Modder Successfully Creates AMD FSR 2.0 Mod For Cyberpunk 2077

AMD’s 2nd generation FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR 2.0) has been available to the masses for several months now and compared to its predecessor, it’s a world of improvement. But while the technology is being fielded in a handful of AAA titles, the one game that hasn’t been updated to support it (yet) is Cyberpunk 2077. Impatient with its developer to bring it up to date, one modder has taken the initiative and made a mod for it.

The modder, who goes by the handle PotatoOfDoom1337, posted their FSR 2.0 mod for the game on the NexusMods forums, along with files and instructions on how to use it. As with all mods, PotatoOfDoom1337 also warns that the mod is still a “proof of concept” and that anyone who chooses to test it out should, and will, expect bugs.

AMD-FSR-1.0

AMD-FSR-2.0

As for the game’s performance running with FSR 2.0, PotatoOfDoom1337 says that they ran the game at 4K upscaled on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, in which the mod doubled the average frame count to 45 fps. On that note, a YouTuber by the name of MxBenchmarkPC also made a video comparison between FSR 1.0 and FSR 2.0, albeit with an RTX 3080 and Intel Core i7-10700F.

Once again, this FSR 2.0 workaround is a mod and not an official fixture for the game. That itself is something that has to be done from CD Projekt Red’s (CDPR) end which, at this time, the developer hasn’t said if and when it plans on adding the new upscaling algorithm available.

An Actual Flying Car Has Successfully Completed Its First Inter-City Flight

The modern day perception of a “flying car” is different from what most of us have imagined while growing up. Most concepts or prototypes of such vehicles proposed by various companies would look like oversized yet pilotable drones, with some even sporting huge table fan-like propellers.

But not the Slovakian-made AirCar by Klein Vision, which literally is a car with wings that unfolds when used as an aircraft. Sure, it’s not in the same line as the DeLorean from Back To The Future II or a Spinner from the Blade Runner movies. However, it is fully functional and in fact, had just recently completed its inaugural inter-city flight between the Nitra and Bratislava airports in Slovakia – a world’s first for any modern day flying car.

Company founder and AirCar inventor, professor Stefan Klein, said that the hybrid vehicle has been in development for more than 30 years. He added that the model used for the journey has previously recorded 142 successful landings and over 40 hours of test flights.

Klein Vision’s flying car is a petrol-powered two-seater equipped with a 160HP BMW engine, which also features a fixed-propeller and comes with a ballistic parachute safety mechanism in case of emergencies. Klein says it is capable of reaching a cruising speed of 170km/h in the air (slightly below the 190km/h limit) and has flown at 8200 ft, as well as achieving steep 45-degree turns as part of its maneuverability testing.

But unlike the modern flying car concepts mentioned earlier, the AirCar lacks VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) capability, therefore requiring an actual runway for takeoff and landing. This drawback will surely definitely disappoint those hoping to skip traffic jams by taking off into the air.

The maiden flight saw the AirCar travelling more than 100km which took around 35 minutes from start to finish, with Klein himself behind the wheel. Upon its safe landing in Bratislava airport, as noted by various news outlets, the inventor clicked a button to fold in the wings into the vehicle’s back and simply drove it home.

Thanks to its successful journey, Kelin is confident that the AirCar is ready to exit the concept stage and enter pre-production. He added that a revised version, dubbed the AirCar Prototype 2, will feature a more powerful 300HP engine and is slated to receive the European Aviation Safety Agency’s CS-23 aircraft certification, as well as an M1 road permit.

Overclocker Successfully Pushes Intel Core i9-11900K CPU To Run At 7GHz

Intel’s flagship 11th generation CPU, the Core i9-11900K, is set to launch next week but, unsurprisingly, some overclockers are already in possession of some sample units to poke and prod. In the case of one overclocker, they managed to push the CPU to a whopping 7GHz.

The overclocker, who goes by the name “Rog-Fisher”, posted their achievement on the CPU-Z Validation site, which they clearly and successfully achieved via the use of liquid nitrogen. Specifically, they managed to push the 11900K’s boost clock from 5.3GHz (with Intel’s TVB) to 7047.88MHz or 7GHz as a round-off. To get to that point, Rog-Fisher also had to bump up the voltage to an eye-watering 1.873V.

Additional details show that Rog-Fisher used an ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Apex motherboard, 8GB DDR4 RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 710.

It comes as no surprise that Rog-Fisher isn’t the only one attempting to claim the overclocker’s throne for the 11900K; an Indian YouTube channel, PC Wale, recently posted a video of their own overclocking, but instead of 7GHz. They capped out at 6.5GHz and at a slightly lower voltage of 1.678V. What is interesting to note is that the PC Wale overclockers were using a custom XOC BIOS, which is also used by a prominent South Korean overclocker called SafeDisk.

Unfortunately, because the 11900K was supplied to PC Wale by Intel, they were unable to provide or show any benchmark results along with the LN2-attained frequencies. Guess we’ll just have to wait until 30 March to find out.

Miners Successfully Hack Through Mining Restrictions For NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

Back before the launch of the GeForce RTX 3060, NVIDIA announced its CMP, a GPU lineup specifically dedicated to mining crytocurrency. Additionally, it also announced that it would be limiting the hashrate of the RTX 3060, in hope that it would deter GPU miners from scalping or hoarding the GPU.

As the saying goes, life isn’t fair, and unsurprisingly, the so-called “mining restriction” that was put in place by NVIDIA has reportedly been broken by the very same miners. Japan-based tech site, PC Watch, confirmed that NVIDIA’s restrictions had already been “circumvented” via interaction with related parties.

The specific method isn’t mentioned by PC Watch, but the site states that bypassing the RTX 3060 restrictions does not require any modification to the card’s driver of BIOS, and a “little effort” is all it takes to get it to mine.

It also appears that the hack isn’t restricted to just one type of mining software. A group of developers by the name of Phoenix Miners, posted a reply on GitHub that it was working on a big update revolving around NVIDIA kernels. Another report points at a particular NVIDIA WSL driver – namely, a 470.05 Beta driver – that will, in fact, remove NVIDIA’s restrictions for Ethereum mining on the RTX 3060. However, it should be noted that this claim still remains unconfirmed.

As for the RTX 3060’s mining performance with the restrictions lifted, there are some videos of the card achieving hashrates beyond 40MH/s while mining for Ethereum and is even capable of sustaining those rates, even after nearly an hour of use.