Paul Rudd

Lost Ruins is FREE right now on GOG. 88% Very Positive reviews on Steam... Link. You have until Thursday, December 21st 2023 to claim and keep this freebie forever. Lost Ruins is a 2021 side scrolling survival action game developed by South Korean developer Altari Games with the same publisher as Iconoclasts, CrossCode, Minoria, Smelter and Bug Fables The Everlasting Sapling. Combat in Lost Ruins is in real time, and can be both fast and methodical. You can slash, burn or even deflect projectiles. You can arm yourself with a variety of swords, axes and other assorted medieval weaponry. For those with an affinity for magic, you can cast a variety of spells through wands, tonics and scrolls to burn, freeze or heal yourself when in danger. As you explore you will also find that everything around you might bring about your death but you can also use the environment to your advantage. Elements within the world will react with other elements realistically. Flammable liquids will be set ablaze when in contact with lit lanterns. Ice magic will freeze bodies of water, making them dangerously cold.

Legend of Keepers Career of a Dungeon Master is FREE right now on GOG. 79% Mostly Positive reviews on Steam... link. You have until January 5th, 2024 to claim it. This is a 2021 dungeon management game created by French developer Goblinz Studio. On a side note, make sure to claim the 17 free daily games over on the Epic Games store starting today. Destiny 2 Legacy Collection is FREE TODAY and the daily games #2-17 will be FREE starting next Wednesday, December 20th all the way until January 4th, 2024. So you're gonna want to make sure to claim them every single day.

Desolate is FREE right now on Fanatical. 68% Mixed reviews on Steam... Link. You have until December 13th to claim a key but SNAG ASAP because Fanatical usually runs out of keys QUICK. A lot of the negative reviews are from people that get mad when a developer abandons their game. People complain about it being incomplete or needing more updates. I think this stems from paying its original $20 to $25 price tag from 2018 when it was still in early access all the way to mid 2021 after fully releasing in January of 2019. Now that it's hit $5 to $6 over the past year and now hitting $4 the past few months, I can now pick up and play it myself. Especially since it's now FREE. I'm gonna leave a positive review no matter what it is because I can't complain for a developer allowing me to play their game. It's also compared to the Metro, Stalker and even Fallout series so I'm all about it.

Takes me a few tries to get it right. I have like 6 passwords I've used over the years.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is FREE right now on UPlay/Ubisoft Connect. 80% Very Positive reviews on Steam... Link. You have until December 6th to claim this freebie.

The Ramp is FREE right now on Fanatical. 96% Overwhelmingly Positive reviews and just cracked 1,000+. As always with Fanatical, be sure to snag ASAP as keys should run out in no time. This August of 2021 game is as minimalist as it gets so be sure to know this going in. Maybe not even a game, but rather a digital toy. It was created with Unity by a single developer to scratch a very specific itch and capture the unparalleled feeling of real life vert skateboarding and that's pretty much it. There's a lot this game doesn't feature, such as unlockables, scores, missions, guns, explosions, helicopters, etc, etc. What it does offer are the tons of flow that make a boring day great at the price of a $6 medium sized cinnamon pistachio latte to go. Although we get it 100% FREE right now. It's satisfying, unique, easy to learn but hard to master.

Isn't this one of the best high-end SATA SSD's money can buy? I remember it hitting $92 back in late June and then again throughout August but at $80 this is a new historical low. Has DDR3 DRAM cache, a 700 TBW endurance rating and a 5 year warranty. Its secret competition used to be the Team T-Force Vulcan(not the Z or G) but it's no longer on the market and only had a 1 TB model at most but it did have a slightly higher 480 TBW endurance rating on the 1 TB model yet just a 3 year warranty. Same DDR3 DRAM cache and same Silicon Motion SM2258 controller too. Sadly it left the market in late 2021/early 2022 after finally hitting $90. I remember this price because it was the day after Christmas. The random read/write on both these drives are quite impressive for SATA drives nearly hitting 100,000 IOPS.

Styx Shards of Darkness is FREE right now on GOG. 83% Very Positive reviews on Steam... Link. This special GOG Black Friday 2023 free game offer is only available until November 24.

This trip one must drive increases the cost. It has no DRAM. Its TBW endurance is pretty low for a 1 TB SSD. For $36 a 500 GB Patriot Viper VPN110 has DRAM cache, double the TBW endurance and a 75% higher random read. Shipped right to your front door, free of charge.

The top review says it all... "Diablo meets Vampire Survivor, a combination you never knew you wanted." Beware, its addiction will get you.

Nomad Survival is FREE right now on Fanatical. 89% Very Positive reviews on Steam... Link. You have until November 10th or when keys run out to claim this freebie, so SNAG ASAP. This is yet another Vampire Survivors clone on Steam and this dev is even releasing another one in February.

The Whisperer is FREE right now on GOG. 71% Mostly Positive reviews on Steam... Link. You have until November 1st, 2023 to claim this freebie. Battlevoid Harbinger was originally the freebie for today but is no longer available. GOG claims it was just a pricing error and it's been fixed now so they made up for this by repeating a freebie from a few months ago, here is that post. More on the pricing error has to do with the game not being entirely free in some regions and offered at a tiny payment. For example, if you live in the US, you would have had to pay $0.02 to get it for the tiny ten minutes you had to do so before they changed it to now being $2.00. RIP Battlevoid Harbinger at $0.02 for ten minutes...

@Sharkyx1 Okay, so I've figured out what the issue is with the Vegas Slots game. Basically when you play that game you load up each game/slot/keno/whatever game individually and each individual game within the game runs completely different than one another. There's hundreds of games within it so basically the Buffalo Keno game runs at around 17 fps(IIRC) but it could be around 25-45, I can't remember. What I do remember is that other games such as Megaball Keno run at a good 65-82 fps or so. And ALL games drop in fps to that 17 fps(IIRC) during the gold money payout animation. So the culprit is the GPU obviously but only for random games within the game and of course the gold money animation. I've also learned something HUGE. Basically since I couldn't get MSI Afterburner or fraps to monitor my fps in the game I decided to do a random Google search and I searched, how to monitor fps in Microsoft store games. And somehow in those searches I saw the word Gamebar. I then watched a video or two and basically found out that Gamebar will monitor your fps, CPU, GPU, RAM and VRAM usage for ANY game you load, not just Microsoft store games. It doesn't do temps but I'm fine with that since HWMonitor shows everything outside of fps. But this is HUGE because over the years I've always randomly encountered a game here and there where MSI Afterburner simply will not monitor hardware. So I used Gamebar to FINALLY monitor my fps in the Vegas games and other Microsoft store games. All these years I never even messed with Gamebar but now it's definitely an excellent way to monitor fps in ANY game. Again, thanks to everyone for your help on this. I'm glad I've went through all this experience with this PC and really enjoy the build as a whole.

I will try GPU-Z to see if I can find the culprit but I completely forgot about something... The PC we used before for the Vegas game was a 2200G. And I specifically set the VRAM to 2GB on it. So now I'm thinking VRAM is not the issue because the animations ran just fine on the 2200G with just the 2GB of VRAM. It's probably as we suspect, the specs of the low powered GPU itself. I specifically chose this GT 710 2GB though because it was the lowest powered and lowest budget NVIDIA GPU possible for this 180W PSU. And while the i3 4130 is also low powered I also had a plan to upgrade it as well so I wanted to make sure the GPU was as low powered as possible. However, now that this i3 4130 is performing like a champ, I don't think I'm going to upgrade it to the low powered i7 4790S I had planned to double the core and thread count. It remains a possibility but surprisingly the i3 4130 has hyperthreading and the i7 4790S will cost a minimum of $25-$30 and while that's not a whole lot of money it raised the current $45 cost of the build to $70-$75. I'm really liking the i3 4130 and I can't think of what would need those 4 cores and 8 threads when the GPU is the GT 710 2GB. One thing I've learned from this experience though is that this platform is still very viable in 2023 when looking to build a PC for dirt cheap. I'd just make sure to somehow have this type of PC purchase to have a higher wattage PSU than 180W because that's really the only limiting factor. Maybe try for 250-300W and that's plenty. I can see a 4th gen i7 being a BEAST for a middle tier GPU, no problem. Maybe like an RX 6650 XT to keep the cost down or a used GTX 1070 Ti/1080 Ti if you really wanna save some money. But of course these GPUs are cutting a 300W PSU close. An RX 6600 would cut off a good 50W but a GTX 1660 Super/Ti or GTX 1070 may be the way to go. Will post an update after using GPU-Z on Sunday.

@Sharkyx1 @ChonkerFox Okay, so I checked the fps counter on my monitor and you're right it did not move from 120 during any gameplay scenarios. I then tried fraps on the Vegas game and it too did not monitor fps so I don't know how to monitor my fps during the Vegas game. I fiddled around with the NVIDIA control panel to see how that would help with performance and it didn't change a thing for the animation lag. Somehow I gotta figure out what is causing the lag during animations, my guess is the horrendous 192 CUDA cores on this thing has something to do with it. You'd think the 2GB of VRAM is plenty but if I can somehow monitor fps it's possible that the VRAM isn't enough for the animations. I also tested a few other games and I'm certainly happy about the performance of this GPU in low demanding games. In Tiger Woods 12 The Masters, while my CPU barely breaks a sweat at like 19% usage the GPU is maxed out at 100% and get this, the fps is over 200! So what I then do is cap fps at 120, since that's the max Hz of the monitor, and boy is everything smooth as butter and GPU temp is cool as a cucumber. Not bad for a $45 PC, $13 for the GPU and $32 for the entire PC. Now demanding titles are just funny to load up because it does run them. I get around 20 fps in 7 Days to Die at 1080p and around 30 or so on the lowest settings at 720p.

No. MSI Afterburner and RTSS do not work with this game. This is what I'm going to check when I go back over there, which is right now. I will be back home later tonight to update. First I'll play a game called Tiger Woods 12 The Masters and see what the monitor OSD shows for fps. If it doesn't fluctuate then I'll end up having to try fraps or something to monitor fps in the Vegas game. I'm pretty sure there's other fps monitoring software to try out besides fraps but I can't remember what they're called.

It's a game on the Microsoft store called Vegas Live Slots. MSI Afterburner is unable to be used in this game but the monitor has a built in FPS counter that shows a locked 120. What I've forgotten to do though is look at that locked 120 fps counter during the animation I speak of. So I'll give an update on that between today and Sunday when I go back over to where the PC is. The laggy animation occurs when the gold money counter occurs and it also occurs on specific slot games within the games, particular one called Buffalo Slots. Before, when the GT 710 was not in the PC and the monitor was locked at 60 Hz, the game itself had lag all over the place. But now that the GT 710 is in the PC and the Hz is now at 120 via HDMI, you can see a night and day difference in the game itself. For example, walking around picking up the coins with the character is now buttery smooth since it's at 120 fps. This I confirmed using the 120 fps counter the monitor uses. But again, I forgot to see if the fps fluctuates during the animations I spoke of above. I'll do that soon and provide an update. A ton of other slot games within this game also show an improvement since the change from 60 Hz to 120 Hz. It's that Buffalo game and the gold money animation that have not changed. And also, I made sure to check this gold animation on my own PC with a 1070 and it's as smooth as butter. Which leads me to believe the cause is with the GT 710, and is expected but still, maybe I can tweak specific NVIDIA control panel settings to help with this laggy animation. I think that is where I'll pinpoint the exact cause. If the monitor fps counter shows no difference I may have to use something like fraps to make sure the fps counter on the monitor functions as intended. I'm not sure why MSI Afterburner doesn't work for this game as it works for just about every other game I use it on. Oh and I forgot to also mention if I haven't already, the HDMI port also changed that 960 x 1080 to 1920 by 1080 that previously showed in the monitors OSD. Was very happy to see this too.

Blacksad Under the Skin is FREE right now on GOG. 85% Very Positive reviews on Steam... Link. You have until October 30th, 2023 to claim and keep this freebie forever. This is a going-on four year old adventure game developed by the Spanish company Pendulo Studios. Their other most known games are the Yesterday and Runaway series. Blacksad is an adaptation of the Spanish comic series Blacksad by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido. The game follows John Blacksad as he investigates the suspicious death of a boxing club owner. Blacksad is Pendulo's first game based on a license and its first to fully use 3D graphics. The project began in late 2016 at the suggestion of the publisher that you may know as Microids. A deep voice was requested for John Blacksad because of the character's heavy smoking so the team hired Barry Johnson of Detroit Become Human for the English version, and Gabriel Jiménez, the voice of Hugh Jackman in Spanish film dubs, for the Spanish version.

I don't know how to change 2D or 3D mode, where is that? The port on the GT 710 is a dual link DVI. You may be right about the Dual Link cable though, it was only like $7 so somehow it may be as you say, wired for single. One thing I need to find out is why certain animations in low demanding games are laggy while the rest of the game is not. Hopefully messing around with the NVIDIA control panel fixes it. The PC is not for me so once I go back over there I'm gonna see what I can do. I've watched videos such as this and this but they have conflicting settings to go with. I know a lot about the NVIDIA control panel in general so I'm gonna give it a little sumtin sumtin of my own knowledge from tweaking the hell out of it many years ago for my 1070. Thanks again for all y'alls help, this forum always has plenty of input to work with from like minds.

@Sharkyx1 @ChonkerFox @Glenwing @jaslion Okay, the GPU finally arrived today and I have both good news and bad news. The good news is that 144 Hz is available. As is 60, 85, 100 and 120. The bad news is that when I go with any of those Hz above 60, the image is distorted. And what sucks is that when I take a screenshot I can't show it here because it's the monitor that's doing the distortion. Meaning, when I take a screenshot and look at it after going back into 60 Hz, it's normal looking. I can take a picture with like a phone or something but at the moment there's not one in this house lol. To describe the distortion, it's as if everything is overlapping each other. So text looks like it's got two tests on top of each other and not centered. And I'm thinking that there's a fix for this, like messing around with certain settings somewhere but I cannot find the fix. Oh and drivers installed automatically, maybe I should uninstall them and reinstall them? The one reason I think I should try this is because when the drivers were installing I restarted the computer. Then turned it back on and the drivers then installed. They are also up to date when I check their version. Oh and another thing, when I try like 900p or 720p, the distortion is still there but not as much. To describe the distortion that exists at 720p or 900p is more of an expected blurriness that a lower resolution is supposed to look like. EDIT: Just found something else out. When I enter the monitor OSD, it shows the resolution is 960 x 1080 when I'm on 144 Hz. But everywhere else it shows resolution as 1920 x 1080. Maybe this means something? Not sure. EDIT AGAIN: Just switched to HDMI and I'm somehow getting 120 Hz with no distortion, yay! Which means I bought a single link and dual link DVI cables for nothing. I'm guessing both cables were cheap for a reason and that reason is that something will not allow them to portray 1920 x 1080 resolution at a Hz above 60 without distortion. That or the fix I cannot find just needs to be known. Either way, I'm not happy with the result of going with a GT 710. It does help performance in specific games but certain animations are still laggy. Gonna play around with the NVIDIA control panel settings to see if it'll help with those animations. Things like preferring maximum performance or turning off AA and what not. EDIT AGAIN: Above I typed, "Either way, I'm not happy with the result of going with a GT 710." What I meant to say was that I am happy with the result of going with a GT 710.

If only it showed the maximum Hz at 1080p. I'll find out in a few days, as it's still in shipping. I'm still guessing it's 120 Hz unless I run it in 2D mode, which should be 165 Hz. I don't know why I'd run it in 2D mode though.

12 is Better Than 6 is FREE right now on Fanatical. 83% Very Positive reviews on Steam... Link. This freebie ends in a week or until keys run out so SNAG ASAP. 12 is Better Than 6 was developed by Ink Stains Games, an independent developer based in Eastern Europe. They also created Stoneshard and you can play the prologue of that game completely free here.

Do you have a link to this information? I did find this, which shows that it is indeed a DL DVI port. And also this has PCPP listing it as a DL DVI port as well. And then this showing it's a DVI-D port. There's an * by it, but I cannot for the life of me find any sentences with that * beside it on this page. I love how at the very top it says, "Now, you can enjoy up to 10x better performance than integrated graphics in all your PC multimedia applications." But we know damn well this isn't true. It's those words up to that may be true, ya gotta love marketing. Right, so when using 1920 x 1080, it'll cap at 60 Hz because it shows that it caps at 60 Hz at 1920 x 1200. That tiny 120 height isn't going to magically jump to 144 Hz. Especially when the monitor also plays a role. The monitor also has a max refresh rate when using DVI. And here is the monitor manual for the VG278HE but my monitor is the VG278. They're slightly universal but here is the VG278 manual. This VG278 manual doesn't list the 2D/3D mode, so keep that in mind. Anyway, scroll to the very last page of both manuals. It shows 120 Hz being the highest when in 3D mode(VG278HE manual), so that's what I'm expecting to achieve with the GT 710. And at the very bottom, with the "*", it says Note: you must select one of the “*” timing for enabling 3D or 144Hz feature with a compatible NVIDIA-GPU graphic card via Dual-link DVI cable connection. So fortunately, the GT 710 is indeed an NVIDIA GPU. The only thing that I worry about there is the word compatible because this GT 710 may not be a compatible NVIDIA GPU for this monitor. Where to find that out, I have no clue. It also shows a DP port being the only way to achieve 165 Hz, but as the VG278HE manual shows, it has to be in 2D mode for that to work. At least that's what I'm guessing from reading both manuals.

@jaslion @ChonkerFox Okay, I've made a decision and I hope it's the right one. I went with a GT 710 2GB, for these reasons... I paid less money than it costs to visit McDonalds and order food that costs more than the dollar menu. The seller even let me know that I can return it if things don't work out, no problem. I did some research and found that people claim it can do 120-144 Hz, if not 165 Hz. I did some research and found that you can plug this PCIe x8 into the PCIe x16 on my motherboard. Its TDP is a measly 19W, so my 180W PSU will handle it, no problem. Its suggested PSU is 200W, which is miles below every other GPU showing a 300W PSU requirement. It has 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a and 1x VGA. These ports seem great to see? 192 shading units, which is half of that K2000 Quadro mentioned above. 2GB of VRAM. This should come in handy big time. What do y'all think? I've lowered my expectations big time and hope to see anything over 60 Hz on my monitor when I install it. Or did I make a mistake here? I plan to keep this GPU regardless because this seller was super nice to give me a significant price drop. If I can at least get it up and running I call that a win, even if it's still stuck at 60 Hz. Oh and I also found out on the official data sheet for the K2000 Quadro that it won't go over 60 Hz via DVI port. And I also read that a 250W PSU is recommended. Which that's better than 300W but I just figured that the 200W of the GT 710 2GB was the way to go in terms of wattage.

Yup, had one die a couple years ago. I'm hoping to hear from someone that has this occur all the time with old office PC's and maybe they've had some good experiences with used replacements around 250W.