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[mkenyon]

This might be a strange question but do I need a wireless adapter for my desktop if I won't be plugged in? Do these things even still exist?

If your motherboard didn't come with a wireless adapter, then yes. But use an ethernet cord if you can. Get creative with zip ties to keep it out of sight.

man.. either my CPU is bottle necking more than I thought or the 670's performance just isnt as good as I hoped it would be (when comparing to my 560ti).

*snip*

Whether a CPU is a bottleneck or not is entirely dependent upon the game.

As AwesomeSauce points out, the lower the res, the greater that bottleneck we be moved to the CPU (albeit at higher frame rates). Why not just OC your CPU to the 4.0-4.5 range? It's easy as pie.

I guess it's possible that since the actual resolution is so "low", the GPU is not performing to 100% because it thinks it's not handling something graphically heavy? Use MSI Afterburner to check how the card is performing. Check GPU Load and Fan Speed.

Nope. It'll be higher.

 

[Salsa]

that's pretty fascinating :O

Why not just OC your CPU to the 4.0-4.5 range? It's easy as pie.

will do. Waiting for the hyper 212+ to be in stock, still with the stock cooler

 

[CatPee]

man.. either my CPU is bottle necking more than I thought or the 670's performance just isnt as good as I hoped it would be (when comparing to my 560ti).

Again, my specs:

gtx 670 FTW 2gb
I5 2500k @ 3.3ghz
8gb ram
and at 1360x768 res

These settings in Saints Row The Third:

around 42-50fps outside in most areas..

pretty sure it was the same deal with my old card, or at least I knew I played it with these settings on my 560ti and it was playable so I guess the fps were around that, if not just a little bit lower


Battlefield 3 is easily the standout as far as the benchmarking goes. I get mostyl steady 60s with drops to 52 or so during heavy areas (or at top of a moutain with max view distance).

Another thing ive noticed is that it seems like the card has to wind up a bit, something I hadnt experienced before. For the first 20 seconds or so when jumping into a game it performs noticeably worse than after that, and it even does sort of the Unreal Engine 3 thing of loading up textures and foliage real quick at first boot (talking about BF3 so no UE3 there).

Make sure your PC isn't in Power Saver mode or something similar in the settings. FRAPS benchmark shows 48-60fps with an average of 58 in 1080p + everything at max and that's while I'm constantly blowing stuff up and tons of effects are being shown.

 

[mkenyon]

that's pretty fascinating :O



will do. Waiting for the hyper 212+ to be in stock, still with the stock cooler

You can do 3.8-4.0 on the stock cooler. It doesn't even require a voltage bump.

 

[GruntOfAction]

Worst part about buying the wrong processor with no return policy? Finding someone to buy your brand new processor lol.

I just so happen to live in the least tech savvy county in Georgia. Not a single person around here is interested in it. :c

 

[Salsa]

changed power mode from adaptable to the highest performance (didnt think it'd do much)

still getting those numbers. According to inspector GPU usage is at around 50 percent

You can do 3.8-4.0 on the stock cooler. It doesn't even require a voltage bump.

interesting. Im not getting ideal temps as is tho cause my room is a little hot, not sure if I wanna tinker

Make sure your PC isn't in Power Saver mode or something similar in the settings. FRAPS benchmark shows 48-60fps with an average of 58 in 1080p + everything at max and that's while I'm constantly blowing stuff up and tons of effects are being shown.

always been at "equilibrated" (at least that'd be the english equivalent )

 

[mkenyon]

Keep the average core temperature in the 70s and you're golden.

Worst part about buying the wrong processor with no return policy? Finding someone to buy your brand new processor lol.

I just so happen to live in the least tech savvy county in Georgia. Not a single person around here is interested in it. :c

What processor? I might buy.

*edit*

One quick pick of rebuild. Still in the process of finishing everything up. Need to get a bottle of blue dye to correct the bad batch of pastel green I got. Basically it got shipped out before the blue dye was added, so it's kind of a neon yellow.

Also, non44m, you were so right about compression fittings. Only leak this time was straight through a temperature sensor's middle hole, so it was defective.

 

[jon bones]

didn't want to make a new thread, figured you guys would know best.

i'd like a wireless card and video card (compatible with a 300w ps) for my desktop. i have one pci and one agp slot free.

any cheap suggestions? thanks!

 

[CatPee]

changed power mode from adaptable to the highest performance (didnt think it'd do much)

still getting those numbers. According to inspector GPU usage is at around 50 percent

interesting. Im not getting ideal temps as is tho cause my room is a little hot, not sure if I wanna tinker

always been at "equilibrated" (at least that'd be the english equivalent )

Try "High Performance"? "Balanced" still has minor power-saving, IIRC, I have the exact same specs as you and it doesn't really make much sense for me to be getting better performance unless power-saving is kicking in or the card is faulty.

 

[Salsa]

Try "High Performance"? "Balanced" still has minor power-saving, IIRC, I have the exact same specs as you and it doesn't really make much sense for me to be getting better performance unless power-saving is kicking in or the card is faulty.

tried. Pretty much the same. 45-50fps when running towards the heart of the city from across the bridge (lots of stuff in the distance)

inspector still shows around 50 percent usage


not sure what to make of this

 

[Wolf Akela]

didn't want to make a new thread, figured you guys would know best.

i'd like a wireless card and video card (compatible with a 300w ps) for my desktop. i have one pci and one agp slot free.

any cheap suggestions? thanks!

Is there a reason why you're buying a videocard? Buying any AGP card just to barely play somewhat newer games on low-medium isn't a good idea at all. I'd suggest just sticking to integrated until you can afford an overhaul upgrade.

 

[DTKT]

tried. Pretty much the same. 45-50fps when running towards the heart of the city from across the bridge (lots of stuff in the distance)

inspector still shows around 50 percent usage


not sure what to make of this

Is Inspector still showing 50% GPU usage whe playing BF3?

 

[Salsa]

Is Inspector still showing 50% GPU usage whe playing BF3?

more or less. Jumps to the 60s or 70s occasionally

 

[TouchMyBox]

Doesn't matter imo
You buy the best drive you can for what you need it for. Then have a backup.

Cheap - WD Blue 1TB
You need a 2TB drive? Sucks for you! - WD Green... Maybe the Hitachi... The only real 'good' choice it seems is the WD Red 2TB and you have to tweak a setting on it and find it in stock, and pay $150-180. Blacks are also ok, but super loud and $180.

There is no overall good HDD to buy on the market right now imo.
Toshiba finally has a new enterprise drive (I know nothing about it) and they should get in some new 3.5" drives soon into the market place.

My NAS is full of 3TB WD Green disks and I used wdidle.exe to make it not crazy aggressive in terms of power management and they've been serving me well thus far.

 

[mkenyon]

more or less. Jumps to the 60s or 70s occasionally

When was the last time you did a proper driver sweep/install?

 

[Salsa]

When was the last time you did a proper driver sweep/install?

clean install of the latest drivers when I installed the card

 

[Salsa]

mmh, yeah, pretty sure Sleeping Dogs is running worse than before..

mostly solid 60's but some drops to 45-50 that im pretty sure werent there before

GPU usage still at 50s or 60s

temps seem a bit high too, not that its related. got to like 75° pretty fast

 

[Salsa]

alright tried Sleeping Dogs with real temp and inspector running, v-sync off

I get the same thing with GPU load: around 50 percent. Sometimes it fluctuates like crazy into the 70-80s but goes back to 40something immediatly so I guess that's just inspector fucking up.

CPU load is at around 70 so I guess that's not bottle-necking it?

 

[GruntOfAction]

Keep the average core temperature in the 70s and you're golden.

What processor? I might buy.

*edit*

One quick pick of rebuild. Still in the process of finishing everything up. Need to get a bottle of blue dye to correct the bad batch of pastel green I got. Basically it got shipped out before the blue dye was added, so it's kind of a neon yellow.

Also, non44m, you were so right about compression fittings. Only leak this time was straight through a temperature sensor's middle hole, so it was defective.

It's an AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, 3.4ghz 125w CPU.

 

[mkenyon]

mmh, yeah, pretty sure Sleeping Dogs is running worse than before..

mostly solid 60's but some drops to 45-50 that im pretty sure werent there before

GPU usage still at 50s or 60s

temps seem a bit high too, not that its related. got to like 75° pretty fast

Kepler down clocks when it hits 70.

 

[Salsa]

Kepler down clocks when it hits 70.

awh shit :/ now what?

could that be causing this much of a worse performance tho?

 

[mkenyon]

awh shit :/ now what?

could that be causing this much of a worse performance tho?

What's your core clock when its under load?

 

[Salsa]

What's your core clock when its under load?

on sleeping dogs = 1124, 1170 around that

here's something weird (I guess): If I stay say near to a wall or something, I get solid 120fps and the GPU usage is at 99 percent. However when I go out and start driving around, the GPU load goes down with the framerate? im not sure if that's how it works or if there's something wrong, but the "around 50 percent usage" thing happens while im getting the worse performance.

 

[Salsa]

just in case here are the Heaven results, wich seem.. fine?

:/

 

[n0n44m]

just in case here are the Heaven results, wich seem.. fine?

:/

I get 66.7 FPS when I disable SLI and turn off overclocking, that's with a 4.8 GHz 2600K

(edit: just remembered at 1200 MHz core speed because I flashed them with some overvoltage bios; at stock one card ran 1175ish the other 1150ish)

so I'd say your Heaven result is fine ... definitely up that CPU a bit for certain games

One quick pick of rebuild. Still in the process of finishing everything up. Need to get a bottle of blue dye to correct the bad batch of pastel green I got. Basically it got shipped out before the blue dye was added, so it's kind of a neon yellow.

Also, non44m, you were so right about compression fittings. Only leak this time was straight through a temperature sensor's middle hole, so it was defective.

still looking good ! great even

and yeah compression really can't go wrong when you use the correct tubing, cut it nicely (I got some special tube-cut scissors) and take your time installing them

how are those new rotary Monsoons ? What sensor leaked, was it an Aquacomputer one? (although I guess not because those are simply brass extenders with the sensors being held to the outside of the brass, i.e. there is no contact with the water... still work great with very high sensitivity)

 

[Salsa]

so I'd say your Heaven result is fine ... definitely up that CPU a bit for certain games

im baffled, tho. Im certain that for example Sleeping Dogs was running better with my old 560ti, and that even if my stock CPU is not ideal, I shouldn't be getting 45fps or so in Saints Row The Third? keep in mind that im playing at 1360x768

here's sone random GPU-Z stuff on idle:

everything looks normal, no?

 

[AwesomeSauce]

im baffled, tho. Im certain that for example Sleeping Dogs was running better with my old 560ti, and that even if my stock CPU is not ideal, I shouldn't be getting 45fps or so in Saints Row The Third? keep in mind that im playing at 1360x768

here's sone random GPU-Z stuff on idle:

everything looks normal, no?

Everything looks fine, but if you look at the sensors, the GPU is in low power mode(look at clock speeds).

When gaming the clock speeds stay at normal range right? Basically stay at 941/1502 etc.

 

[Salsa]

Everything looks fine, but if you look at the sensors, the GPU is in low power mode(look at clock speeds).

When gaming the clock speeds stay at normal range right? Basically stay at 941/1502 etc.

yup like I said on Sleeping Dogs it'd hit between 1124, 1170, not more

 

[Salsa]

Installed Crysis 2, this is while playing on the first area:

only drop in framerate was at the first "reveal" when you open the door to go outside. If I stand there looking at the distance I get 55fps, otherwise it's anywhere 60-100 if I disable vsync. Game has a really shitty narrow FOV tho

card's running hot for sure, but that's probably my case since my cpu temps are also above average.

Clocks never went above 1124 that I saw and gpu load was fluctuating everywhere from 35 percent to 98

uhm, yeah, not sure what to make of this. It all seems for the most part normal (id argue that I wasnt expecting ANY drop from 60 in framerate on both considering my res and all) on Crysis 2 and BF3, but I get worse performance than before on Saints Row 3 and Sleeping Dogs


edit: auto-detected everything on Ultra btw, including high res textures



also: holy shit the coil whine during this game is UNBEARABLE

 

[Ledsen]

With that resolution you should be murdering SR3 on max settings... weird.

 

[golem]

Don't bother. Just grab a cheap 830. Proven, reliable, cheap as dirt. The improvements are super minimal for daily use.

I actually have an 830 in my Mac Pro already, its a great drive. Don't mind spending a bit more for the latest.

That was a BIG waste of money.

The wise choice:

i5-3350P
same mobo
2x4GB
HD7850 2GB
Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO

IB oc like cr*ap, don't bother getting liquid cooling for it. I can tell you, you'll get a lost of fps with that setup. With current pc's, cheapo quad-cores do the job, gamer? get a nice gpu.

To each their own man. Mostly I wanted MMOs like Guild Wars 2 and Planetside 2 to run better and they were CPU limited on my rig. They run smooth now @ 4.7ghz 1.25 vcore, thanks for your concern

 

[Corky]

With that resolution you should be murdering SR3 on max settings... weird.

Go for a clean drivers reinstall, newest drivers, driver sweeper, start windows in safe-mode, the whole shebang.

 

[yn-neko hates a cat]

WHO KNEW?!!

Multi-monitor Digital Signal KVMs... ~ ~ < Rich Man's Sport > ~ ~

..for chri...!

 

[Hazaro]

I actually have an 830 in my Mac Pro already, its a great drive. Don't mind spending a bit more for the latest.

I'm sure you've taken a look at the Anandtech Review of the 840 then.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6328/samsung-ssd-840-pro-256gb-review

My main issue is that you'd see close to 0% real world performance gain and pay (estimated) 33%+ more for the drive that hasn't been on the market. I would be hesitant to buy any new SSD simply due to the new advancing nature of SSD tech/chipsets/controllers.

The charts are nice and all, but SSD is SSD fast (imo) . Granted some giant heavy workloads for an enthusiast user could see some benefits, I'll be leaving the probably much cheaper and proven 830 in the build sheet for quite a while.

 

[beje]

@Salsa according to this:

- Purely graphic benchmarks scoring as expected
- Games performing as expected (with GPU load and frames peaking) as long as you're next to a wall and not many things happens on screen

Makes me think the trouble is definitely some bottleneck outside the GPU. All I can think right now is the bus interface in GPU-Z which states: PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x16 1.1. Might this mean that the card, even supporting PCI-E 2.0 is somehow working at just 1.1 instead? Are you sure you've hooked it to the main PCI-E port instead of a secondary one? I think it's a good start and you could investigate the BIOS settings. Maybe doing a CMOS clearing and re-configuring from scratch could work too.

Edit: here you have a screenshot I've found online where you can see another GTX 670 working @ 16x 2.0 so I'm positive the problem might be there

 

[n0n44m]

nah the 1.1 is because it "downclocks" ... i.e. when he stresses the card (like in the screenshot you posted) it goes to 2.0 again

if it was running on 1.1 you'd definitely notice in Unigine Heaven Benchmark

if you click the "?" next to the Bus Interface label you'll get that explanation + the option to run some render-test to get the true interface speed

 

[beje]

nah the 1.1 is because it "downclocks" ... i.e. when he stresses the card (like in the screenshot you posted) it goes to 2.0 again

if it was running on 1.1 you'd definitely notice in Unigine Heaven Benchmark

if you click the "?" next to the Bus Interface label you'll get that explanation + the option to run some render-test to get the true interface speed

In that case, the bottleneck is somewhere else. A modern mobo with a Sandy CPU makes it really difficult to spot at a glance so I still think clearing CMOS is something he should try.

 

[cametall]

+1 to a "whole shebang, clean reinstall of drivers".

I didn't run CCleaner when installing my HD7950 the first time and my performance in Sleeping Dogs was terrible, even though I went from an HD7950 to another HD7950.

 

[Unorthodox]

Looks like this HD is toast.. so I'd like to get a SSD for the OS.. and a new HD for games, music, movies etc. which brands do you guys recommend for both?

 

[beje]

+1 to a "whole shebang, clean reinstall of drivers".

I didn't run CCleaner when installing my HD7950 the first time and my performance in Sleeping Dogs was terrible, even though I went from an HD7950 to another HD7950.

He might try this:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1150443/how-to-remove-your-nvidia-gpu-drivers

 

[yn-neko hates a cat]

Strange and silly question

There's been a bit of rumbling about compromised PCs coming in from overseas lately. Does anyone know of communities doing inspections of Firmware of popular PC hardware manufacturers to see if they've been compromised? I seriously find myself worrying about these things since I was rooted earlier this year.

 

[scogoth]

WHO KNEW?!!

Multi-monitor Digital Signal KVMs... ~ ~ < Rich Man's Sport > ~ ~

..for chri...!

Digital signal KVM single monior still way too expensive. VGA needs to die!!!

 

[Azzurri]

When going multi display is 3 the best route? Being split in the middle seems like it hinders game play.

 

[mkenyon]

and yeah compression really can't go wrong when you use the correct tubing, cut it nicely (I got some special tube-cut scissors) and take your time installing them

how are those new rotary Monsoons ? What sensor leaked, was it an Aquacomputer one? (although I guess not because those are simply brass extenders with the sensors being held to the outside of the brass, i.e. there is no contact with the water... still work great with very high sensitivity)

The monsoon rotaries are really nice. Having the tool to tighten everything down and knurl the compression fittings is what really makes them. I can't imagine doing that by hand in some of those tight spaces I was working in.

The leaks were through monsoon temp sensors. Definitely RMA'ing those.


SEASONIC X650 ON SALE FOR $90

Promo code EMCYTZT2318

 

[ithorien]

When going multi display is 3 the best route? Being split in the middle seems like it hinders game play.

It's been mentioned in this thread iirc that there's either a way to offset a character or just use the main monitor for the game and use the other as resource. For these reasons if you want to utilize all, 3 is the best way to go.

 

[mkenyon]

Eyefinity/surround is kind of gimmicky. It's cool if you play a lot of simulators and racing games, but I think it still falls short in a lot of ways. Between the stretched image, the hardware required to push it, and the actual improvement it has on gameplay, it's still suited best as a toy to play with every once in awhile.

I've tried it a few times with competitive games, and it really really throws everything off. I think the stretched image causes irregular mouse movement, making me constantly overshoot a quick twitch response.

 

[longdi]

I've recently came around on Gigabyte. Their boards are really really well crafted with a lot of cool features that they don't gouge you on. They seem to either hit a home run or strike out with a new motherboard series release. Z77 and X79 (after the vdroop correction) are certainly home runs. Dat UD7.

Gigabyte has a strange naming scheme for some reason but the ones to look out for are their new ultra durable 5 (ud5) boards ending with "UP" suffix

microsite here, very exciting paper specs. the up7 above has a 10 layers pcb with 2oz copper! fuck the wat! lol.
http://www.gigabyte.com/microsite/312/ud5.html

 

[chaosblade]

SEASONIC X650 ON SALE FOR $90

Promo code EMCYTZT2318

Good deal, using this PSU and it's nice, I'd recommend it. But if you have a big case you might find routing some of the cables kind of tough. The motherboard 8-pin cable was barely long enough for my Corsair 500R.

 

[n0n44m]

The monsoon rotaries are really nice. Having the tool to tighten everything down and knurl the compression fittings is what really makes them. I can't imagine doing that by hand in some of those tight spaces I was working in.

The leaks were through monsoon temp sensors. Definitely RMA'ing those.


SEASONIC X650 ON SALE FOR $90

Promo code EMCYTZT2318

Ah didn't know they also had temp sensors now ... only saw the led things. Their modular design is pretty cool I have to admit, even though I'm not really sure about most of the colors (same goes for Bitspower)

and yeah by hand is fun ... couldn't even use my phone/tablet properly after the last build as my fingers weren't recognized anymore lol

30 compression rings in total !

Good deal, using this PSU and it's nice, I'd recommend it. But if you have a big case you might find routing some of the cables kind of tough. The motherboard 8-pin cable was barely long enough for my Corsair 500R.

every build with a sort-of-large case needs an 8-pin extender in my experience unless you want to run those across the entire board (vaderno.jpg)

 

[sk3tch]

Eyefinity/surround is kind of gimmicky. It's cool if you play a lot of simulators and racing games, but I think it still falls short in a lot of ways. Between the stretched image, the hardware required to push it, and the actual improvement it has on gameplay, it's still suited best as a toy to play with every once in awhile.

I've tried it a few times with competitive games, and it really really throws everything off. I think the stretched image causes irregular mouse movement, making me constantly overshoot a quick twitch response.

It's definitely in need of further work on the NVIDIA side. Performance does not scale appropriately and GPU utilization tops off at around 70% at 5760x1080...but I think it works VERY well in BF3 from a gameplay perspective. You simply focus on the main screen for shooting and the left and right flanking screens just give you greater peripheral view when you need it. But yeah, requires tri-SLI or higher to really have it look sweet and take advantage of 120hz.

Here's a link that discusses the NV Surround current state and issues. Apparently 310.xx will fix this? Rumor...

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1703866