A rather interesting video appeared on the Testing Games page on YouTube comparing four Nvidia video cards of the same level, but different generations – GeForce GTX 1070 Ti from 2017, GeForce RTX 2070 Super (2019), GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (2021) and GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (2023).

The 10-minute video clearly demonstrates how the performance of Nvidia’s upper-midrange 3D accelerators has changed from generation to generation using the example of 8 games: Cyberpunk 2077, Resident Evil 4, Forza Horizon 5, Red Dead Redemption 2, Hogwarts Legacy, Spider-Man, The Witcher 3 and Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Naturally, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti has the best result, but it can be clearly seen that it is about 3-4 times faster than the GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (based on the FPS level) and about 60% faster than the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. If the performance increase occurred without increasing the cost of video cards, it would be generally great, but the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is 33% more expensive than its predecessor. In other words, the increase in performance still covers the difference in price.

Nvidia has released the Path Tracing SDK. This is a set of tools for developers to integrate path tracing technology into games.

Path tracing is a variant of ray tracing and has only been implemented in two games so far: Quake RTX or Portal RTX. The latter, thanks to these effects, has become too tough even for modern video cards, so it’s hard to say how much gamers need such technologies.

Nvidia itself notes two options for using the new technology:

• Create a reference path tracer to ensure game lighting during production matches reality, speeding up the iteration process.
• Create high-quality photo modes for RT-enabled GPUs or ultra-high-quality real-time modes that take advantage of the Ada Lovelace architecture

That is, so far even Nvidia itself does not offer to integrate effects directly into games, offering them for photo modes or for testing during game development. However, Cyberpunk 2077 will soon receive an update with path tracing, so everything will become clearer.

Microsoft intends to launch a new app store with games for smartphones based on Android and iOS. This will happen next year if regulators approve a deal to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. As Xbox head Phil Spencer said at the Game Developers Conference, this will allow Xbox and content to be offered both from Microsoft itself and from partners at any devices.

“We want to be able to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third party partners on any screen anyone wants to play.‘ Spencer explained. He clarified that at the moment this cannot be done on mobile devices, but the company wants to “build a world” in which “such devices will be open.”

Apparently, we are talking about new rules by which Apple and Google should allow the use of third-party app stores on their mobile platforms.

As for the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, this is opposed by Sony. If the deal does go through, it would allow Xbox developers to increase competition on the “biggest platform people play on,” smartphones, of course. After all, Microsoft plans to fill the lack of mobile games with Activision Blizzard projects.

Spencer has not yet announced the launch date of the store, so it remains to be seen.