Director.

As reported by Deadline, the previously-announced Death Stranding adaptation has now found its Director – with Michael Sarnoski (known best for his work on A Quiet Place: Day One) set to take charge of the project.

Serving both as Writer and Director, it will be interesting to see how a unique vision such as Death Stranding fares in the hands of a creator other than Kojima himself.

Of course, Kojima Productions is involved in the movie, serving as producers alongside A24.

Though little else was revealed, Kojima has previously spoken on the project, stating back in late 2023: “There are a lot of ‘game adaptation films’ out there but what we are creating is not just a direct translation of the game. The intention is that our audience will not only be fans of the games, but our film will be for anyone who loves cinema. We are creating a Death Stranding universe that has never been seen before, achievable only through the medium of film, it will be born.”

With work on the film seemingly finally properly beginning now, it will be interesting to see how long we have to wait for the first trailer – and how different the vibe will be compared to Kojima’s own direction.

KitGuru says: Are you excited for the Death Stranding movie? What do you think of the choice for Director? Can Death Stranding succeed as a film? Let us know down below.

The No More Heroes series is a relatively niche franchise from director ‘Suda51’ of Lollipop Chainsaw fame. Following years spent as a Wii exclusive, the game and its sequels finally landed on PC back in 2021. Unfortunately, these ports were far from perfect. In a surprise announcement however, No More Heroes 2 has gotten a massive patch years on since the last.

Detailing the update on Steam, the team at Xseed officially released a pretty major update for No More Heroes 2. While the first game saw quite a bit of post launch support, the sequel was left with its various issues…until now.

Though these features should’ve been there from launch, this update is welcome nonetheless. With that, the list of changes and additions is as follows:

• Full keyboard and mouse support has been added
• Gamepad rebinding is now supported
• Default controls have been updated for most minigames
• Now compatible with Steam’s Offline Mode
• Achievement unlock bug fixed
• Text prompts and notifications from interactable objects now appear consistently
• General stability fixes and minor Quality of Life improvements

Given that No More Heroes 2 came to PC all the way back in 2021, having to wait 4 years for proper mouse and keyboard support is quite unfortunate. Still, at the very least it’s better late than never.

KitGuru says: Are you surprised by this update? Why do you think they waited so long? Could this be gearing up for a NMH4? Let us know your thoughts down below.

USB-C is wonderful, not just because you no longer need to rotate the plug at least three times to get it in, it allows you to power your laptop from your monitor,…