Off Topic Thread V2.0

cherryghost

I'd love to see how Unity works on that

Gumbi

Anyone interested in an AMD Never Settle Gold code (3 free games) for 20 euro?

TheDoc

Seeing some discussion that exchange rate issues over Christmas might force retailers who buy from Us ( a lot of them) to jack their prices up to cover costs. I know this interests me as a site I was looking to buy a 970 off, are kinda saying buy now, or expect a price hike shortly.

anyone else heard anything along this line?

Few friends mentioned how I should hold off until the new year sales take place, dont know what they are talking about, havnt seen a sale or decent price anywhere, on anything pc related.

Sonics2k

TheDoc wrote: »

Seeing some discussion that exchange rate issues over Christmas might force retailers who buy from Us ( a lot of them) to jack their prices up to cover costs. I know this interests me as a site I was looking to buy a 970 off, are kinda saying buy now, or expect a price hike shortly.

anyone else heard anything along this line?

Few friends mentioned how I should hold off until the new year sales take place, dont know what they are talking about, havnt seen a sale or decent price anywhere, on anything pc related.

PC sites don't really do big discounts for sales as they're usually sold at not much above cost and all that.

I did read on the Overclockers.co.uk forums about a possible price hike with the crashing exchange rates, if you can buy now it may be a good idea.

Bit of a balls for me as I won't be buying until March at the soonest.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

I am looking for a second hand graphics card, 750ti or a 760 or amd equivalent. Have about 150 euro to spend so nothing crazy, anyone want a quick sale give me a PM.

challengemaster

Ah I doubt anything major will happen with prices. You'll still be able to pick up good deals.

The only thing surprisingly expensive anyway is RAM. It's double what it was a year ago...

SickBoy

Gumbi wrote: »

Anyone interested in an AMD Never Settle Gold code (3 free games) for 20 euro?

Me please.

Gits_bone

Those bent tvs are a fad, an invention that's possible but not an invention that's any use.

Serephucus

There's some interesting stuff coming from LG. Apparently they're starting to push OLED TVs pretty hard (also curved and 4K, but I don't care much about these things) so there's (faint) hope that we might see OLED monitors sometime relatively soon.

Jsmurff

Serephucus wrote: »

There's some interesting stuff coming from LG. Apparently they're starting to push OLED TVs pretty hard (also curved and 4K, but I don't care much about these things) so there's (faint) hope that we might see OLED monitors sometime relatively soon.

Didn't that Murphy fella have a law about this?

EDIT: I really do hope this happens given my pisspoor eyesight I'd like to get as much clarity out of my machine as possible but if I have to sell a kidney on the black market I'll struggle on without the fancy led window

TheDoc

challengemaster wrote: »

Ah I doubt anything major will happen with prices. You'll still be able to pick up good deals.

The only thing surprisingly expensive anyway is RAM. It's double what it was a year ago...

Only yapping with a lad in work about RAM today. Checked an overclockers order I made in 2011, 4GB XM3 RAM , £18.99 , todays price, £46.99

Gumbi

TheDoc wrote: »

Only yapping with a lad in work about RAM today. Checked an overclockers order I made in 2011, 4GB XM3 RAM , £18.99 , todays price, £46.99

There was a massive drop in demand of RAM a few years ago the market was flooded with it. Once they sold out prices shot up again. A huge company folded and there was a fire in a Hynix factory too.

Jsmurff

I remember hearing that bitcoins was behind the massive prices in GPU cards and memory

TerrorFirmer

TheDoc wrote: »

@Terrorfirmer.

What was the reasoning behind putting a cutting edge new GPU into a machine running a €60 anniversary chip? Was it just for kicks and testing or was that a like "This is my main machine and choice I'm making".

Appreciate some guys run multiple rigs and test stuff, just wondering if thats the case.

Was reading a really interesting thread on overclockers, where there is a large community who have moved to the X99 platform from Intel, overclocking it to the limits, and the 980 is the card they are all throwing into it for these incredible machines.

Just curiousity more than anything else really....I don't think I'll keep the G3258 long term, but I'll use it for the next while!

Gumbi

Jsmurff wrote: »

I remember hearing that bitcoins was behind the massive prices in GPU cards and memory

It was propping up AMD sales a bit. It didn't affect memory prices. Plus nVidia cards can't mine so there's that too. RAM prices haven been stable for a while now, since before the Bitcoin craze.

Jsmurff

Gumbi wrote: »

It was propping up AMD sales a bit. It didn't affect memory prices. Plus nVidia cards can't mine so there's that too. RAM prices haven been stable for a while now, since before the Bitcoin craze.

I've never quite understood how "mining" worked but from what I can gather it was very speculative and it blew up in a relatively short time have been tolled its all but dead now

Genghiz Cohen

Jsmurff wrote: »

I've never quite understood how "mining" worked but from what I can gather it was very speculative and it blew up in a relatively short time have been tolled its all but dead now

Very basically, there is a set algorithm. You put a number in one end and a different number comes out the far end. If the result meets the demands of the bitcoin network then it's a good number and you get some bitcoins as a reward for finding it. AMD GPUs are good at doing this particular bit of math so they are bought to do it.

The result numbers are used to secure the bitcoin network.

Jsmurff

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Very basically, there is a set algorithm. You put a number in one end and a different number comes out the far end. If the result meets the demands of the bitcoin network then it's a good number and you get some bitcoins as a reward for finding it. AMD GPUs are good at doing this particular bit of math so they are bought to do it.

The result numbers are used to secure the bitcoin network.

ah I see i take this is where bitcoins get there monetary value from?

Genghiz Cohen

Jsmurff wrote: »

ah I see i take this is where bitcoins get there monetary value from?

Not really, they have their value because people give them value, like most other things.
Gold is valuable because it's rare, pretty and useful.
Bitcoin is useful so it also has value.

Jsmurff

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Not really, they have their value because people give them value, like most other things.
Gold is valuable because it's rare, pretty and useful.
Bitcoin is useful so it also has value.

aha so if people sudenly decided it was just a fad an no longer see it as useful it would sink like a led balloon?

Yeah I'll just give a miss I think

Genghiz Cohen

Jsmurff wrote: »

aha so if people sudenly decided it was just a fad an no longer see it as useful it would sink like a led balloon?

Yeah I'll just give a miss I think

Exactly, or if a flaw was discovered with the security or something. Like stocks in a company.

Jsmurff

I remember coming across a supposed member of anon in global chat of COC and swore that at the time (2+months ago) a bitcoin was roughly $658 roughly everyone myself included scoffed at him and I am pretty sure he was talking out his rear end as no-one was hacked in retaliation to the relentless slagging he recieved

ED E

Jsmurff wrote: »

aha so if people sudenly decided it was just a fad an no longer see it as useful it would sink like a led balloon?

Yeah I'll just give a miss I think

Its exactly the same as a euro note or a dollar note. Neither are backed by gold anymore, though many people are still under the impression they are.

A euro is worth a euro because I say it is and you agree. If everyone decided tomorrow euros were worthless, they'd be worthless(worth their value in metal really). Thats currency.

Cryptos have advantage of costless/decentralized transactions but the risk of an exploit or 51% attack. But if you look at the hundreds of millions of credit cards that were lost from US chains in 2014 I dont know how much more secure the traditional system really is.

Jsmurff wrote: »

I remember coming across a supposed member of anon in global chat of COC and swore that at the time (2+months ago) a bitcoin was roughly $658 roughly

It was 600+ back in august, and from wiki: "On November 29, 2013, the cost of one bitcoin rose to the all-time peak of US$1,242."

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Not really, they have their value because people give them value, like most other things.
Gold is valuable because it's rare, pretty and useful.
Bitcoin is useful so it also has value.

Bitcoins have value because they cost time, resources and electricity to find, also the more that are found the longer it takes to find the next, so as the numbers of found bitcoins increase so does the rarity of finding new ones Sometimes I think they are a scam by hardware manufacturers to drum up the need for ever more powerful hardware.

Genghiz Cohen

Kingsley Cuddly Aircraft wrote: »

Bitcoins have value because they cost time, resources and electricity to find, also the more that are found the longer it takes to find the next, so as the numbers of found bitcoins increase so does the rarity of finding new ones Sometimes I think they are a scam by hardware manufacturers to drum up the need for ever more powerful hardware.

Naw son, I could make my own crypto currency now and make them harder to mine, but they wouldn't be more valuable just because of that.

True that the difficulty to mine does have an effect, but without the coins being useful, they are worthless.

If it's a scam, its an AMD one and pretty shortsighted since GPU mining isn't really worth it anymore.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

The bitcoins only use is to process and verify the ledger payments on the bitcoin block chain system. It invented its own purpose, like a snake eating itself. There is something to be said for its use as a decentralised currency that overcomes the flaws in other currency systems, but if the bitcoin system was never invented there nobody outside the bitcoin system would suffer.

A agree that they have their value because people give them value, like most other things (like all currency). But I disagree that they have a use (its not a commodity), other than to perpetuate themselves. Like a virus

ShadowHearth

Jaysus, I though the whole Bitcoin **** hanged itself in a barn ages ago. Are people still stupid enough to invest in to it?


Anyway, any sign or reports of Gtx 960m? I really want that mid range gaming laptop and I am not sure if its worth holding off for 960m, or just get okay i7 +840m or i7 + 860m.
Its a shame there is feck all AMD a10 crossfire laptops out there. I was really looking forward in to that technology.

TerrorFirmer

AMD's mobile processors are pathetic for any sort of proper gaming.

I bought a gaming laptop with the R9 290M and, at the time, AMD's fastest A10 quad core.

What happened? I was brutally CPU bottlenecked....I compared the A10+290M to an i7+290M and the difference was about 100%, in Ryse Son of Rome the difference was 30fps vs 55-60fps. :eek:

Basically the graphics card was too fast, the CPU couldn't keep up in every game, some games there was only 50% GPU usage.

Waste of money to be honest. Would never touch any AMD mobile processor again.

ED E

On that note, the new 5th gen intel stuff (the bits released so far) are 2/3rds GPU 1/3 CPU. Looks like they're going towards a great lower power CPU+GPU mix for the casuals among us. I'm on a 3rd gen ULV at the moment but by the time I need an upgrade 6th gen ULV stuff will be kicking butt.




Its sad but the segment of the market where AMD makes sense is small and probably shrinking. We need somebody to push intel.

TheDoc

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Jaysus, I though the whole Bitcoin **** hanged itself in a barn ages ago. Are people still stupid enough to invest in to it?

Bitcoin has plenty of uses, least to mention the German government accepting it as payment for taxation and fines.

Hardly call people stupid who invest in it. It's a finite currency, as in only X can ever exist. The gold rush is well and truely over, but bitcoin that is mined now, because of it's rarity in new coins entering the market, go for decent money.

I had some bitcoin passed to me from a friend who I helped out with a bit of work, neither of us knew what they were at the time so he passed them onto me. I sold them for $200 a piece earlier last year.