EPTSimple Questions Simple Answers - Page 294
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Craton
United States17303 Posts
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Belial88
United States5217 Posts
SLI not running in windowed mode was never even a variable, it was a big no for all of the other reasons, FPS being worse with SLI on than off being first on the pretty large list The other reasons, were just reasons why SLI is worse than single card, which is arguable, and not always true. Generally speaking, yes, with brand new cards, new price, single card is better price-wise than dual coard, and heat and power consumption go up with SLI, and SLI isn't always smooth (driver issues, stuttering). But in the case of my single GTX 460, I'm basically able to pay $120 ($60+60 for 2x460's) for $300 performance. So please stop saying sli bad sli bad without going more in-depth on it, lots of people do it and if it's better than $130 card, it's well worth it (basically a 650ti or gtx 470). And power consumption is not a problem, i have a high quality psu, and heat is not a problem, my cpu stays very cool and i have a ton of case fans. So I'm asking, is there, specifically, any issues with SLI in regards to sc2 or streaming? I'm not asking on SLI vs single card, I'm well aware of the differences and pitfalls. So how is FPS worse with SLI on than being off? | ||
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Craton
United States17303 Posts
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iloveroo
Canada294 Posts
My current computer specs: i3-2100 Radeon 6850 4GB Ram 550 PSU ASUS P8H67 (I think that's it) *I mostly use my computer for playing video games, watch streams, the internet of course* Since Bioshock Infinite came out yesterday, I noticed that my recommended settings was set to medium, I even notice that I get a little fps drop here and there while playing. Even putting the settings on low I see a bit of fps drop. It doesn't bother me as much but just noticing that I have to play on low to play the game well is kind of worrying. I've always said to myself that I wouldn't upgrade my pc until it breaks down (kinda stupid I know) but that's how I feel to get the most out of it? Basically should I upgrade? If so which of my parts should I be upgrading? What should I be upgrading first? If I decide to upgrade my video card first than the cpu, will my cpu be bottle necked? | ||
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Craton
United States17303 Posts
In my opinion your system isn't bad. You're obviously still able to play modern titles at medium quality and could drop the settings a bit more to mitigate FPS loss (usually the shaders for biggest gains I think?). You do have the benefit that you wouldn't need to change your mobo / RAM / PSU to upgrade your CPU to something like the 3570(K). It really all comes down to how much you're willing to spend relative to the performance upgrade you get. It sounds like you'd rather not spend money at all, and given that you can still play games reasonably well, you probably are fine waiting for at least Haswell (the next Intel line coming out this summer), if not another year. | ||
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Sverigevader
Sweden388 Posts
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skyR
Canada13817 Posts
OC and TOP are suffixes used by individual manufacturers to differentiate their SKUs. It would be redundant to list a hundred SKUs... | ||
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Sufficiency
Canada23833 Posts
I am thinking of getting more RAM into my machine, but how do I tell what kind of RAMs will fit into my motherboard? Would (almost) everything fit? I know that my motherboard is made by Gigabyte (the model is GA-870A-UD3) and it uses the AMD chipset. And of course, I know that I have two empty RAM slots on my machine. | ||
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
But every 870 chipset board (or pretty much everything but possibly some really weird custom one, which a Gigabyte UD3 would not be) uses standard desktop 240-pin DDR3 SDRAM. Manufacturer's website would have a list of modules they actually tested to work, but pretty much anything would be okay. Just use whatever has the same specs as your original RAM (better is okay). Lots of programs including CPU-Z would tell you what your current RAM is running at. Note that listed RAM frequency is half of nominal because of the D in DDR standing for double. e.g. 1600 MHz RAM would be listed at 800 MHz. | ||
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Sufficiency
Canada23833 Posts
On March 28 2013 09:37 Myrmidon wrote: For something like this, check the manufacturer's website for specs, info. But every 870 chipset board (or pretty much everything but possibly some really weird custom one, which a Gigabyte UD3 would not be) uses standard desktop 240-pin DDR3 SDRAM. Manufacturer's website would have a list of modules they actually tested to work, but pretty much anything would be okay. Just use whatever has the same specs as your original RAM (better is okay). Lots of programs including CPU-Z would tell you what your current RAM is running at. Note that listed RAM frequency is half of nominal because of the D in DDR standing for double. e.g. 1600 MHz RAM would be listed at 800 MHz. Thanks! | ||
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wptlzkwjd
Canada1240 Posts
Most important thing for me is the build quality which I think alienware is the best for? Thanks, I didn't want to make a completely new thread for this. | ||
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SoleSteeler
Canada5472 Posts
i7-3610 mobile Nvidia 630M 8 GB RAM Win7 64-bit Toshiba, not sure the specific model. I was playing games on it smoothly for a few months. Then all of a sudden a couple weeks ago it started having overheating problems. In SC2, it starts at about 55-60 Celsius and then within 3-4 minutes (even in the menus) it's around 90-95. When it hits 100 it turns off. I figured out that if I close all programs and just have SC2 open I won't hit 100 degrees. But even if I'm idling in channels and watching a stream it'll overheat and shut off. I'm overseas now but I'll have it checked out by the place I got it from (there's a warranty from the store involved) in about a month. I'm just curious if this is "normal" or if maybe the heatsink on the video card is loose or something? It feels like my laptop's performance has gone down a notch and I don't know why it's doing this all of a sudden. I suppose it's worth it to invest in one of those $~30 cooling pads for laptops? Will having a much cooler GPU give me a (slight?) performance increase? I was running SC2 fine on lowest before, but now I'm often getting 15-20 fps even on everything lowest. It's frustrating.  | ||
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
On March 28 2013 12:36 wptlzkwjd wrote: + Show Spoiler + Hey guys, I was wondering if there are any alienware m17x r4 users out there? If so, what are your opinions on the laptop? I've been looking into gaming laptops and I think the m17x looks pretty good if I get it with an i7, HD 7970, and 1080p with bare minimums on everything else since I can upgrade it on my own like RAM and SSD. Most important thing for me is the build quality which I think alienware is the best for? Thanks, I didn't want to make a completely new thread for this. If you absolutely need to run games on a brick, m17x r4 is one of the better ones. Some people say Asus G75VW would be second. The MSI and Clevo-derived options are a bit lower in quality usually. I'm sure you know, but that's HD 7970M, i.e. a gimped HD 7870. On March 28 2013 23:30 SoleSteeler wrote: + Show Spoiler + So I'm running a laptop, stats: i7-3610 mobile Nvidia 630M 8 GB RAM Win7 64-bit Toshiba, not sure the specific model. I was playing games on it smoothly for a few months. Then all of a sudden a couple weeks ago it started having overheating problems. In SC2, it starts at about 55-60 Celsius and then within 3-4 minutes (even in the menus) it's around 90-95. When it hits 100 it turns off. I figured out that if I close all programs and just have SC2 open I won't hit 100 degrees. But even if I'm idling in channels and watching a stream it'll overheat and shut off. I'm overseas now but I'll have it checked out by the place I got it from (there's a warranty from the store involved) in about a month. I'm just curious if this is "normal" or if maybe the heatsink on the video card is loose or something? It feels like my laptop's performance has gone down a notch and I don't know why it's doing this all of a sudden. I suppose it's worth it to invest in one of those $~30 cooling pads for laptops? Will having a much cooler GPU give me a (slight?) performance increase? I was running SC2 fine on lowest before, but now I'm often getting 15-20 fps even on everything lowest. It's frustrating. Are you quoting CPU or GPU temps? Cooling pad usually shouldn't do that much unless your current configuration actually is blocking the vents or not leaving enough space for it to get air insidee. If either CPU or GPU is hitting 100C or close then you would probably expect thermal throttling, so it running itself slower to prevent itself from overheating. That would cause the lower performance you're getting. It's probably either dust, the heatsink getting loose, or both. However, opening it up could void your warranty. On a lot of these laptops, there is a single fan that cools a heatsink that's thermally coupled to both the CPU and GPU, but that's not always the case. | ||
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SoleSteeler
Canada5472 Posts
On March 28 2013 23:42 Myrmidon wrote: Are you quoting CPU or GPU temps? Cooling pad usually shouldn't do that much unless your current configuration actually is blocking the vents or not leaving enough space for it to get air insidee. If either CPU or GPU is hitting 100C or close then you would probably expect thermal throttling, so it running itself slower to prevent itself from overheating. That would cause the lower performance you're getting. It's probably either dust, the heatsink getting loose, or both. However, opening it up could void your warranty. On a lot of these laptops, there is a single fan that cools a heatsink that's thermally coupled to both the CPU and GPU, but that's not always the case. Thanks for the reply. These are the "GPU = x Celsius" readings from ctrl + alt + f in SC2. Voiding the warranty: yeah, that's why I've been weary to open and check. I'll be able to do so in a few weeks at least. Maybe the heatsink is cooling both, since I tried SC2 yesterday on both the integrated graphics and Nvidia card, right after one another. I watched the same replay, the integrated went from 50 C to about 84 C (and higher FPS and less stuttering...) then I waited a few moments and watched it on the Nvidia card. Within a few minutes it was at about 88, and finished at 92. I should get one of those pressurized air cans... | ||
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wptlzkwjd
Canada1240 Posts
On March 28 2013 23:30 SoleSteeler wrote: So I'm running a laptop, stats: i7-3610 mobile Nvidia 630M 8 GB RAM Win7 64-bit Toshiba, not sure the specific model. I was playing games on it smoothly for a few months. Then all of a sudden a couple weeks ago it started having overheating problems. In SC2, it starts at about 55-60 Celsius and then within 3-4 minutes (even in the menus) it's around 90-95. When it hits 100 it turns off. I figured out that if I close all programs and just have SC2 open I won't hit 100 degrees. But even if I'm idling in channels and watching a stream it'll overheat and shut off. I'm overseas now but I'll have it checked out by the place I got it from (there's a warranty from the store involved) in about a month. I'm just curious if this is "normal" or if maybe the heatsink on the video card is loose or something? It feels like my laptop's performance has gone down a notch and I don't know why it's doing this all of a sudden. I suppose it's worth it to invest in one of those $~30 cooling pads for laptops? Will having a much cooler GPU give me a (slight?) performance increase? I was running SC2 fine on lowest before, but now I'm often getting 15-20 fps even on everything lowest. It's frustrating. When you say cooling pad, do you mean those fans that connect to a USB port? If so, those things cost around $15-20 or possibly less. Just so you know if you decide to buy one. | ||
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Sverigevader
Sweden388 Posts
Asus 660 TI TOP vs Sapphire 7950 Vapor-X 3GB (Toms Hardware forum) What are your opinions regarding the question and answers in that thread? I'm looking to buy one of those cards and I can't make up my mind. They seem to all agree on that the 7950 is superior. Do you agree? Some facts specific to me: Asus 660TI TOP: 347€ - Comes with Assassins Creed III Sapphire 7950 Vapor-X: 310€ - Comes with Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite My PSU: Corsair TX 550W Case: Thermaltake Level 10GT (If it matters) Monitor: Using a 22" @ 1680x1050 (Going to upgrade later to a 1920x1080/1200) I'm going crazy trying to choose a GPU. Please help  | ||
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skyR
Canada13817 Posts
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SoleSteeler
Canada5472 Posts
On March 29 2013 11:18 wptlzkwjd wrote: When you say cooling pad, do you mean those fans that connect to a USB port? If so, those things cost around $15-20 or possibly less. Just so you know if you decide to buy one. I was thinking something like this: http://ncix.com/products/?sku=43698&vpn=R9-NBC-8PBK-GP&manufacture=COOLERMASTER Do you guys think it will make a difference? | ||
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Doublemint
Austria8762 Posts
On March 29 2013 17:09 skyR wrote: Yes, the 7950 is by far superior with that pricing and the additional game. Indeed. If it was not for the second game that comes with the 7950 I would have to think twice about it - but no way in hell does the PhysX support and slightly better drivers outweigh that AMD package | ||
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Wabbit
United States1028 Posts
I'm trying to look for reviews but can't find anything conclusive (I'd love some measurements too...). At $733 Like New from Amazon warehouse, it seems like a good buy. | ||
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