My graphics quality has decreased dramatically over the past few months or so, I used to play on all medium graphic/texture settings, now I can only run it on all lows, any reason for this? Nothing else has changed, same wifi speed, no change to any laptop settings. I run on a MacBook Pro if that makes any difference
I can add more specs if needed

skyR

Canada13817 Posts

October 21 2013 15:21 GMT

#7962

Have you cleaned the dust out of your MBP recently?

Whatson

United States5357 Posts

October 21 2013 15:39 GMT

#7963

Hm no I haven't, would that help?
And are there any guides for it?

skyR

Canada13817 Posts

October 21 2013 15:53 GMT

#7964

I think the manual covers how to take the backplate off and there are probably guides on Youtube to help you as well.

Accumulation of dust may be causing your components to throttle in order to prevent overheating so yes clearing it may help.

Cyro

United Kingdom20321 Posts

October 21 2013 17:20 GMT

#7965

Anyone else from europe having better time with twitch recently or is it more of an individual case? I was able watch Destiny's 1080p48 and now wcs for hours (and multiple streams if they're not really high bitrate) with no issues, and that's been a very rare case in the last year or so. Quick poll ~

Poll: Has Twitch been working better for you very recently?

No (4)

67%

Yes (2)

33%

6 total votes

Your vote: Has Twitch been working better for you very recently?

(Vote): Yes
(Vote): No

Whatson

United States5357 Posts

October 21 2013 20:01 GMT

#7966

On October 22 2013 00:53 skyR wrote:
I think the manual covers how to take the backplate off and there are probably guides on Youtube to help you as well.

Accumulation of dust may be causing your components to throttle in order to prevent overheating so yes clearing it may help.

Ahh okay, thanks!
I'll see if that helps

IMKR

United States378 Posts

October 22 2013 01:59 GMT

#7967

What is the requirements for a dual monitor set up?

When I'm getting advice over at overclock.net they keep saying if i want dual monitor, i need a better gpu or like sli/CF set up.

i dont know if they are thinking i want to do something else or not but yea

skyR

Canada13817 Posts

October 22 2013 02:08 GMT

#7968

None.

scott31337

United States2979 Posts

October 22 2013 02:09 GMT

#7969

SLI or crossfire is not required for a dual monitor setup - A decent video card will be plenty.

IMKR

United States378 Posts

October 22 2013 02:15 GMT

#7970

is a gtx 660 good enough?

people there keeps telling me its not worth using gtx 660 for dual monitor.

(i plan on just using 1 monitor for game while i use the other to have internet up for browsing and such instead of alt tabing all the time)

also, why are they saying i need SLI/CF than? or that a gtx 660 isnt good enough? what are they thinking that i am trying to do? i am assuming they think i want to use both monitors to display the game in a big widescreen setting

skyR

Canada13817 Posts

October 22 2013 02:17 GMT

#7971

Seriously, there's no requirements besides having two ports. You don't even need a GPU for two monitors, the motherboard can do it ffs -.-

da_head

Canada3350 Posts

October 22 2013 02:22 GMT

#7972

Unless he's looking to game on both monitors simultaneously?

z0rz

United States350 Posts

October 22 2013 17:18 GMT

#7973

Sounds like they are assuming you want to play games on both monitors, yeah. It's pretty stupid for them to assume (unless you posted in the gaming section or something), but it also sounds like you didn't really clarify your intentions either.

As mentioned, you'll want a decent GPU to play games on multiple monitors. If you're just using the 2nd monitor to multitask or give yourself more room to work, then you don't need anything special at all.

Firebolt145

Lalalaland34495 Posts

October 22 2013 17:43 GMT

#7974

I have a laptop with the following specs:

Processor : Intel Core i7 Processor 2670QM (2.20Ghz, 6MB, 4C)
Memory : 6144MB (1x2048 + 1x4096) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
Hard Drive : 750GB Serial ATA (7200RPM)
Graphics : 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6990M

Hypothetically, if I were to build a desktop with, at minimum, similar specs to this, how much would it cost? If it matters, I live in the UK and have no experience whatsoever with building my own computer.

skyR

Canada13817 Posts

October 22 2013 17:48 GMT

#7975

Hm like $800 in the US, it'll still be drastically faster since there's no desktop i7 that's clocked that low. If you don't need the i7's hyperthreading than -$100 for $700.

Firebolt145

Lalalaland34495 Posts

October 22 2013 17:59 GMT

#7976

On October 23 2013 02:48 skyR wrote:
Hm like $800 in the US, it'll still be drastically faster since there's no desktop i7 that's clocked that low. If you don't need the i7's hyperthreading than -$100 for $700.

I should probably mention that I stream, since I think that's relevant...

Cyro

United Kingdom20321 Posts

October 22 2013 18:00 GMT

#7977

£140 for haswell i5

£60 for 8gb RAM

£60-110 for motherboard (definately don't need 110, but might cost notably more than 60) -assuming £80

£100 for case, psu (bit less? depends what you want to spend on case)

£44 for good 1tb HDD (caviar blue)

£74 for samsung 840 evo 120gb SSD

^all of that is a few pennies under £500 - doesn't include a GPU - the good value choices range from £62 ~ 7750 all the way up to £530 ~ classified 780's

You may want to cut stuff from that or add, etc. Depends a lot on your use. If you're looking to cut money and maintain most functionality, you probably can

I should probably mention that I stream, since I think that's relevant...

Well, you're streaming and on sc2 site, you want the haswell i5

dota as well. Harder to cut from above build, then.

That kind of build with a midrange GPU is lightning fast though, ssd, haswell quad core

Firebolt145

Lalalaland34495 Posts

October 22 2013 18:04 GMT

#7978

Is there much of a difference between i5 and i7? For some reason I always thought having an i7 was vital for streaming.

Cyro

United Kingdom20321 Posts

October 22 2013 18:06 GMT

#7979

Just hyperthreading, which isn't too important. If you wanted performance you'd go to overclocked i5 before i7 budget-wise (£34 more expensive cpu, £30 more expensive motherboard, £37 cpu cooler + some time investment), unless you didn't want to overclock

Speaking of that, you'd probably want to get an i5 4670 or similar rather than a 4430, because the difference is actually pretty big for the cost - 3ghz on the 4430 with four threaded load, vs 3.6 on the 4670.

Compared to your laptop CPU; Overheating wouldn't be a concern with cpu+gpu loaded

Laptop CPU (sandy bridge QM) guaranteed for 2.2ghz, can be up to 2.8 if temperatures and tdp allows

^vs desktop Haswell CPU. 3.6ghz under load, and about 20% faster performance at the same clock speed* (that is, 1ghz on the haswell cpu is worth about 1.2ghz on your one)

*varies depending on the type of load etc

So the performance difference is quite large

Firebolt145

Lalalaland34495 Posts

October 22 2013 18:07 GMT

#7980

I know next to nothing about overclocking. Is it something I can learn quickly and carry out safely, or something I should just stay away from? Keep in mind I know next to nothing about computer hardware.