PC thread

[Vader AL]

My brother just bought a MSI 660 about a month ago and is loving it so far with no problems. MSI I know gets alot of praise.

Thanks for the info. In reading about which one, I liked the MSI and then there are so many variations they have of the 680 but this one sounded like it was pretty quiet and kept cool and great core clocked out of the box.

 

[Vader AL]

Ok, rethinking the GPU...with the 2 free games and from what I've read, looking strongly at the Sapphire 7970 3GB OC Vapor-X.

Anyone own this one?

 

[AaronsFigures]

New Pc gamer here done the switch . and WOW im so glad i did! bloody awesome.

 

[Duck]

New Pc gamer here done the switch . and WOW im so glad i did! bloody awesome.

Congrats It is amazing how much better games look on PC. If you are new to PC gaming let me know what sort of genres you are into so maybe some of us can point you into some PC exclusive games you might enjoy.

 

[JonD7]

I was planning to build a new PC this year... now that I actually have the money, I feel unsure about it.

With the announcement of "next gen" ... it makes you wonder how those games will run on our current PC's and if it will make us upgrade again sometime soon.

 

[darthviper107]

That's not an issue--the graphics capability of the new consoles are still below what current PC's can do, so whatever they develop for those consoles should run even better on PC just like it does now, they will just look better. Currently console games don't get optimized for PC really. Like for instance, if you wanted to use an emulator for old consoles like say PS2 or N64 or whatever, you need a lot more power than what those consoles could do to be able to run the games well because the games aren't designed for the platform.

 

[Duck]

Yeah I wouldn't worry about how the next gen games will run. Like Darth said whatever you build will probably be well above what a new console will have in it. I say go for it.

 

[Sachiel]

[ame]https://youtu.be/AB-gmyOvUig[/ame]

 

[TheMadButcher]

Got a question for everyone. Just got a new mobile workstation. I've calibrated the monitor as best as I can but there seems to be some sort of adaptive contrast going on. I think it has something to do with Windows 8. If I have a still image with gradients on it and drag it around the screen I can see the image changing subtly. Same thing happens on my girlfriends new laptop running Windows 8. Adaptive brightness is off under power settings too. Anyone else experiencing this? As an editor/vfx artist and colorist I need this feature off!

 

[Shropt]

How hard is it to overclock a Geforce 560 yourself? Thinking about tweaking mine just a touch.

 

[darthviper107]

How hard is it to overclock a Geforce 560 yourself? Thinking about tweaking mine just a touch.

If you install something like EVGA Precision it has a simple dial that you can adjust to increase the clock speed. It will also allow you to adjust the fan speed based on the temperature.

 

[darthviper107]

Got a question for everyone. Just got a new mobile workstation. I've calibrated the monitor as best as I can but there seems to be some sort of adaptive contrast going on. I think it has something to do with Windows 8. If I have a still image with gradients on it and drag it around the screen I can see the image changing subtly. Same thing happens on my girlfriends new laptop running Windows 8. Adaptive brightness is off under power settings too. Anyone else experiencing this? As an editor/vfx artist and colorist I need this feature off!

It looks like it's a setting for the Intel GPU--most laptops these days use the Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge Intel integrated GPU unless you specifically get a system with a dedicated graphics card:

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Seri...-I-disable-dynamic-contrast-ratio/td-p/933039

 

[Drakul]

New Pc gamer here done the switch . and WOW im so glad i did! bloody awesome.

Welcome to the club! There's no turning back now.

I was planning to build a new PC this year... now that I actually have the money, I feel unsure about it.

With the announcement of "next gen" ... it makes you wonder how those games will run on our current PC's and if it will make us upgrade again sometime soon.

There's always going to be Next Gen around the corner, whether it be consoles of GPU or HDD.... It's best just get what' good at the time you need it and then just upgrade later when you need it.
I usually upgrade every 3-4 years and what was 'next-gen around-the-corner' at the time is basically obsolete by the time I upgrade.

That's not an issue--the graphics capability of the new consoles are still below what current PC's can do, so whatever they develop for those consoles should run even better on PC just like it does now, they will just look better. Currently console games don't get optimized for PC really. Like for instance, if you wanted to use an emulator for old consoles like say PS2 or N64 or whatever, you need a lot more power than what those consoles could do to be able to run the games well because the games aren't designed for the platform.

Though to add to this I've read that a lot of developers have said they will now make their lead dev platform the PC because the architecture of the PS4 is very close to a PC now and it's easier to scale down than to scale up.

 

[darthviper107]

I've wondered why they don't do that anyways

 

[TheMadButcher]

It looks like it's a setting for the Intel GPU--most laptops these days use the Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge Intel integrated GPU unless you specifically get a system with a dedicated graphics card:

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Seri...-I-disable-dynamic-contrast-ratio/td-p/933039

appreciate your help. I have the added complication of an nvidia quadro gpu with optimus. I did my calibration using the Windows built in tools and have left both graphics card color options as standard. Have looked through other settings within the graphics card settings but no luck. Anyone else with Windows 8 noticing this issue?

 

[Kibagami]

Resurrecting thread; does having a sound card help performance (I guess I'm talking to FPS, but in general too)? Will it take away work from the CPU and assign that to the sound card?

 

[JonD7]

Resurrecting thread; does having a sound card help performance (I guess I'm talking to FPS, but in general too)? Will it take away work from the CPU and assign that to the sound card?

From what I understand, no... it doesn't really have much to do with the CPU.

Soundcards(or DAC's) just improve sound quality from the chipsets built onto the motherboards, most won't notice the difference unless you're using high impedance headphones or studio monitors.

 

[Kibagami]

Thanks Jon.

Just wondering. Does faster RAM improve performance? A buddy of mine says get 2 sticks of 8 GB each. I was going to do 4 sticks of 4 GB. Speeds 1600 and or higher.

 

[Drakul]

Yeah I'm stating away from soundcards now. I had an X-Fi in my older rig and it was just a freaking pain with the connectics and drivers an such. Particularly the shared Mic in/Digital out.

Never again.

 

[darthviper107]

Thanks Jon.

Just wondering. Does faster RAM improve performance? A buddy of mine says get 2 sticks of 8 GB each. I was going to do 4 sticks of 4 GB. Speeds 1600 and or higher.

No, more RAM doesn't make anything faster, RAM is where things are stored while they're being used, so when you open a program it stores information there while the program is running. For games, 4GB is enough. The only reason you'd need more RAM is if you're doing something like video editing or 3D animation--those things need to store a lot of information in memory while it renders. For instance, I have a 3ds Max file that has a ton of textures and geometry, and it takes 9GB of RAM to render. Video games are different because most of that stuff is stored in the GPU memory and is also heavily compressed. 2GB of memory for the GPU should be a minimum.