Off Topic Thread V2.0

McSasquatch II

What's the current AV software du jour, lads? Looking for something reliable, with an easy to use interface and isn't a resource hog (preferably something that can be easily disabled when needed).

frozenfrozen

High refresh rate monitors are nothing to be sniffed at it seems. Went from playing on a Dell U2711 (60Hz w/high enough input lag) to a Dell Trinitron CRT 1024x768 @ 150Hz and the difference is huge.

Definitely not for those who care what the game looks like but in terms of shooting people in the head in csgo, it's worth it.


It's also nice that my 580 is at next to 0% utilization at this low res so it stays nice and quiet, compared to pumping out 300 frames at 1440p for no real reason before.

Danger781

frozenfrozen wrote: »

High refresh rate monitors are nothing to be sniffed at it seems. Went from playing on a Dell U2711 (60Hz w/high enough input lag) to a Dell Trinitron CRT 1024x768 @ 150Hz and the difference is huge.

Definitely not for those who care what the game looks like but in terms of shooting people in the head in csgo, it's worth it.


It's also nice that my 580 is at next to 0% utilization at this low res so it stays nice and quiet, compared to pumping out 300 frames at 1440p for no real reason before.

Surely you're pumping out more frames now..

Gumbi

marko93 wrote: »

Oh sweet! I'll hold out for a few weeks before I pull the trigger.

Would this card be better than say a 780Ti?

A quick google quickly revealed no, it wouldn't be better, it also showed it wouldn't wreck my wallet either.

No but it would be competitive at 1440p (due to the 512 bit memory bus), but 780ti would be a clear winner at 1080p. Fantastic card though. Great price on Hardwareversand through geizhals.de or on Amazon. 290 euro delivered via Amazon is probably the best option considering the safety net of buying from Amazon.

ED E

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Yes... :P

New card 135eu
Sell old card 80eu
PSU 70eu

Surely 280eu could buy you some decent GPU.

Just never CF'd and tempted to try it, even though I know its a bad idea ^^

Headshot

AMD and their crappy downloads of updates to drivers

Im really considering going back to Nvidia

Gbear

So there's a bunch of rumours about the specs for the 390X going around at the moment (here's the rumoured spec: http://www.loadthegame.com/2014/11/11/leaked-specs-radeon-r9-390x-reveal-4gb-3d-stacked-hbm-4096-stream-processors/).

It sounds like it's going to be using completely different tech than current gen cards - a 4096 bit memory bus (vs the gtx 980's 256) which, as far as I know, would've been inconceivable in conventional manufacturing processes.

frozenfrozen

Danger781 wrote: »

Surely you're pumping out more frames now..

fps is still capped at 300 in game but now 150 per second are being displayed rather than just 60 so it's less fruitless as I'm actually seeing some of the frames

Tried using vsync but it's still using frame hold for ~8ms for the full field so I'm just leaving it off and dealing with the tearing if I flick the mouse at 300 miles an hour

glynf

frozenfrozen wrote: »

High refresh rate monitors are nothing to be sniffed at it seems. Went from playing on a Dell U2711 (60Hz w/high enough input lag) to a Dell Trinitron CRT 1024x768 @ 150Hz and the difference is huge.

Definitely not for those who care what the game looks like but in terms of shooting people in the head in csgo, it's worth it.


It's also nice that my 580 is at next to 0% utilization at this low res so it stays nice and quiet, compared to pumping out 300 frames at 1440p for no real reason before.

You'll find it hard to go back to 60hz gaming

Danger781

So I've a bit of a tricky question here. I'm going to try my best to explain it. Not sure if this deserves it's own thread or I'm better off posting here. I'll try here and depending how well received it is I may make my own thread somewhere..

Scenario
My motherboard has a built-in audio card from Realtek. With this I managed to get audio playing through two sets of headphones and my speakers at the same time. First I needed to get audio playing through both my 5.1 speakers and my headset. From there I was able to adjust the output to either Stereo or 5.1 depending on what device I planned on using. I set this up via the Realtek software, and it worked flawlessly.



The above combination allowed for what I needed. However, I have now purchased a wireless headset to add to my current set up. I have found a way to play audio through that as well as my wired headset and speakers all at the same time. I did that as follows..

# Set the Realtek output as the default device. It was this way before the Vengeance headset came along anyway so nothing changed here.


# From there I needed to enable the 'Stero Mix' device aka 'What you hear' on some computers I believe.


# Go into properties of Stereo Mix, click 'Listen' and then 'Listen to this device'. From that drop down menu I chose my Vengeance headset. This allows all audio that comes through the 'Speakers' device to also get played back through my Vengeance wireless headset. There is a fraction of a second delay with this method but it works fine for my needs.


My question:
Before adding the Vengeance headset, I was able to pick and choose between 5.1 and Stereo depending what I was doing. Now it is limited to Stereo even when I change it to 5.1 through the Realtek software. I assume this is because I enabled the Stereo Mix playback device but that doesn't make sense to me. It shouldn't matter what's playing on the 'Speakers' device, similar to the way when you attempt to listen to a 5.1 output through a 2.0 headset, it doesn't really work well. I assumed this was how it was going to go. Not a fan of being limited to 2.0 at all.

Any thoughts?

ED E

I dont get why you arent just using three sound devices? Why do you need to have all current at one time?

frozenfrozen

I ended up just getting an external DAC with multiple outputs. Your 5.1 is being summed to 2.0 so it can be output on stereo mix. If you were doing this using asio or something that could maybe sort it? http://www.asio4all.com/ I could never get my head around it but you can for want of a better word patch audio channels using asio I believe, and so you'd be able to have the same output being sent to multiple places. Not sure how that would handle 5.1 though. It's also not directsound it's waspi so certain programs won't like playing with it.


IMO you'd be better off running in 2.0 all the time and have your custom (maybe asio4all) output selected in things like VLC for surround mixed movies etc etc. That way you wouldn't be messing around changing inputs using the bad windows sound devices dialogue constantly.


You may have to also un-tie all similar input jacks and then repatch using waspi. The easy way out is to get a DAC with multiple outputs, you'll have no latency too which would be nice.

Danger781

ED E wrote: »

I dont get why you arent just using three sound devices? Why do you need to have all current at one time?

Because manually switching devices is too much effort! Unless you have an alternative recommendation on how to do that

frozenfrozen wrote: »

The easy way out is to get a DAC with multiple outputs, you'll have no latency too which would be nice.

Using ASIO just seems to complicate things even further than they already are! I'll look into the DAC though, nice one.

ED E

Got 8...

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/easily-change-or-switch-the-default-audio-sound-output-in-windows-vista-and-xp/

Danger781

ED E wrote: »

Got 8...

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/easily-change-or-switch-the-default-audio-sound-output-in-windows-vista-and-xp/

Well...

marko93

Sorry to be a pest, but I'm pulling the trigger on a GFX card tomorrow and just want to be sure that for 300 the R9 290 Tri-x that was suggested was my best bet?

EoinHef

970 arrived yesterday and installed it this morning after work. Its a gigabyte g1 and it is absolutely huge!! 31cm or so,even larger than my old 7950 vapor x's which were certainly not small!!

Gigabyte accessories were a major let down for a premium card,were none basically! 2 molex to pci adapters,driver disc and manual and that was it!! No sli bridge,no video adapters and not even a cheap HDMI cable!! I think they could have at least included a SLI bridge.

Anyway it looks the business,hopefully it performs the same as it looks. A little loud at idle for my liking so far. Havent got much time but plan to try a load of games at stock for a few days and then see what sort of overclock i can get on it when i have time. Hoping for somewhere around 1500/8000 mark. Hopefully ive avoided one with coil whine,only time will tell i suppose.

EDIT

Some pics of the card in the attachment if anyone wants to have a look.

GPU z screenshot after playing Arma 3 for about an hour and a half,V High settings with AA turned down to 2X and HDAO on standard @1440p. Card is at stock,although it is boosting past its spec boost clock to 1404MHz on the core. Averaged roughly 40-55 fps. Thats very close to 7950 crossfire with an overclock performance in a single card,although with Arma being so CPU bound that may be having an effect. ASIC on GPU-z is giving me a reading of 75.2% for what thats worth.



Couldnt believe the temp though,only 53C at 1404MHz:D
It is a little loud at idle but i swear it never got louder when playing Arma,which is amazing considering how loud my old 7950's got in crossfire playing that game.

First impressions very happy,more time needed to see what i can get out of it but very impressed so far:)

Genghiz Cohen

Dat back plate tho...

Serephucus

Good god that thing is huge. It only has a 145W TDP for feck sake!

Gumbi

The 970 is a home run for nVidia. Awesome card. Overclock that mofo. You should get 1400 - 1500 mhz on the core and 8000mhz on the memory.

I was a big 290 fan but the 970 is far superior if they are the same price.

Danger781

Gumbi wrote: »

You should get 1400 - 1500 mhz on the core and 8000mhz on the memory.

That's some mental power. Is that a typo!? 8k on the memory clock?

That just seems huge

Gumbi

Nope. Sher the 770s and 780s were getting 7600mhz etc. The new cards are getting very high clocks. Of course, you still have a 256bit memory bus.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/09/29/msi_geforce_gtx_970_gaming_4g_video_card_review/8#.VGyMw_msUWU

It's a beast of a card.

Chris_Heilong

Gumbi wrote: »

Nope. Sher the 770s and 780s were getting 7600mhz etc. The new cards are getting very high clocks. Of course, you still have a 256bit memory bus.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/09/29/msi_geforce_gtx_970_gaming_4g_video_card_review/8#.VGyMw_msUWU

It's a beast of a card.

damn it, and I just ordered a 290 last week(waiting on it to arrive today)

Serephucus

Time for a return so!

Gumbi

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

damn it, and I just ordered a 290 last week(waiting on it to arrive today)

290 is fine as long as you got a good price on it. Which one did you get and how much did you pay for it? DO you game 1080p or 1440p?

ShadowHearth

Damn. I had a craving for Laptop, but now I got a craving for a gaming laptop! :pac:

Just looked up gtx 970m and that thing is a freaking beasT! It already out performs desktop gtx 680 ( gpu I got in my PC )! :eek:

I will be on extra few quid during December month so I might do a nice Xmas Present for myself. Its a shame you cant get a Gtx 970m Laptop for up to 1100eu yet. Gtx 960m wont be out for a while too.

Danger781

Gumbi wrote: »

Nope. Sher the 770s and 780s were getting 7600mhz etc. The new cards are getting very high clocks. Of course, you still have a 256bit memory bus.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/09/29/msi_geforce_gtx_970_gaming_4g_video_card_review/8#.VGyMw_msUWU

It's a beast of a card.

I'm not at home right now, but I'm pretty sure my 7950's are running at 1300Mhz.. Seeing 8K Memory clocks just blew my mind

Gumbi

Danger781 wrote: »

I'm not at home right now, but I'm pretty sure my 7950's are running at 1300Mhz.. Seeing 8K Memory clocks just blew my mind

Nah, I gave the effective clocks which is your 1300x4. Still really fast. 7950s with Hynix can do up to 1800mhz (or 1800 x4 for effective clocks).

Chris_Heilong

Gumbi wrote: »

290 is fine as long as you got a good price on it. Which one did you get and how much did you pay for it? DO you game 1080p or 1440p?

I got a Shapphire Tri-X OC, it was €295 on Pixmania, The Vapour X edition was around that price on Overclockers.uk during a sale but when payday came the sale had ended.

I like to play at my monitors native res so 1080p.

I was going to go for the FX-8320 and mother board but in the end stretched the budget just enough to afford an i5-4460, MSI Z97 PC Mate motherboard and a Fortron Source FSP700-50ARN 85+ - 700 Watt PSU for €328 delivered from Komplett.

Genghiz Cohen

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

I got a Shapphire Tri-X OC, it was €295 on Pixmania, The Vapour X edition was around that price on Overclockers.uk during a sale but when payday came the sale had ended.

I like to play at my monitors native res so 1080p.

I was going to go for the FX-8320 and mother board but in the end stretched the budget just enough to afford an i5-4460, MSI Z97 PC Mate motherboard and a Fortron Source FSP700-50ARN 85+ - 700 Watt PSU for €328 delivered from Komplett.

I'd say you'll be grand for a few years yet