Random Hardware topics

[Colif]

About an hour ago I noticed I could get

for about $600 less than normal right now, but I am resisting as I had already said tonight I didn't want to buy anything this fortnight. I can't really afford it so I will ignore the special. And hope one like it shows up when I am in the market.

I also don't have space for a second monitor and there really isn't anything wrong with mine, so no need to replace it

And just maybe my next monitor won't be Samsung - most of them have been. The LG I have now is the 1st non Samsung Monitor I have had in 25 years.

Other things on my shopping list before I get a monitor.
Spent enough on computers this year... looks at sig

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I've wanted a second screen for a while but my partner doesnt have enough room on my desk for it. Definitely staying clear of 4K though for now, nice as it would be I dont have the kind of moneu for a GPU to power it in the games Id like to play on it.

Sometimes it would be nicer to have a dedicated room but its also nice to be in the same room with the family, I probably wouldnt play as many games if I had to go to a different room.

The Steam Deck is pretty nice for that too, but its not good for strategy games and isometric RPGs, and I like to be able to play anything if I want to.

 

[neogunhero]

How well does downscaling a game to 1080p while using a 1440p monitor look? I'm wondering, if you had a 1440p monitor that can run most games at that resolution, but you fire up a more demanding game, dropping it down to 1080p could help with performance, but I wonder how image quality would look while using a higher res screen. Will it be blurry or stretched out?

 

[Colif]

I would suggest watching a you tube video showing what ii looks like but I can't find any - so many wrong results telling me what to buy instead... I hate you tube sometimes.

use upscaling instead. it looks better.

I hate shorts but its only choice

I want other things before I get a screen... it was just tempting for a little bit until sanity prevailed. Hopefully forgot about it by morning.

Current monitor bought same year as I got last PC, so it wouldn't be the 1st time. See what is around in a few months time, Xmas might be a better time.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

How well does downscaling a game to 1080p while using a 1440p monitor look? I'm wondering, if you had a 1440p monitor that can run most games at that resolution, but you fire up a more demanding game, dropping it down to 1080p could help with performance, but I wonder how image quality would look while using a higher res screen. Will it be blurry or stretched out?

I think it looks very blurry and I can see it instantly when an indie game defaults to 1080p. It might depend on how different monitor models handle things, and Ive heard some people say it looks fine over the years so depends on they eyes in question too.

Like Colif said, you'd get the exact same effect by using DLSS, it will render the game at 1080p or lower and then upscale it to 2560x1440 and improve the image to look much better than if you just changed the resolution.

 

[Colif]

4K is twice the width and twice the height as 1080p, one pixel on 1080p is 4 pixels on a 4K display. A pixel perfect scale as pixel perfect as scales get.

On 1440p, 1080p is between 1 and 4 pixels, they never line back up. This causes moiré’s, blurring, and other issues. To avoid this, you’d have to play on 1080x720p.

Likewise, 720p won’t evenly scale onto 1080p displays, so if you’d like to demonstrate this at a lower resolution… play in 720p on your 1080p monitor.

link

Like Colif said, you'd get the exact same effect by using DLSS, it will render the game at 1080p or lower and then upscale it to 2560x1440 and improve the image to look much better than if you just changed the resolution.

One day I might even play a game that requires it. One advantage to mainly playing indie/older games, none of them even use ray tracing yet alone upscaling.

I think my drivers have me auto running upscaling now... checks a game...

Yep

Only reason I am thinking about a new GPU is well, all my PC have had two of them... so its only natural. But its also likely I won't get one for a year or so... might even have played a game by then. Not looking to pay Nvidia tax next time either.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

link



One day I might even play a game that requires it. One advantage to mainly playing indie/older games, none of them even use ray tracing yet alone upscaling.

I think my drivers have me auto running upscaling now... checks a game...

Yep

Only reason I am thinking about a new GPU is well, all my PC have had two of them... so its only natural. But its also likely I won't get one for a year or so... might even have played a game by then. Not looking to pay Nvidia tax next time either.

Interesting, I dont think Nvidia has a setting for auto run on DLSS. At least not what I can see from a quick look.

 

[Colif]

Adrenaline sets a giobal experience, I can over ride it if I want to

I just let it do what it wants. Once I play a game I might change it.

 

[neogunhero]

Adrenaline sets a giobal experience, I can over ride it if I want to

Further proof that the graphics industry is pushing AI upscaling as the default option now. AI upscaling and frame generation should be features you can use if you wish, not the standard. I may overblowing this situation up but still, we see so many games run where using upscaling is a necessity to achieve good frames.

 

[Colif]

It wasn't on for a few years on my card but as its not the current generation any more, I guess there are games that it is needed on, and the drivers really don't know what you play, so the standard setting allows the features in case you play a modern AAA game that needs them to struggle to look good.

I agree that cards shouldn't need to rely on features to look good but I also know why they are doing it... apart from laziness, its a question of power.

The 5090 is already sucking stupid amounts of power and to keep making graphics better, the cards will need more power. And there is a limit to how many HPW12V cables you can attach to a card without becoming a fire hazard... and even that card needs to use some features. Like creating more false frames.

So using features is only way cards lower down the stack can even approach playing some games. And to keep selling interactive movies, the features need to keep getting better, so its inevitable. People keep wanting more pretty...

 

[Lutfij]

Steve on GamersNexus made a point...Nvidia tends push boundaries and the rest of the pack catch up and adopt said standards. This Ai thing was pushed by Nvidia first and is now a standard for everyone.

I agree with people being lazy since there are vast amounts of resources to make any component power efficient instead of power hungry.

 

[Colif]

Gaming is an afterthough to Nvidia now, AI is their money maker. So there is nothing in it to make gaming cards more efficient. If AI stops being a money maker, they might do it... maybe.

 

[Colif]

There is such a thing as too wide...

Need two of them, one mounted above in dual monitor mode to make image look closer to right shape to my eyes.
Now finding a GPU that can run two...

 

[Colif]

Updated bios today, there is a newer one but it could be a beta. Its been there a month but generally Gigabyte BIOS are full numbers, any with a letter after number is normally a beta, and I can wait.

Installing 2 new fans later so since I was doing work in case, I figured I update bios as well.

I had to watch a video on process as it isn't exactly obvious. I should have done that first instead of thinking my USB drives were being ignored and restarting the PC a few times. I knew what to do to make USB but it was the actual steps in bios that weren't clear to me. I am normally good at working out these things.

Worst part is windows loses my PIN after a BIOS update and I have to set it up again. Its one reason I don't rush into updates.

It is a good thing I have a clean area in front of the PSU - there is no where to hide now. Suck if I had the black case as it would stand out even more. Another advantage to white.

No more upgrades.

In process of installing the fans we unplugged all of them from motherboard. Was a little confusing working out which was which, seems we swapped two of them around. Had to copy one plan onto all 3 before I worked out which was which - helps the front 3 are 140mm and can't go as fast as other two.

Dead quiet again.

 

[dxchase]

Updated bios today, there is a newer one but it could be a beta. Its been there a month but generally Gigabyte BIOS are full numbers, any with a letter after number is normally a beta, and I can wait.

Installing 2 new fans later so since I was doing work in case, I figured I update bios as well.

I had to watch a video on process as it isn't exactly obvious. I should have done that first instead of thinking my USB drives were being ignored and restarting the PC a few times. I knew what to do to make USB but it was the actual steps in bios that weren't clear to me. I am normally good at working out these things.

I thought updating bios was going to be annoying too because i was having an issue with wifes pc not accepting the bios update that was the one on the manufacturers website (turns out i was just d/l the wrong one). So when i did my bios, even though mine already had a program for installing bios updates and the process was very smooth, i still had a heightened sense of anxiety because of what i was doing lol. But you are 100% correct about the password. I had to reset mine too...to the exact same one i was using.



Bought this handy little keyboard to replace a wireless 10-year-old Logitech keyboard i was using when im sitting on my couch using the PC on the tv...

On sale for 55, they have a cheaper version too, but i got this one inparticular because i had seen how many great reviews it was getting. I was also intrigued by the little screen on the keyboard and whether or not the keys were actually good "thocky" and "creamy"-sounding.

Popular keyboard enthusiast Hipyotech didnt like it and i think its because he had the wrong keyboard switches. This is a guy that usually praises super expensive keyboards and doesnt so much for cheaper ones, but hes honest which i like.

It was that video actually that convinced me to buy this lol. Its usually 70 but is on sale for 55 and i didnt want to miss that opportunity so i took the dive...

Im not a big fan of customizing keyboards to make them sound different first off, but it seems they did a nice job with this one personally (i got gift switches) and i highly recommend it if you are into keyboards like this. The thing is this keyboard is pretty much impossible to mod because its already full of foam and silicone and all the stuff to make it sound good (to me anyways).

Its worth it and pretty much packs in all the features of a 130 dollar keyboard like my corsair k70 but my k70 isnt wireless... pic for comparison in size... I can also grip my hand comfortably around the top and bottom part and carry it, so theres that too.

Keyboard is still on sale

Amazon.com: EPOMAKER Ajazz AK820 Pro 75% Wireless Mechanical Keyboard with TFT Smart Display&Knob, Gasket-Mounted Gaming Keyboard, Bluetooth/2.4GHz/USB-C Wired (Grey, Gift Switch) : Video Games

Buy EPOMAKER Ajazz AK820 Pro 75% Wireless Mechanical Keyboard with TFT Smart Display&Knob, Gasket-Mounted Gaming Keyboard, Bluetooth/2.4GHz/USB-C Wired (Grey, Gift Switch): Video Games - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

 

[Colif]

I had to reset mine too...to the exact same one i was using.

yeah, thats what I did. Since its only set on the PC, Microsoft can't tell if you use the same one each time. PIN won't work on another PC.

They wanted a display on keyboard but didn't leave enough space to make it bigger than a key? Most offer a knob or a screen, not both.
I happy enough with my 4 month old keyboard

https://nuphy.com/products/halo75-v2-qmk-via-wireless-custom-mechanical-keyboard

 

[Lutfij]

@dxchase I actually tried out the EPOMAKER Ajazz AK820 Pro 75% back in August in person at a local shop who know me(since I bought 3 Keychron keyboards 2xQ1v2's and 1xQ5) and I pleasantly surprised. For the price you pay and the note you get from the typing experience, IMHO, was spot on.

I changed the keycaps on all Keychron keyboards and the typing experience changed entirely. I go around telling people that noise and design are subjective topics, you might like it but someone else might shudder at the same thing.

I also have a Corsair K65 Compact that I've been meaning to swap switches out(the one from 2013) from Cherry Red's to something more tactile(not clicky).

 

[Colif]

Think my one year quest to get a silent PC might be at an end. I can't hear any of mine now, unless I stick my head up to rear of case and then I can hear the air cooler since its rear fan is real close to rear

Spent enough on fans in the last 12 months. Time out.

 

[Colif]

Silence will be sacrificed in summer as I will probably run CPU cooler in performance mode and even at idle I can hear the fans in this mode... mainly as its minimum speed increases by 300rpm. there is a drone I can't hear with fans in silent.
See how I go, I can adjust all the other fans as well.

To be fair, I will have to accept that keeping CPU cores below 30c is unlikely to happen in coming months and just have to accept it. I have been spoiled in the last 4 months.

 

[Colif]

How do people work out what monitor to buy off MSI when they have 147 listed and their names are impossible to separate from one another

RGB Fusion had me confused. Every shut-down my fans and RAM would swap to blue and I couldn't work out why. I have them set to gold in windows.
Anyway, I figured it out, rgb fusion lets you sync elements, so I have them all synced and showing gold.
That works in windows but the sync doesn't work once you log off. What happens at this stage is it uses the colours set for when its unsynced, and I had mistakenly set the ram and fans to Blue in there.
Now they all match up although unsynced colour choices don't allow you to adjust brightness. But its only noticeable at shut-down

 

[Colif]

Good advice Jay, You should always spell check before you hit enter

Oh, that isn't what you meant?

 

[Colif]

Looks like a 240hz monitor is the next logical step after 144hz

 

[Colif]

Silence will be sacrificed in summer as I will probably run CPU cooler in performance mode and even at idle I can hear the fans in this mode... There is a drone I can't hear with fans in silent.

its not so bad if I change the fan curve so that they aren't always running over 900rpm.

All my fans set to monitor CPU temps so they all want to keep it below 42c on package. At idle anyway. I don't know what temps like in games, and then they all vary based on what games asks of PC.

Since I will probably actually play a game soon I might as well run them faster, might help in games. Maybe even my GPU fans will spin... only time they ever do now is at start up.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

After confusing driver release, AMD says old GPUs are still actively supported

Re-using old silicon means that dropping “old” GPUs can affect “new” products.

arstechnica.com

@neogunhero you might get more than 5 years after all. No PCG write up yet I can see.

edit; The article was sourced from Toms, apologies to my Future overlords.

AMD confirms its Radeon RX 5000, 6000 series cards will still get some new features 'as required by market needs' — company also says RX 7900 USB-C change was a mistake (Updated)

USB-C remains supported on the RX 7900

www.tomshardware.com

 

[Colif]

It would have been strange to remove USB C from the 7900 xt range given how recent they are... okay a few years but hardly old
Amd have been known to have two different drivers for current and old cards