PC PC Community Thread

[cusideabelincoln]

8 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

I haven't read a ton so far, but it looks like AMD might have nailed it with the Ryzen 9 7950X3D. I'm excited to see more reviews, but Tom's Hardware has named it the king. I'm looking forward to seeing Linus Tech Tips do testing on it. I imagine that will be happening soon. 

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D Review: AMD Retakes Gaming Crown with 3D V-Cache | Tom's Hardware

WWW.TOMSHARDWARE.COM

---

AMD takes a bite out of Raptor Lake.

 

 

I would love to see the manufacturing process for this stuff. I know they keep it extremely top secret, and I wouldn't understand it anyway, but I'd love to see how these chipsets made. Everything beyond measured performance is basically way beyond my understanding of tech, but im shocked that they continually push more cores and power into smaller chips at the rate they seem to be doing. 

 

I also wonder what percentage come off the assembly line not working, and how much that drives up the cost of these things?

 

LTT's review sample was defective, that's why they're so late and the markup on all Ryzen chips are already way more than the extra cost of 3D cache anyway. So the price increase is what AMD wants it to be, the balance between high margin and high sales.

[cusideabelincoln]

On 3/4/2023 at 10:29 AM, Spork3245 said:

RTX Video Enhancement/Super Resolution is pretty damn good:

 

https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5448

 

Make sure you enable this in the nVidia Control Panel. Makes a noticeable difference, even with Youtube, if it's less than 1080p. There's a difference at 1080p as well (when on a 4k display) but it's not as noticeable. Very good use of RTX AI.

I put the control panel on my second monitor, full-sized a youtube video on my 4k monitor, forced 480p for video quality and flipped super resolution off and on and the difference was definitely there when I had it on vs off.

 

Upgraded, worked fine for a bit, but then videos starting having 3 second pauses, even when turning it off. Just did a DDU clean install and seems to be working fine now.

[stepee]

Oh man I wish I installed vibrantdeck a long time ago, this is much more like the oled deck’s vibrant mode now and while I still need an oled deck model yesterday at least the color tone is more like how I want it and matches better between handheld and my tv when switching between the two.

 

I think the default might legit be too washed out, at least on my model.

[SuperSpreader]

I wish all my PC parts were here already. I'm just missing that bracket mount and the GPU. 

[stepee]

30 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

I wish all my PC parts were here already. I'm just missing that bracket mount and the GPU. 

 

I feel ya man, I feel ya

[SuperSpreader]

1 hour ago, stepee said:

 

I feel ya man, I feel ya

 

I could have bought one at microcenter but it wasn't exactly what I wanted and would have slightly resented it 

[stepee]

26 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

 

I could have bought one at microcenter but it wasn't exactly what I wanted and would have slightly resented it 

 

Yeah that’s what I’m going to wait for this build even though I didn’t get the timeline I wanted because it’s all the parts I want exactly and now I don’t want anything else 

[SuperSpreader]

1 hour ago, stepee said:

 

Yeah that’s what I’m going to wait for this build even though I didn’t get the timeline I wanted because it’s all the parts I want exactly and now I don’t want anything else 

 

I had a home gym during COVID (it's in storage because my newer home can't accommodate it) and I would buy stuff as it was available but would end up buying again when what I wanted became available, and would have to reconfigure and sell parts. 

 

Like I started with Rogue Crumb bumpers but they were hideous, and then I went to Rep which felt like basic and my current ones are American Barbell. 

[stepee]

17 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

 

I had a home gym during COVID (it's in storage because my newer home can't accommodate it) and I would buy stuff as it was available but would end up buying again when what I wanted became available, and would have to reconfigure and sell parts. 

 

Like I started with Rogue Crumb bumpers but they were hideous, and then I went to Rep which felt like basic and my current ones are American Barbell. 

 

lol yeah I hear ya, sometimes it’s also hard to allow yourself to get the parts you want just because those extra $40 amounts to get what you reallllly want all add up at the end of the build until it gets to a price point where you sorta feel like an asshole for even getting it…but then just end up replacing things earlier and paying more

[stepee]

suxxx they emailed me that the issue is they don’t have any more 7950x3d in stock  it’s still sold out everywhere too so it might just be awhile 

[Spork3245]

My brother in law wants to buy a PC with a $1500 budget, including monitor + kb/mouse. Trying to price out parts to put it together for him vs him getting a prebuilt, and wtf is going on with GPUs? Did prices on 3xxx series spike again? Most 3070s seem to avg around $600, who is buying a 3070 at this price still?

[imthesoldier]

On 3/2/2023 at 2:15 PM, stepee said:

nvme pricing has gotten a bit better huh? 2tb are pretty darn affordable now and it looks like maybe by the end of the year 4tb nvme will be affordable which will probably solve my woes with hard drive space this gen at that time! I saw a crucial 4tb 5000mbps for $260, can’t be long until 7000mpbs is like $250!

 

I previously had bought a 2TB WD SN850X nvme drive around Black Friday for like 150 to use a a boot drive (since I do have PCIe Gen 4 available for that), and just yesterday decided to plunge on another nvme drive, this time the WD SN770 2TB variant for like 110. 

 

I still haven't actually installed the SN850x into my Rig yet, but with 4TBs of speedy fast storage available now (one Gen 4, and one Gen 3), plus a third M.2 slot available (also Gen 3) for perhaps a 4TB, or even 8TB down the road, I'll be covered for SSD storage. My plan is to convert everything to SSD, and fend off a normal HDD for games for good. 

[AbsolutSurgen]

SSDs have been cheap for so long, I am still somewhat surprised when I see someone is using a HDD for other than storing large media files.

[imthesoldier]

5 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

SSDs have been cheap for so long, I am still somewhat surprised when I see someone is using a HDD for other than storing large media files.

 

It's probably still more common than you realize. 

 

Similar to how most people still use 1080p displays rather than 1440p, let alone 4K monitors. We'd like to believe most have already dumped their 1080p displays for 4K monitors, but it's still kind of niche. 

[stepee]

19 minutes ago, imthesoldier said:

 

I previously had bought a 2TB WD SN850X nvme drive around Black Friday for like 150 to use a a boot drive (since I do have PCIe Gen 4 available for that), and just yesterday decided to plunge on another nvme drive, this time the WD SN770 2TB variant for like 110. 

 

I still haven't actually installed the SN850x into my Rig yet, but with 4TBs of speedy fast storage available now (one Gen 4, and one Gen 3), plus a third M.2 slot available (also Gen 3) for perhaps a 4TB, or even 8TB down the road, I'll be covered for SSD storage. My plan is to convert everything to SSD, and fend off a normal HDD for games for good. 

 

I just can’t do normal hdd anymore so I’ve been cleaning fridge.

 

And Absho, SSD’s have gotten a lot cheaper but then they got pretty expensive again when it transitioned to nvme. 4gb pcie gen3 was still super high and also didn’t want to spend a lot on one until I had at least a pcie gen 4 motherboard. 

 

Now pcie5 is coming out at insane prices so I think we will see 4tb gen4 nvme become reasonable and at that point it should be all good for awhile since gen5 isn’t as big of a leap as before.

[Spork3245]

29 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

SSDs have been cheap for so long, I am still somewhat surprised when I see someone is using a HDD for other than storing large media files.

You can get a 8tb HDD for $100 and there’s really no benefit to keeping media rips on an SSD vs an HDD.

[AbsolutSurgen]

20 minutes ago, imthesoldier said:

 

It's probably still more common than you realize. 

 

Similar to how most people still use 1080p displays rather than 1440p, let alone 4K monitors. We'd like to believe most have already dumped their 1080p displays for 4K monitors, but it's still kind of niche. 

Not a great analogy.  Most computers sold today are 1080p, and come with an SSD.  A 1 TB SATA SSD is under 50 bucks.

[AbsolutSurgen]

Just now, Spork3245 said:

You can get a 8tb HDD for $100 and there’s really no benefit to keeping media rips on an SSD vs an HDD.

That was the "other than storing large media files" part of my post.

[AbsolutSurgen]

On 3/6/2023 at 8:55 PM, stepee said:

suxxx they emailed me that the issue is they don’t have any more 7950x3d in stock  it’s still sold out everywhere too so it might just be awhile 

My local retailer still has some in certain stores, and is promising a March 22nd delivery for online orders.  Perhaps, not as long a delay as you fear.

[stepee]

2 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

My local retailer still has some in certain stores, and is promising a March 22nd delivery for online orders.  Perhaps, not as long a delay as you fear.

 

That would be awesome if I could get it by April!

[imthesoldier]

Another factor I think is despite Gen 5 just starting to roll out, games haven't even really utilized SSD speeds, let alone  

3 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Not a great analogy.  Most computers sold today are 1080p, and come with an SSD.  A 1 TB SATA SSD is under 50 bucks.

 

Fair enough, though I wouldn't be surprised if there's still a fair amount of folks who still use HDDs in their computers vs. even a SATA SSD. Adoption is likely growing everyday, but majority of people don't buy latest and greatest either. 

[Spork3245]

13 minutes ago, imthesoldier said:

Another factor I think is despite Gen 5 just starting to roll out, games haven't even really utilized SSD speeds, let alone 

Only one game has utilized m.2 speeds so far, Forspoken. There’s barely a difference in load speeds on most PC games with a SATA SSD vs a gen4 m.2, and when I say “most”, I mean all except Forspoken  

 

The reason Forspoken has a large difference with an m.2 vs a SATA SSD (unlike what’s shown in those benchmarks) is because it utilizes direct storage. Until now, getting a high end m.2 was mostly only beneficial for synthetic benchmarks  

[AbsolutSurgen]

21 minutes ago, imthesoldier said:

Another factor I think is despite Gen 5 just starting to roll out, games haven't even really utilized SSD speeds, let alone  

 

Fair enough, though I wouldn't be surprised if there's still a fair amount of folks who still use HDDs in their computers vs. even a SATA SSD. Adoption is likely growing everyday, but majority of people don't buy latest and greatest either. 

There are absolutely games that now have an SSD in the minimum requirements.  They're (mostly) not taking advantage of things like DirectStorage -- so the incremental benefits of NVMe drives probably aren't really there.  But loading on an SSD vs. a HD makes a BIG difference in modern gaming -- and has for years.

 

I am just surprised, my last Desktop in 2016 did have one HDD -- but that was ripped out of the computer I was retiring, and was solely used for storing pictures from our iPhones.  My last 3 work PCs, and the last 3 laptops I've purchased for home use have been SSD-only.

[imthesoldier]

14 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

Only one game has utilized m.2 speeds so far, Forspoken. There’s barely a difference in load speeds on most PC games with a SATA SSD vs a gen4 m.2, and when I say “most”, I mean all except Forspoken  

 

The reason Forspoken has a large difference with an m.2 vs a SATA SSD (unlike what’s shown in those benchmarks) is because it utilizes direct storage. Until now, getting a high end m.2 was mostly only beneficial for synthetic benchmarks  

 

Correct. Direct Storage is supposed to be that secret sauce, but like anything, games have to be designed around it to really take advantage of it. And even then, I want to say the majority of games still are designed around the humble HDD

 

15 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

There are absolutely games that now have an SSD in the minimum requirements.  They're (mostly) not taking advantage of things like DirectStorage -- so the incremental benefits of NVMe drives probably aren't really there.  But loading on an SSD vs. a HD makes a BIG difference in modern gaming -- and has for years.

 

I am just surprised, my last Desktop in 2016 did have one HDD -- but that was ripped out of the computer I was retiring, and was solely used for storing pictures from our iPhones.  My last 3 work PCs, and the last 3 laptops I've purchased for home use have been SSD-only.

 

I'm not disagreeing about the benefits of using SSD vs. HDD. All I'm pointing out is our own anecdotes do not represent the masses in terms of what they run their computers with. In my case, up until 2020, with my previous work laptop, it used a HDD, and now my current work laptop only uses a SATA SSD, though it does have an m.2 slot built in, and I could expense out a cheap 256GB nvme drive if I really wanted to. But again, anecdote. 

 

Regarding DS though, it's still going to take years before developers take advantage of it like they do with say Vulkan, or DX. Thankfully, as mentioned before, SSD prices have gone down considerably over the last few years. As far as games are concerned, what games actually REQUIRE a SSD though? Because even Forspoken doesn't require it. The game will still run on a HDD, though it is certainly not recommended. Not trying to start an argument, I'm just curious is all. 

[Spork3245]

14 minutes ago, imthesoldier said:

Regarding DS though, it's still going to take years before developers take advantage of it like they do with say Vulkan, or DX.

 

Big disagree. Why? XSX + PS5 are using versions of it.

[AbsolutSurgen]

7 minutes ago, imthesoldier said:

 

Correct. Direct Storage is supposed to be that secret sauce, but like anything, games have to be designed around it to really take advantage of it. And even then, I want to say the majority of games still are designed around the humble HDD

 

 

I'm not disagreeing about the benefits of using SSD vs. HDD. All I'm pointing out is our own anecdotes do not represent the masses in terms of what they run their computers with. In my case, up until 2020, with my previous work laptop, it used a HDD, and now my current work laptop only uses a SATA SSD, though it does have an m.2 slot built in, and I could expense out a cheap 256GB nvme drive if I really wanted to. But again, anecdote. 

 

Regarding DS though, it's still going to take years before developers take advantage of it like they do with say Vulkan, or DX. Thankfully, as mentioned before, SSD prices have gone down considerably over the last few years. As far as games are concerned, what games actually REQUIRE a SSD though? Because even Forspoken doesn't require it. The game will still run on a HDD, though it is certainly not recommended. Not trying to start an argument, I'm just curious is all. 

The two new consoles have fast SSDs -- once legacy support for PS4/XB1 is dropped, more and more games will require SSDs (potentially NVMe ones).  That's starting to happen now.

Dead Space, for one, lists an SSD as a minimum requirement, and an NVMe as "recommended".

The load times in games like AC, GTAV, Forza Motorsport are insanely long on a HDD. (In some cases, pretty damn near a minute to load a save.)

Sata SSDs have been relatively cheap for years.

[Spork3245]

Just now, AbsolutSurgen said:

more and more games will require SSDs (potentially NVMe ones).

 

I actually think this won't happen. I don't see how a game is going to require it to run unless it does a speed test before loading. What will definitely happen is larger ram requirements to compensate for people on SATA SSDs or HDDs.

[AbsolutSurgen]

4 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

 

I actually think this won't happen. I don't see how a game is going to require it to run unless it does a speed test before loading. What will definitely happen is larger ram requirements to compensate for people on SATA SSDs or HDDs.

If your engine is setup to stream data in on DirectStorage or the PS5 equivalent, are you going to completely rewrite it?

[Spork3245]

3 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

If your engine is setup to stream data in on DirectStorage or the PS5 equivalent, are you going to completely rewrite it?

 

They already have in games like Forspoken and Returnal, so I'm not sure I get your point.

[stepee]

Hdds will probably work for a long time but the experience is/will be so bad that only like 3 weirdos will actually dare actually playing games that way 

[Spork3245]

5 minutes ago, stepee said:

Hdds will probably work for a long time but the experience is/will be so bad that only like 3 weirdos will actually dare actually playing games that way 

 

I keep VR games on an HDD since they're all like a single 30 load

[AbsolutSurgen]

Just now, Spork3245 said:

 

They already have in games like Forspoken, so I'm not sure I get your point.

PC gaming is an afterthought/sideline for a lot of console developers.  Forspoken used DS, but I don't think it was fundamentally designed around it.  Was it actively streaming in large amounts of data? 

 

[imthesoldier]

16 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

 

Big disagree. Why? XSX + PS5 are using versions of it.

 

Consoles though are highly optimized pieces of hardware, so developers have a very specific benchmark to hit when designing games. It's much different for PC with its millions of potential hardware specs, and storage speeds. I don't see the PS5 and XSeries disproving my theory that we won't be seeing games on PC only requiring SSDs, let alone nvme-based drives anytime soon. Again, it'll take years. How many years? Not sure. Probably 2-3 years, and given how much development times have increased over the years. 

 

But there can be use-cases where companies, or even developers can help to convince gamers to upgrade to SSDs, or even NVMe drives by having comparisons with loading screens (or lack thereof), plus if there are no duplicate assets required, file sizes can also be reduced. Quite honestly, Sony did just that with the PS5 showcase with Dana Carvey playing the role of Mark Cerny showing the advantages of using SSDs vs HDD, plus GPU decompression to help offload the cycles normally used on the CPU. 

[stepee]

16 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

 

I keep VR games on an HDD since they're all like a single 30 load

 

FOUR weirdos

[Spork3245]

11 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Was it actively streaming in large amounts of data? 

 

 

It's open world, so yes. Also, Returnal.