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PC Gaming (Also, Advice Needed) (Page 4)
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P
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Apr 12, 2016, 11:37 AM
 
The real advantage with that chip is that you have is that it has 40 PCIe lanes from the CPU. This means that you can dedicate the full 16 lanes to each card in SLI and have 8 lanes left over. This doesn't really matter when gaming (although computer manufacturers will try to tell you different), but it can be useful in certain situations like compute.

The next generation of cards is just around the corner. NVidia has announced the first "Pascal"-based card, a compute-oriented card based on "Big Pascal", GP100, that will initially only be sold in certain OEM compute servers. Most likely they're not ready but nVidia wanted to announce early. Rumors claim that the successors to the 970 and 980 are due to launch in June-July, but that only the 970-successor will be available at first.

On the other side of the fence, AMD will probably even launch sooner, but they begin at the low end. They showed "Polaris 11" early this year and promised that it would launch in laptops in the spring, but it is a card similar in performance to one of your 960 at a lower power. The slightly bigger "Polaris 10" is intended as the minimum VR card, beating todays 390 and 970 at lower price and lower power. The bigger cards from them are due around the end of the year, probably available aroudn the same time as GP100.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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Apr 13, 2016, 01:12 AM
 
I ended up building my own machine for gaming. Quite happy with the results. Here's the part picker list:
Intel Core i5-6600K, EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, Corsair Carbide 400Q - System Build - PCPartPicker

Currently gaming on the 4k Monoprice monitor I bought, but it's having some issues. It won't do 4k at 60hz Probably going to return it and get the samsung.
     
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Apr 13, 2016, 02:08 AM
 
Rule o' thumb: Don't SLI/CF slower GPUs, get the best single GPU you can afford (like an R9 390 or 980). The number of games that have great multi GPU support are few, with many having none at all. It's absolutely an enthusiast thing, there are way too many caveats for it to be relied upon, even now after all these years (I blame game devs, they're lazy f***ers).

Originally Posted by ajprice View Post
So, I've got a PC now, I was going to build one (with help from mates for the tricky bits), then I saw an Area 51 on the Dell outlet store and caved. Ordered on Monday, arrived on Friday. Most of the games I have on Steam are smaller Macbook friendly games, so I'll probably get some more stuff to play now I've got something that can run them. Only installed a few things so far, Euro Truck Simulator 2 runs great on high settings though.

It's an i7 6 core 3.5ghz (overclocks with the Alienware software), 16GB RAM, 2x GTX 960 2GB cards, plugged into the TV with the console's for sofa gaming (so 1080p). I'm now on the lookout for Steam sales/Humble Bundles/other places for cheaper stuff, and I'll be pre ordering No Man's Sky.
Also, there's going to be an X99-E upgrade soonish, Broadwell based, in ~2 months. Might have been good to wait for that, it's a big deal (Tick cycle = die shrink) for overclocking. Otherwise, you should be able to get 4.5GHz out of your 5930K, depending on voltage controls available with that Alienware mobo, without too much trouble. My 5960X is 100% 24/7 stable at 4.8GHz @1.33v and 5GHz @1.4v (the latter voltage not recommended unless you have a good watercooling loop).
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Apr 13, 2016, 02:10 AM
 
Originally Posted by boy8cookie View Post
I ended up building my own machine for gaming. Quite happy with the results. Here's the part picker list:
Intel Core i5-6600K, EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, Corsair Carbide 400Q - System Build - PCPartPicker

Currently gaming on the 4k Monoprice monitor I bought, but it's having some issues. It won't do 4k at 60hz Probably going to return it and get the samsung.
Might be your video cable, if it's supposed to do 60Hz but isn't.
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Apr 13, 2016, 05:50 AM
 
Originally Posted by boy8cookie View Post
I ended up building my own machine for gaming. Quite happy with the results. Here's the part picker list:
Intel Core i5-6600K, EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, Corsair Carbide 400Q - System Build - PCPartPicker

Currently gaming on the 4k Monoprice monitor I bought, but it's having some issues. It won't do 4k at 60hz Probably going to return it and get the samsung.
Let me guess, you're using HDMI and someone who didn't understand the question mislead you on which standard hardware you need?

If you can, use DisplayPort instead. Worst case you have to use MST, depending on which version of the standard they both support, but at least it works.

If you can't use DisplayPort for whatever reason, you need HDMI 2.0 hardware on everything: GPU, display, and cable. HDMI 1.4 WON'T WORK, and just about everyone selling these things seems to have missed that. HDMI 1.4 will work with 4K@30Hz, or with 4K@60Hz with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling. You can't use chroma subsampling from a computer, it would look terrible and nothing supports it, but it is often used for movie content (standard for Bluray for instance).

This means that a lot of people think that HDMI 1.4 is fine for 4k@60Hz - it works for TVs! Well yes it does, by using compression, but it is not enough for a computer at 4K.

Short version: Don't ever use HDMI from a computer. You are asking for trouble.

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants View Post
Rule o' thumb: Don't SLI/CF slower GPUs, get the best single GPU you can afford (like an R9 390 or 980). The number of games that have great multi GPU support are few, with many having none at all. It's absolutely an enthusiast thing, there are way too many caveats for it to be relied upon, even now after all these years (I blame game devs, they're lazy f***ers).
This will hopefully improve with explicit multiadapter support in DirectX 12, but you'd need a crystal ball to confirm that.

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants View Post
Also, there's going to be an X99-E upgrade soonish, Broadwell based, in ~2 months. Might have been good to wait for that, it's a big deal (Tick cycle = die shrink) for overclocking. Otherwise, you should be able to get 4.5GHz out of your 5930K, depending on voltage controls available with that Alienware mobo, without too much trouble. My 5960X is 100% 24/7 stable at 4.8GHz @1.33v and 5GHz @1.4v (the latter voltage not recommended unless you have a good watercooling loop).
Generally the 14nm process hasn't been so great for overclocking.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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Apr 13, 2016, 03:20 PM
 
I've seen Skylakes, like my tech guy's, that hit 5GHz on air (he has that absurd toaster-sized Noctua cooler). They're more voltage sensitive, but so was Ivy Bridge compared to Sandy Bridge (which you could jam with up to 1.5V and not even worry about). The old days of just setting the max voltage on the spec sheet and seeing what frequency you can dial-in are over, now the crosstalk between nodes is so severe, you can't even hit stock clocks if you push too high, even though you're still well within the TJ Max.
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Apr 14, 2016, 03:58 PM
 
Originally Posted by P View Post
Let me guess, you're using HDMI and someone who didn't understand the question mislead you on which standard hardware you need?

If you can, use DisplayPort instead. Worst case you have to use MST, depending on which version of the standard they both support, but at least it works.

If you can't use DisplayPort for whatever reason, you need HDMI 2.0 hardware on everything: GPU, display, and cable. HDMI 1.4 WON'T WORK, and just about everyone selling these things seems to have missed that. HDMI 1.4 will work with 4K@30Hz, or with 4K@60Hz with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling. You can't use chroma subsampling from a computer, it would look terrible and nothing supports it, but it is often used for movie content (standard for Bluray for instance).

This means that a lot of people think that HDMI 1.4 is fine for 4k@60Hz - it works for TVs! Well yes it does, by using compression, but it is not enough for a computer at 4K.

Short version: Don't ever use HDMI from a computer. You are asking for trouble.
I'm using display port. The 4k@60hz worked initially, but this monitor has had intermittent issues (including going black for a couple seconds randomly). I think it's just a piece of crap. Hopefully the samsung will be nicer.
     
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May 7, 2016, 06:16 AM
 
Nvidia 1070 and 1080 announced, single card is faster than Titan X or 980 SLI, both new cards are 8GB, run off one power connector. $379 or $449 ($599 or $699 for 'Founders editions'). They ran Tomb Raider at high res and max settings and got 60fps with 67C air cooled temperatures. NVIDIA's GTX 1080 GPU is faster than Titan X, lands May 27

...waits for P to explain all this ...

It'll be much easier if you just comply.
     
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May 7, 2016, 12:49 PM
 
Heh. As usual with nVidia, they are being a bit fast and loose with the truth, but in short: they are finally making the cards on a new process, same 16FF+ that Apple uses, which means that they can fit more transistors onto the same area. These new cards are also clocking much higher, which is what the Founders Edition is all about: hand-picked cards that can be overclocked further. Normal cards have a turbo up to 1.7GHz, while nVidia boast of an overclock up to 2.1GHz on the Founders Edition cards. There is also something special to help VR, which is why all the charts comparing to older cards are marked "VR" - the boost on regular tasks is likely to be much smaller.

The 1080 is a monster (and $599, not $449), but it uses a fully-enabled 300+mm2 chip on 16FF+, more than twice the size of any chip currently on market using that process. It also uses brand-new GDDR5X memory to feed the beast, and those things aren't even supposed to be available in production quantities yet. I'm afraid that this will be a paper launch. The 1070 looks more reasonable, a harvested chip and regular GDDR5 memory, but it remains to be seen how fat that really is real world. I think it will be a very real boost over the 970, but I fear that it might be limited by memory bandwidth.

All in all, it looks promising but I want see some real tests and actual availability first.

AMD is set to launch its first Polaris cards by the end of the month, but looks like they are aiming for lower price points at first.

Edit to correct the price, spelling and whatnot.
( Last edited by P; May 7, 2016 at 03:58 PM. )
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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May 8, 2016, 10:52 AM
 
     
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May 8, 2016, 11:25 AM
 
Which is fine, except Doom isn't released yet, so it could be running at 150 FPS on an old Intel GMA 950 for all we know. In fact, given how iD usually makes its games, it probably runs at 60fps@1080p on the PS4 at some quality setting.

Again: looks good, but wait for some benches. They've increased the amount of hardware with 25% compared to the 980, and the clocks are up by a significant margin as well, but it is not going to amount to 3x the performance or whatever they were claiming. That is only going to apply to VR.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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May 9, 2016, 12:56 AM
 
All the absurd claims that the 1080 is "twice as fast as the Titan X" is from 2 things; 1. Clock speed (big whoop), 2. Certain VR effects (fine, but not a common performance benchmark). Through my contact who went there, and received one as a demo (and installed it in his PC that he brought with him to the conference), the 1080 is 25% faster than a stock 980TI and within 1-2% of his substantially overclocked 980TI (@1520MHz), in all the benches he tried. In fact, per MHz it's actually slower, because they're getting most of their performance from those really high clock speeds.

Non-hyped summary: It's a significant improvement over Maxwell, more so than Maxwell was over Kepler, but it's not nearly what they're claiming, at least not in real world gaming in DX11 or 12, unless you're using heavily layered transparencies in VR (which isn't uncommon).

Personally, I think it's overpriced at $599 ($699 for the "Founder's Edition"), because it's replacing the outgoing 980 (which was the top of the "mainstream" range, which has a MSRP of $500). This is a mistake, there's too much of a price gap between it and the 1070 ($379). $500 is an important amount, most gamers won't go over that when shopping for a GPU.
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May 9, 2016, 03:29 AM
 
The best way to describe the improvement is to look at the three chips at the same level, but in different generations: GK104 (Kepler, GTX 680 and 770), GM204 (Maxwell, GTX 980), and now GP104 (Pascal, GTX 1080). GK104 had 24 clusters of 64 shader cores, with three clusters sharing the scheduling hardware (so an SMX had 192 shader cores). GM204 moved to 32 clusters with two clusters sharing the schedulers (an SMM had 128 shader cores). GP104 now has 40, and each cluster has its own scheduler (an SM had 64 shader cores). All in all, it looks a lot like GCN now.

(Maxwell also doubled the number of ROPs from 32 to 64, and Pascal keeps this number)

The VR thing, as I understand it: Current cards (Maxwell and GCN 1.1 and later) render one image and then warp it slightly with specialized hardware to fit each eye in a set of VR goggles. Older cards could either not do the warping and had to render it twice, or did the warping on the shader array (slower). Pascal can render to more than one viewport natively. What this means is that all of the front end hardware (geometry processors, shaders, and texture samplers) only have to work once, but the ROPs have to work twice. This shouldn't be too much of a problem if you have 64 of them at 1.7 GHz working at a comparatively low resolution. A clever solution, but it won't matter unless you are running VR.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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May 9, 2016, 04:01 PM
 
Nvidia is now admitting that the 1080 is 20-25% faster than the 980TI in non-VR games, re. the real world, in DX11 and even DX12 games. Why not just do this from the start, guys? That way when people find out the truth, that Pascal isn't "2-4x faster than Maxwell", they won't call you liars. I'm not upgrading my overclocked 980TIs any time soon, mainly because they're in a hardline loop with custom blocks and it's too much of a PITA to drain, cut, and refit, just upgrade for just a few extra FPS that I won't even see (because most games already run at over the upper limits of my monitors, anyway).

All that aside, when the new UW, OLED, adaptive sync, 5K displays hit the market in 2017, then I'll check out what's what, maybe some 1080TIs or Titans.
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May 10, 2016, 02:49 AM
 
For shits and giggles I overclocked my 980TIs as fast as they'd go, I'd never really done that before, and the fastest (coincidentally my primary card) got up to 1578MHz with +95mV, on Unigine Valley Extreme loops. The others weren't quite as impressive, getting 1554 and 1539MHz, both with +90mV. I set all cards to 8000MHz for memory speed. The primary card did get up to 72C, the hottest I've ever seen it, with an ambient of 20C, but the most interesting was the power pulled from the wall. 1315W. No wonder the 4-way SLI guys use a separate 1500-1600W PSU just for their GPUs.
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May 10, 2016, 04:46 AM
 
Polaris release now 26-29 May, but the bigger of them (Polaris 10) won't reach the 1080.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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May 10, 2016, 08:45 PM
 
Now I understand the pain...

My 970 is suddenly looking ancient.
     
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May 11, 2016, 04:09 AM
 
Don't worry too much about it. The 1070, its replacement, is further cut down from the 1080 than your 970 is from the 980, and they increased the price by $50. And its not available yet.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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May 12, 2016, 12:41 AM
 
Yeah, if games still work for you don't sweat it. Getting a new card every generation is a GPU enthusiast's game, every other gen, or even every 3rd gen, is much more normal.
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May 12, 2016, 12:48 PM
 
They still work for me, but the 1440p sure feels like a lot better purchase when I can use it at 1440p.
     
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May 12, 2016, 02:14 PM
 
Overclock that SOB!
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May 15, 2016, 02:42 PM
 
I may now have my hands on a 1080, at least for a little while. Anyone have questions (I won't give specific benchmark results, because I pinky-promised that I wouldn't).
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May 15, 2016, 04:32 PM
 
Well... unless you're going to VR, and/or have a boner for power efficiency, don't get rid of your 980TI or Fury X. It's a great card, it crushes the 980 (which is what it's actually replacing, lest people forget), but it's not a giant slayer. There's potential for WC enthusiasts, though, I wish I had a water block (and better, more stable, tuning software) so I could really give this thing a proper pounding.
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May 16, 2016, 04:59 AM
 
Is it memory bandwidth limited - ie, does performance come down when you move to big texture packs? Any glass jaws on specific games or settings? What about performance in Async Compute in DX12 (e.g. Ashes of the Singularity)?
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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May 16, 2016, 07:34 PM
 
I didn't run Ashes while I had it, but it's not particularly bandwidth limited, overclocking the memory only produced minor benefits.
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May 17, 2016, 09:57 AM
 
Numbers are out, and clockspeed hides all problems. This is a beast, and while it does run a little hotter than past cards in the same bracket, it is not too hot. Just expensive.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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May 17, 2016, 11:51 AM
 
The disappointment from some Green fans is palpable. I see that review sites are mostly just showing numbers against non-overclocked GM201 cards and I think that's a little misleading (since those cards scale better with OCing), but whatever. It does absolutely crush GM204 (the 980), which is what it replaces, anyway.
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May 17, 2016, 06:17 PM
 
It is a fine card, and it manages nVidias usual +67% from its immediate predecessor, but at that price... Remember that it is only Founders Edition cards right now.

1070 is cut down more than usual, 25% of the front end gone and the clocks down a bit to make it almost 30% slower.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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May 18, 2016, 05:03 AM
 
The 1080 isn't the best value, especially not the FE. What's worse, people think 3rd party 1080s will be $100 cheaper, but I'm not convinced that's going to happen, at least not at launch. One thing I noticed is how quickly it hit its 225W TDP limit, only allowing me a 2.15GHz OC before running out of steam (and thermal throttling). That's only 425MHz over regular boost, whereas the better 980TI designs could regularly do 400-450MHz over stock boost (1076MHz) before hitting that wall. That's not even 25% for the 1080 whereas for the 980TI it's 37-45%. At their upper limits, in real world games, they're pretty even.

For those who don't care about overclocking, the 1080 is a clear winner, for those who do, hold on to your GM201s and wait for big Pascal or Vega.
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May 18, 2016, 12:38 PM
 
Nice, Cap'n. You going to buy one for yourself once you have to return this one? Knowing that you're Mr. Overclock, I'm guessing from your last comment that you may be waiting?

I'm going to wait to upgrade until maybe next year, as my PC (and 970) is only a year and a half old.

The upgrade I'm thinking about is actually to my i5 4690K. I ran into a lot of problems bottlenecking on games like Cities:Skylines, even after overclocking, and these large-scale sims are one of my favorite genres. What would you guys recommend on that front?
[EDIT] I'm also going through Adobe Premiere at the moment, and could certainly use a little extra power while rendering.
     
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May 19, 2016, 04:22 AM
 
There is very little that you could upgrade to on that platform. The one chip that might make sense is the i7-4790K, which adds Hyperthreading and a few hundred more megahertz, but it is expensive. My first stop would be to try my hand at overclocking that chip. Devil's Canyon is supposed to overclock well.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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May 19, 2016, 04:21 PM
 
Yeah, I'd skip upgrading the CPU, it's still fairly current. IT should be able to overclock to 4.4-4.6GHz w/o too much difficulty. What CPU cooler do you have? If it's the generic stock cooler, those are really bad BTW, you can go to a much better unit for <$50.

The standard in aftermarket coolers, a capable cooler --> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103099
Even better and quieter, though more expensive --> Phanteks PH-TC12DX 120mm PWM CPU Cooler - Newegg.com
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May 20, 2016, 10:34 AM
 
Noted. I'll likely go ahead and buy one of those coolers then. The reason I haven't overclocked it (despite buying it in the first place because it could) is that I've been using the stock cooler so far.

I'll opt for the Phanteks. Just ordered. Thanks!
(the white matches my rig too)
     
Jawbone54  (op)
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May 31, 2016, 12:18 PM
 
I did something ridiculous and got Overwatch for both PC and PS4 (I figured it would have a lot more legs on PC).

If anyone wants to friend up on Battle.net, I'm Jawbone54#1750.
     
Cap'n Tightpants
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May 31, 2016, 05:56 PM
 
Blizzard thanks you for your contribution. I bought 150 loot boxes last night, so I'm not any better. Got some killer epic and legendary skins, though (along with a whack ton of gold, poses, and sprays).
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Jun 1, 2016, 04:46 AM
 
AMDs Polaris 10 is announced, the RX 480 is supposedly faster than a 390 at $200 and 150W. A great midrange card if true.

Edit: typo in price.
( Last edited by P; Jun 1, 2016 at 04:18 PM. )
     
Cap'n Tightpants
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Jun 1, 2016, 03:11 PM
 
For $200, no less. Here's hoping this will make Nvidia stop gouging the midrange.
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Jun 1, 2016, 04:19 PM
 
Right now they don't really compete, so I think nVidia will keep gouging until Vega 10/Greenland is out.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Cap'n Tightpants
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Jun 29, 2016, 06:03 PM
 
Polaris (RX 480) introed with a resounding whimper. Meh, I guess it's fine for a $250-ish card, slightly behind the GTX 970 in most games, about the same as the R9 390, overall. Still, the performance /watt is terrible and apparently the reference cooler is nearly unbearable at gaming temps (70C and above), no matter what fan curve you use. The AIB partners had better save this with custom designs, otherwise this will die a horrible death.
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P
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Jun 29, 2016, 07:04 PM
 
Reviews are all over the place about this card, but essentially: it matches the 390 and 970 at 1440p. Because of some of the fixes to the geometry engine, nVidia's Gameworks sabotage no longer works. It is actually a little stronger than the 390 at 1080p - probably it is ROP-limited, because it drops off as resolutions go up.

The 4GB version is $200, and that is the one we should compare to the 4GB 970. Put that way, you can now get a card that matches or slightly beats the 970 for 60% of the money. Not too shabby. Compare to the 390 and you're losing half the memory but gaining a lot in power consumption, or you pay $229 (list) and get that memory back.

Performance per watt isn't terrible, it is more or less the same as Maxwell - except AMD has a new process to help with that. Architecturally it is only about a 15% improvement from Tonga. We did perhaps want a little more, although it should be said that 8GB of 8GHz memory uses a big chunk of the energy of a 150W card.

The cooler is barely adequate. It won't support almost any overclocking, and some are complaining about noise. I guess that you can't spend that much on a cooler at these prices. I'm sure the usual suspects will fix that for us, though.

Other than the price, it has one massive advantage over Pascal: you can buy one. Pascal supply problems don't look like they're letting up yet.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Cap'n Tightpants
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Jun 29, 2016, 11:54 PM
 
I've not seen any of the 4GB cards, only the 8GB variety, and speculation is that the 8GB will be the standard retail offering, with 4GB examples largely being sold to OEMs. For a shrink and update in the same cycle, the power usage and performance numbers are pretty shabby. It's essentially the same performance as the R9 390 8GB, in part due to the 480's meager 256-bit memory bus, with better VR support, for only ~$20-30 less. They were touting "near-1070 performance for almost half the price" and it isn't even close.

I'll say it again, especially with the 1060 on the horizon, if the OEMs don't come up with some snazzy custom power and cooling designs, Polaris is toast.
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Jun 30, 2016, 04:15 AM
 
Where did they ever say near-1070 performance? Because it is clearly not that, but it shouldn't be, given the chip sizes. And 256-bit bus is meager? That is what the 1070 and 1080 has also.

This is a midrange card. It is exactly what it should be - performance of the previous generation's one notch up, power reqs and size that fits an average box (a 12" 275W card is too big for most average designs to use well, which it why the 290/390 rarely shows up at OEMs), and priced where midrange cards are. I think that the 4GB variant, or even the 4GB 470, will be a better buy, so I hope that it doesn't become as rare as you say.

The 1060 is a rumor. If it is just a third-tier GP104, availability will be spotty at best. If it is a full GP106, then great, but I suspect that that card is a few months out yet.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Laminar
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Jun 30, 2016, 10:03 AM
 
Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants View Post
Polaris (RX 480)
I forgot what thread I was in and couldn't figure out why we're talking about a new ATV.
     
Jawbone54  (op)
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Jun 30, 2016, 10:58 AM
 
Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants View Post
Polaris (RX 480) introed with a resounding whimper. Meh, I guess it's fine for a $250-ish card, slightly behind the GTX 970 in most games, about the same as the R9 390, overall.
Well...that's disappointing. I want AMD to put up a good showing, solely to keep NVIDIA from jacking their prices into the stratosphere.

Have any of you taken advantage of the Summer Sale? It doesn't seem like I'm seeing the same number of great deals this time around, but perhaps that's because previous sales have swollen my library to embarrassing proportions. I have picked up about a dozen titles, though, including Pillars of Eternity. I wasn't going to buy it unless it dropped under $20, which it finally did.

Have any of you guys had experience with the Steam Controller and/or Steam Link? I've got about $50 remaining in my Steam Wallet, and I've been considering investing in them for some living room gaming. Opinions on the controller seem to be all over the place.
     
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Jun 30, 2016, 11:11 AM
 
The RX 480 did exactly what AMD said it would: meet VR recommendations at $200. That someone expected more is no reason to complain. This is like the stock dropping because earnings "missed expectations".

I agree that the Steam sale is worse than previous years, but I'll probably pick something up.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Laminar
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Jun 30, 2016, 12:03 PM
 
I got Just Cause 3, I've been waiting for it to go on sale since it came out. Unfortunately performance is poor even after doing the tricks suggested by the Steam forums (offline Steam, make JC3 high priority, run as admin). i5-2500K, R7-265 and even on the lowest graphics settings it still stutters and drops below 5fps during intense battles or sometimes just while driving.

I have 8GB more memory on the way to bump me up to 16GB as one of the theories was a memory leak caused the game to page too often.
     
Jawbone54  (op)
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Jul 1, 2016, 03:03 PM
 
Originally Posted by P View Post
The RX 480 did exactly what AMD said it would: meet VR recommendations at $200. That someone expected more is no reason to complain. This is like the stock dropping because earnings "missed expectations".
It's disappointing because AMD overhyped it at its unveiling, where they compared it to 1080 (skip to around the 22-min mark).

I agree that the Steam sale is worse than previous years, but I'll probably pick something up.
What I was saying is that it's probably not actually worse, but there's so much less temptation because previous sales have diminished my wish list.

Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
I got Just Cause 3, I've been waiting for it to go on sale since it came out. Unfortunately performance is poor even after doing the tricks suggested by the Steam forums (offline Steam, make JC3 high priority, run as admin). i5-2500K, R7-265 and even on the lowest graphics settings it still stutters and drops below 5fps during intense battles or sometimes just while driving.

I have 8GB more memory on the way to bump me up to 16GB as one of the theories was a memory leak caused the game to page too often.
I've kept it on my wish list just in case patches one day increase performance, but it keeps getting less likely as time goes by. JC2 was great fun.
     
Cap'n Tightpants
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Jul 2, 2016, 12:55 AM
 
This is potentially very, very bad: AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB Power Consumption Results

So it really needed an 8 pin power connector, but they went with a 6 (for some unknown reason) leading to the PCI-E slot being pushed way out of spec (15% or more) in normal gaming situations (even without OCing the cards). It looks like power is a serious issue for the RX 480 in its reference form, as I proposed earlier, and if this isn't fixed by board partners it's going to be really bad for AMD, potentially even damaging their customers' PCs. 16W at idle and and drawing almost the same amount of power as a 1080 in gaming, while providing only 60% of the performance? Just terrible.
( Last edited by Cap'n Tightpants; Jul 2, 2016 at 01:06 AM. )
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Jul 2, 2016, 10:11 AM
 
AMD is testing a software patch for the issue. They hope to have it out by Tuesday.

One can piece together what was going on here. The automatic voltage control seems to be using higher voltages than what AMD expected, and the clocks were likely adjusted very late in the process, leading to higher than expected power draw.

At the same time, doing the same tests on the 750Ti and the 960 show that they are also over the power limit momentarily - in the case of the 960, by much more than the 480 ever is - but their averages are lower and stay below the 75W limit if barely.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Cap'n Tightpants
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Jul 2, 2016, 01:48 PM
 
Not sure what they can do about it, since they're already running the 6-pin power connector outside of spec as well, other than slashing clock speeds, removing its OC-ability, thereby cutting TDP in general (lowering overall performance). What a regrettable launch for them, they needed to do so much better.
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