Personal computing discussed

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by DeadOfKnight
Mon Jul 08, 2019 9:56 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Something's different...
Replies: 1628
Views: 328144

Re: Something's different...

CLEARLY TR wasn't making enough money to survive how things were. It quite literally was broke. That's true, but I don't think this is the solution. I talked to Scott about this back when he still owned the site. He wasn't making money. Ad revenue has gone down substantially. Most of the money thes...
by DeadOfKnight
Sun Jul 07, 2019 6:07 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Something's different...
Replies: 1628
Views: 328144

Re: Something's different... (new)

This provides very little information at a glance, and next to nothing for navigation and filtering options. It seems to be a trend these days. I can't be the only one that hates this. TR had a really nice layout, even for mobile. I get it, everyone wants to keep up and stay "modern". Howe...
by DeadOfKnight
Fri Jul 05, 2019 8:16 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Old Monitor suddenly expensive
Replies: 5
Views: 3732

Re: Old Monitor suddenly expensive

just brew it! wrote:
It's probably discontinued and people who already own one and want a 2nd matching one for dual-head are driving up the price.

That makes sense, though they'll be disappointed when they find out the screens don't really match anymore.
by DeadOfKnight
Fri Jul 05, 2019 5:30 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Old Monitor suddenly expensive
Replies: 5
Views: 3732

Re: Old Monitor suddenly expensive

Depends what it is. Often new tech comes with compromises, and if you wait long to upgrade, the older stuff without those specific compromises become hard to come by. I couldn't tell you about your monitor specifically. It's possible that Dell cleared out its' stock of these and is no longer offerin...
by DeadOfKnight
Mon Jun 03, 2019 7:00 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: TR Gerbil's Choice Review I - we have a winner!
Replies: 144
Views: 23925

Re: TR Gerbil's Choice Review I - we have a winner!

I would have voted for Optane, but for a different reason. I've always wondered what the real world benefits of hybrid storage are, and what are the limitations. I mean, you could just get an SSD for cheap these days, which is what most of us do, but the idea of hybrid storage for your system drive...
by DeadOfKnight
Sun Jun 02, 2019 11:57 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: TR Gerbil's Choice Review I - we have a winner!
Replies: 144
Views: 23925

Re: TR Gerbil's Choice Review I - we have a winner!

I would have voted for Optane, but for a different reason. I've always wondered what the real world benefits of hybrid storage are, and what are the limitations. I mean, you could just get an SSD for cheap these days, which is what most of us do, but the idea of hybrid storage for your system drive ...
by DeadOfKnight
Mon May 27, 2019 9:11 am
Forum: Processors
Topic: 16 COARZ.... Not announced by AMD
Replies: 104
Views: 18106

Re: 16 COARZ.... Not announced by AMD

Desktop maxing out at 12C strongly hints that AMD is saving all of the 8-core chiplets for EPYC. I bet the desktop 8C are using 4+4. Nah, I''m pretty sure they are saving it for after Intel plays their hand. Still, even 8 cores and 16 threads is more than enough for most people. The real question i...
by DeadOfKnight
Sat Mar 09, 2019 11:38 pm
Forum: Storage
Topic: New SSD: SATA or M.2
Replies: 11
Views: 3865

Re: New SSD: SATA or M.2

Another consideration is how many PCIe lanes you have available. If you have a SATA port available then you can use it, but if you load up your PCIe slots on an ATX motherboard, you might not have room for an NVMe drive even if you have a slot for it.
by DeadOfKnight
Mon Jan 14, 2019 4:20 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Lots of Minor Issues after Graphics Card Upgrade
Replies: 31
Views: 7350

Re: Lots of Minor Issues after Graphics Card Upgrade

If I had a motherboard go bad for seemingly no reason (i.e. not 10 years old, covered in layers of dust, or shipped recently) then I would immediately suspect power delivery or a surge. You can open the case and sniff around for a burnt smell. No doesn't mean nothing got fried, but if yes then you'l...
by DeadOfKnight
Thu Dec 27, 2018 1:55 am
Forum: Gaming
Topic: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks
Replies: 47
Views: 10589

Re: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks

Yes, the problem is that CPU frame time can only be decreased by upping processing power, whereas GPU frame time is easily tweaked in graphics settings. If you choose wrong with the CPU, you're out hundreds of dollars, whereas with the GPU you can always pick whatever is within your budget and make...
by DeadOfKnight
Wed Dec 26, 2018 9:39 pm
Forum: Gaming
Topic: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks
Replies: 47
Views: 10589

Re: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks

I disagree. AMD may be making strides in AVX2 / 256-bit compute, but Intel is pushing AVX512 very strongly, with Icelake giving support. At very least, the future will be partitioned into AVX2 vs AVX512 performance categories moving forward. AVX512 would be useful for H265 encoding, among other app...
by DeadOfKnight
Wed Dec 26, 2018 3:18 pm
Forum: Gaming
Topic: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks
Replies: 47
Views: 10589

Re: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks

I suppose I've got pretty close the the "ideal" mid range CPU and high end GPU (an I5-4460 and a 1080). I'm quite happy with it for gaming at 4K on the games that interest me (mostly single player stuff). I think these days your resolution is really the deciding factor in your graphics ca...
by DeadOfKnight
Sun Dec 23, 2018 1:10 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Hey new EIC, Seth, we'd like to hear from you!
Replies: 12
Views: 3818

Re: Hey new EIC, Seth, we'd like to hear from you!

I've been reading for over a decade. I still don't know why we call ourselves that. The earliest "official" reference I remember is the TR survey, posted with a picture of a girbil looking through a magnifying glass, but it's older than that. My guess is it's an inside joke like buffalo, p...
by DeadOfKnight
Wed Dec 12, 2018 6:46 pm
Forum: Graphics
Topic: PhysX Just Went Open Source
Replies: 26
Views: 6133

Re: PhysX Just Went Open Source

Heh, I have an old 750 Ti installed in my PC, since I didn't have anywhere else to put it at the time. Nvidia Control Panel saw it was still there, and set it as my "Dedicated PhysX Processor" by default. At the time I was still playing games like Borderlands 2 and Batman Arkham City, so I...
by DeadOfKnight
Tue Dec 11, 2018 9:30 pm
Forum: Gaming
Topic: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks
Replies: 47
Views: 10589

Re: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks

For TR readers, probably. The split is above 4C8T for a lot of games now, though, and CPUs down to 2C4T are still very common. Yeah, most older CPU-bound games are bound up on one core (WoW being a prime example), but there are a handful of new games that are now being bound by the number of cores/...
by DeadOfKnight
Tue Dec 11, 2018 4:13 pm
Forum: Gaming
Topic: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks
Replies: 47
Views: 10589

Re: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks

Once Intel finally gets out of its 14++++++++++++++++++ nm funk, we'll see a long-delayed manufacturing process upgrade for another tangible CPU improvement. If trends continue, they'll be stuck on 7nm for even longer, and the next die shrink (if it happens) will be even less significant. Of course...
by DeadOfKnight
Mon Dec 10, 2018 7:04 pm
Forum: Gaming
Topic: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks
Replies: 47
Views: 10589

Re: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks

My point is that it really seems to me that the #1 priority should be to minimize the CPU bottleneck, and then get the fastest GPU you can afford with the rest. And you believe the i7-5775c is the best way to "minimize the CPU bottleneck" for a 2080 Ti FE driving a 3440x1440 120Hz G-SYNC ...
by DeadOfKnight
Mon Dec 10, 2018 1:17 am
Forum: Gaming
Topic: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks
Replies: 47
Views: 10589

Re: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks

Which benchmarks are these? As far as I can see, my 7700K with DDR4 3200 is faster than any AMD CPU yet released in most games. I don't mean that AMD's chips fare better than Intel's for any kind of gaming, only that some games do like having 8 physical cores over 8 logical cores at much higher clo...
by DeadOfKnight
Sun Dec 09, 2018 9:22 pm
Forum: Gaming
Topic: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks
Replies: 47
Views: 10589

Re: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks

Being CPU-bound gets you less consistent frametimes, as you're seeing, but being GPU-bound often increases latency. Being GPU-bound also means that tweaking your settings will have a far greater affect on performance. If a game is CPU-bound, you will often find that turning settings down from ultra...
by DeadOfKnight
Sun Dec 09, 2018 7:55 pm
Forum: Gaming
Topic: CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks
Replies: 47
Views: 10589

CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks

Over the many years I've been upgrading my PC for smoother gaming performance, I've heard it suggested many times here and elsewhere to get a mid-range CPU and the fastest GPU you can afford. While this has often been the case in terms of raw fps numbers, I find that games that are GPU-bound run rel...
by DeadOfKnight
Thu Nov 29, 2018 4:18 pm
Forum: General Software
Topic: Antivirus software
Replies: 37
Views: 9638

Re: Antivirus software

BitDefender Free Edition. Seriously. It's free, it's lighter on resources than any other product I've used including their own which also get high marks for that, and it does everything you need an antivirus to do. It's got the same protection built in that BitDefender is known for. It doesn't have ...
by DeadOfKnight
Thu Nov 08, 2018 12:19 pm
Forum: System Builders Anonymous
Topic: Streaming PC Build
Replies: 17
Views: 4538

Re: Streaming PC Build

I would argue that the single most important thing that you include in your budget is a second monitor. You can get away with a lower quality stream, but it's going to be a real pain to try to do everything on one screen.
by DeadOfKnight
Wed Oct 31, 2018 8:55 pm
Forum: System Builders Anonymous
Topic: New build
Replies: 9
Views: 2229

Re: New build

You might also want to put some attention to peripherals. A lot of times people spend all their budget on upgrading the PC when the biggest upgrades to the user experience could be the monitor and speakers.
by DeadOfKnight
Mon Sep 10, 2018 11:30 am
Forum: General Software
Topic: I need recommendation on vpn
Replies: 25
Views: 9745

Re: I need recommendation on vpn

I use PIA as well. No issues. I can even stream with it on without issue and they don't block p2p or keep logs, if that's an issue for you. I got it with a humble bundle so it was a no brainer, but you might find a good deal some other way. I'd definitely recommend looking at yearly subscription pri...
by DeadOfKnight
Tue Aug 28, 2018 2:54 pm
Forum: Processors
Topic: GloFo is TOO DURN GOOD for 7nm.. CONFIRMED!
Replies: 29
Views: 2918

Re: GloFo is TOO DURN GOOD for 7nm.. CONFIRMED!

Intel's 10nm has been hit with delay after delay. Comparable processes are being cancelled. I would not be optimistic about any of the fabs going forward until EUV lithography is ready for prime time. Granted, if the rumors are true that may not be far away. Still puts a stutter in their step for al...
by DeadOfKnight
Mon Jul 23, 2018 1:26 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Technology purchasing and "moments of weakness"
Replies: 62
Views: 9154

Re: Technology purchasing and "moments of weakness"

At one point I was really into MMOs and would buy anything that I thought had even the slightest chance of giving me an advantage. I was sold on the Killer NIC, only to find out that the drivers had all kinds of issues and were a a resource hog and functioned as a placebo at best. There was no perce...
by DeadOfKnight
Tue May 08, 2018 7:32 pm
Forum: System Builders Anonymous
Topic: New futureproof C2Q rig: Please advise!
Replies: 65
Views: 16043

Re: New futureproof C2Q rig: Please advise!

GPU's are still advancing at closer to a doubling/generation. That said, I don't know know that performance/$$ is doubling with each generation. The 1080Ti is still pretty stupid expensive. GPUs are highly parallel, meaning that they can be scaled up as much as they can physically fit more transist...
by DeadOfKnight
Tue May 08, 2018 6:04 pm
Forum: System Builders Anonymous
Topic: New futureproof C2Q rig: Please advise!
Replies: 65
Views: 16043

Re: New futureproof C2Q rig: Please advise!

OT observation -- one of the posts from 10 years ago (yeesh) was pondering whether or not AMD was going to survive. Scary that it's really only been in the past 9 months or so we've been able to say with confidence "yeah, they will." Since all their reduction in overhead and taking over t...
by DeadOfKnight
Tue Feb 13, 2018 12:44 pm
Forum: Echo Vale
Topic: New desktop speaker recommendations
Replies: 91
Views: 26281

Re: New desktop speaker recommendations

To be fair here, you're talking about $350 monitors plus a $250 sub versus $200-300 2.1 systems from two companies that don't make audio gear as their primary focus. You shouldn't be surprised the Klipsch combination sounds better. Not even a little. I'm not surprised, I'm just wondering why it too...
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