Random Hardware topics

[Kaamos_Llama]

Totally off topic but in the past two months the internet has been full of UK, Poland and Lithuania PC build threads and I'm not talking cheap builds. Where the hell are these people getting all this money.

Dont know but I had a suspicion.

Cryptocurrency Havens in the EU: Poland and Lithuania Lead in Registered Crypto Companies

Poland has emerged as a leader among European Union countries in terms of the number of newly established businesses working with virtual digital assets

thegaze.media

 

[Why_Me]

Dont know but I had a suspicion.

Cryptocurrency Havens in the EU: Poland and Lithuania Lead in Registered Crypto Companies

Poland has emerged as a leader among European Union countries in terms of the number of newly established businesses working with virtual digital assets

thegaze.media

That makes sense.

 

[Colif]

 

[Colif]

I worked out I can't hear my air cooler fans at all if they below 1050rpm, I can't keep them below that forever as need them to be able to cover CPU temp increases, and keep package temps around 50c, but its handy to know where the silence mark is.

Every day since installing the Noctuas, I have had to adjust the curve somehow. That makes sense to me, since I only had them in a week, and temps vary every day. Eventually I will have one curve that matches most circumstances... maybe.
I should save a profile to use in summer and one for winter. Mainly as I only have so many points on the chart I can assign, so I expect the curve will be different in summer to winter.

I only hear the intake fans when they get over 600rpm, so I have them running just below that except when CPU temps rise as well. Its not them so much that needs the adjustments. They doing a good job keeping my GPU and nvme temps low.

The next few days are all over 33c outside so I expect I will hear it more, but on some hot days its just easier to leave PC off for a few hours so I can live in the same room. Might do that soon.

 

[Colif]

Can a 5090 do 8k?

yes... depends on the game.

 

[Colif]

Every day since installing the Noctuas, I have had to adjust the curve somehow. That makes sense to me, since I only had them in a week, and temps vary every day. Eventually I will have one curve that matches most circumstances... maybe.

its driving me mad, every day its different. Some nights it makes sense to flick the switch on side of Deepcool and let it run with a lower max speed and make sure it fast enough to not cause another sound. Around 800rpm works now, but its not that warm outside right now.
Slowed down intakes as well.

Its more likely to encounter cold days than hot for rest of year. February is often the hottest month.

I should just ignore it and listen to music.

 

[neogunhero]

How long is too long to upgrade your GPU?

I guess that question is a bit hypothetical, because really if your GPU is still holding up for the games you want to play, then the right time is when it finally kicks the bucket.

However I’ve had my RTX 2060 and I’m thinking it’s getting close to upgrade. I’m a fairly budget gamer, don’t want to spend too much on a card. Ideally my budget will be around $300, and I’m seeing RTX 4060’s for that price. Definitely not the fastest card, but it seems to be a good step up from my current card, and can play newer games a lot better than mine.

It benefits from a lot of the newer tech too. On Stalker 2, graphics settings set to Low, DLSS set to Balanced, my RTX 2060 barely pulled together 30fps. I’m watching a video of a guy playing it with an RTX 4060, High settings, DLSS set to Quality, averaging at 75fps. Frame Gen seems to be handy as well for even more demanding games, though I would prefer not to use Frame Gen until I absolutely need to.

Hopefully if a RTX 5060 comes out, that will keep pushing older cards down in price, and I’m wondering what budget options AMD will be releasing this year.

 

[Colif]

How long is too long to upgrade your GPU?

How long is a piece of string?

Your 2nd sentence is right, it is up to user and what they play as to how often.

I have upgraded every 3 generations recently. Which would mean you are about due to look, as you will see a massive increase compared to what you have.

reviewers seem to suggest you should upgrade every generation since all their reviews compare to previous. But I see that as a waste of money, better to at least get two or more generations worth out of a card. Also less likely to be disappointed by a smaller bump in performance compared to those who wait longer.

I went from a 2070 Super to a 7900XT but I probably really didn't need to. I had a concern about GPU dying before I wanted it to. MY previous GTX 980 had died the week I was making this PC so I was a little worried same would happen. As it stands, I have a spare 2070 Super just in case anything happens to this one. The 7900xt was still 131% better than the 2070 Super so I did gain ability to run my 1440p monitor at full refresh rate.

Since I only got a new card two years ago, not looking at this generation at all.

Not sure what 5060 will be like. Hope they don't release an 8gb model.

the AMD Radeon 9070 cards are due to be released this week... next few days, so I would look at thier stats once they actually out... right now we just have leaked specs. From what I can tell they about 50% better than a 7900 GRE.

 

[neogunhero]

reviewers seem to suggest you should upgrade every generation since all their reviews compare to previous. But I see that as a waste of money, better to at least get two or more generations worth out of a card. Also less likely to be disappointed by a smaller bump in performance compared to those who wait longer.

Reviewers and incredibly wealthy people have got to be the only ones buying brand new GPUs every single year. When that’s the case it makes sense to constantly compare to last years models.

My GPU has been going strong for 6 years, so I am at the 3 generations behind mark. However it runs nearly every game I want fine, it’s just the newest ones that don’t run good. Stalker 2 and Indiana Jones are the two biggest examples of this, and it all comes down to the forced Ray Tracing enabled by default with no way to turn it off. I fear if this becomes the new standard, then I will definitely need to upgrade or else I can’t play them at all, which is complete BS but whatever.

I don’t care about RT and if I am given the option to disable it I absolutely do. If I had a card where I can max out the settings and have RT on and get 60fps+, then I would use it more. The RTX 2000 series was the first generation to have RT cores so it’s only been improved upon since.

I’m just surprised this card has lasted me so long. I used to buy even cheaper budget cards, like the GTX 460 back in the day. The RTX 2060 was the fastest card I ever bought. It’s served me very well all these years, and I’m hoping to be able to get another card to last me that long.

 

[Colif]

So it depends on how many more new games force RT. I can't answer that question. And if you actually want to play them. Its been a long time since I seen a new AAA game I really want to play. So me upgrading for RT isn't really on cards.

I wouldn't update unless you had to. The longer you wait the more boost you will get. If/when you upgrade CPU/system you probably want to look at a new GPU as well. I watched video earlier on best GPU for a 9800x3d and it said the bare minimum would be a RX 7800XT as anything less than that, you better off upgrading GPU first. Same video showed my GPU is a good value for said CPU. Not best obviously but its a start.

if say you got something like

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/qWNwqH

you would want a better GPU.

 

[neogunhero]

So it depends on how many more new games force RT. I can't answer that question. And if you actually want to play them. Its been a long time since I seen a new AAA game I really want to play. So me upgrading for RT isn't really on cards.

Honestly, out of all the games so far that force RT, the only one I would actually consider buying is Stalker 2, but that’s on Game Pass so I can most likely play it there years down the line, if not then by then it will go on sale.

After some consideration I’m thinking I should just clean up and do some maintenance on my card. Like I’ve said before it still runs great on all the games I actually wanna play. I just picked up Pirate Yakuza and I’m running it on highest settings 60fps 1080p. Granted the Yakuza games aren’t known for their spectacular graphics, but it’s a game I really want to play and I’m playing it perfectly fine.

As far as maintenance goes, I’m considering replacing thermal pads. I’ve deep cleaned and repasted it probably once a year for the past three years but never the thermal pads. And replacement fans are incredibly cheap, less than $20 for replacement fans but they aren’t OEM so I’m not sure. I’ll probably wait until they fail to replace them, but thermal pads and paste may not be a bad idea. Some games it does run close to 80c, so it may be time to replace the 6 year old pads. There’s lots of videos of people doing that on my specific Zotac RTX 2060, including pad sizes, so I’ve got lots of resources to help.

 

[Colif]

In the last two months I have gone from water to air cooling so I don't know what temps I would get in games. CPU temps ramp up much faster than water... get to see higher temps than before. True, that was CPU but changing that also meant all my intake fans changed as well and every temp has changed in system.
And its also summer here. Ambient temps play a bigger part on Air cooling than they do water... water can stay cooler for longer, doesn't blast all that heat into your room. Air is nice in a way though, room doesn't stay warm for hours after you turn PC off.

My GPU appears to still run same temps at idle but then I use MSI Afterburner to run its fans all the time. So its only in warmer months its temp isn't on 36c

The card itself is only... um just over two years old. Most hardware fails either right at start of life or can last for a long time. Six years might be okay for GPU but its around time I would replace PSU unless it has a 10 year warranty. Components can start to fail, not just heat related ones. Same applies to motherboards too. Longer you use them, more chance something will stop working right.

 

[Colif]

Does my GPU look bent?

As to me it seems to bend up at the right end... I need to find right height for its support bar. its probably too high on the right.

Most photos make it look like its sagging but most are from above looking down, that one is from almost below it. Hard to achieve in my room.
Top looks straight to me, and its got a built in anti sag feature, so its only really after the power connectors where it might sag a little

 

[neogunhero]

As to me it seems to bend up at the right end... I need to find right height for its support bar. its probably too high on the right.

Just based on the photo, it does appear to be sagging a bit. Would definitely recommend a support bar, you can get adjustable ones for cheap online.

Components can start to fail, not just heat related ones. Same applies to motherboards too. Longer you use them, more chance something will stop working right.

Yeah, my whole rig is around 6 years old. I built the main rig Dec 2018, got the RTX 2060 maybe Feb-Mar 2019, added some storage over time, replaced some case fans, and got my Ryzen 5700X last March. I would like to bank on this rig for at least another 1-2 years, so maybe picking up a cheap but reliable PSU would be worth it, and perhaps a new CPU air cooler. Mine is of course 6 years old and is far from being the best one around. Gamer's Nexus highly praises the Thermalright Pearless Assassin 120 and it's only $40 USD on Amazon.

---

I went ahead and picked up some new thermal paste and thermal pads. I ran HWInfo last night while running multiple benchmarks in Cyberpunk 2077 with higher graphics settings than I play on, and it stated my GPU hotspot temp reached 92C. Uh oh. Beneath that line, it mentions the max temps for GPU and "hotspot" are 83C. Of course it can go a bit higher but that is max normal operating temp before clocks start to slow down.

Normal temps for me typically don't reach 83, but I have seen a few times in the past it hovering right around 80C. Pirate Yakuza sits right at 70C, which still seems a bit high for a not very graphically demanding game. I have custom fan curves set to blast at 100% when it reaches 70C, so I'm chalking it up to the paste and pads.

As I mentioned before, I have repasted my card at least once a year for the past 2-3 years. I have never repadded it, so I wonder if those are no longer working properly. I would assume so, since a lot of resources I found online suggested changing thermal pads every 3-4 years as a rule of thumb. I've never done it before so I'm a bit nervous but it will be okay. Just need to be very careful, and one person suggested using tweezers to help hold the pads. I also need to pick up an Xacto knife and some compressed air.

I hope I got enough thermal pads, my card uses 2mm thick pads, but the brand I wanted only had 1-1.5mm, but stated you can stack without performance loss. I got two 100x100x1mm sheets, $8.99 each. I need to stack them, so I hope that will be enough for everything. I just need to not rip off the old pads before applying new ones in case I need to order more. Nervous, but I know I can do it right, just gotta take my time.

 

[Colif]

so maybe picking up a cheap but reliable PSU would be worth it, and perhaps a new CPU air cooler. Mine is of course 6 years old and is far from being the best one around. Gamer's Nexus highly praises the Thermalright Pearless Assassin 120 and it's only $40 USD on Amazon.

Don't go too cheap on PSU, that can have negative effects since PSU powers everything in PC. If you want a few more years out of system, don't aim too low. Don't need PSU killing other parts.

If I didn't have tall ram sticks I might have got that cooler - I looked at a few Peerless Assassin models last month. I just chose a cooler that doesn't care about ram stick height of the first stick, so I didn't have to buy new ram as well. I don't really want to spend any more money on this system now, trying to save up for my next one.

Gamers Nexus places a lot of points into Value. The assassin is cheap if you don't also need new ram to install it. The cost of the cooler I got is offset by not needing new ram to install it.

GN actually like it except for its price.

GPU Cooling:
Does sound like you need to do something with GPU. MY 980 probably needed a repaste as it started to run hot but it was 5 years old and I just bought a new card. Given how rare my GPU is, I doubt I find anything online about fixing it internally. I worry about that if/when I need to.

GPU Holder
I have one on card now, its holding up the right end. I have moved it a little towards the centre.
I didn't think I could fit something like

https://www.antec.com/documents/product/accessory/accessory-GPU_Bracket_Dagger_Black&White_EN_230901.pdf

under it but I might be able to. Not sure I want to buy one for this PC when in a few months I will be removing current GPU and putting a 2070 Super in its place which doesn't really need the support

old photo, of my old AIO as well.

I intend to get one on next PC. Mainly as current holder is the wrong color and isn't amazing

 

[neogunhero]

Don't go too cheap on PSU, that can have negative effects since PSU powers everything in PC. If you want a few more years out of system, don't aim too low. Don't need PSU killing other parts.

That's totally true and I've experienced cheap PSU woes before in the past. When I was building my very first gaming PC as a kid, my parents allowed me to pick out the parts. I choose the cheapest PSU I could because I thought all that mattered in a good PC was the GPU. It shorted out on me in less than a year, but luckily the rest of the PC was unharmed.

I got my current EVGA 600W PSU for about $50 IIRC. It helps being from a reputable brand and having the 80+ Bronze cert, but I've come to realize that isn't a very helpful rating these days, at the very least a flawed one. At the minimum it gives peace of mind that you're not buying a bottom of the barrel cheapo power supply.

I don't recall the exact model of my CPU cooler, but it's one of the lower priced DeepCool coolers. It has one fan and very, very cheap and thin feeling heatsink fins. I can't even find it on Amazon anymore, all the current models on offer look a whole lot better than what I have. I've had it since I built the PC and it's been working great ever since. My CPU never has any issue with temps, but I'm wondering if I had a better cooler with two fans, if that will reduce temps inside the case which then could help GPU temps as well by pushing the hot air out of the case faster. I won't be purchasing a new one yet, I'll just see how the thermal paste and pads go for reducing GPU temps.