Off Topic Thread V2.0

Gumbi · 31-01-2015 7:01pm

I have a 290 VaporX currently and am veryhappy with it. The coolwr is excellent, and I can do 1200/1600 of an overclock. An extra gig of RAM to play with too

pleasant Co. · 31-01-2015 7:03pm

kearneybobs wrote: »

Far Cry 4 reaches just under 3.5GB VRAM on my 970. Highest I've seen it is 3.45GB. No performance changes noticed at that level but then again I haven't gone over the 3.5GB threshold.

Only a a matter of time before it get pushed over that and it goes tits up.

Overclockers (whom I've bought mine from) are accepting returns for their 970s and I'm tempted to send it back to them and change over to AMD and get something along the lines of 8GB 290x. I can't really afford the upgrade to a 980 at the moment but change over to AMD would be viable with about £30 more investment which I can get behind. Haven't been with AMD in 10 years.

Anyone got any suggestions on what to do?
My set up is:
Z87 G45 Gaming mobo
i5 -4670K
8GB ddr3-1600
MSI GTX 970
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 700W
Fractal Define R4 case, titanium with window
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB, 2TB 7200 RPM +640GB +250GB
G930 Headset, G700 mouse and G19 Keyboard!

You've plenty of time to mull it over, they're taking returns until the end of feb.

kearneybobs · 31-01-2015 7:04pm

Temps for my 970 are really low at about 60-65 while gaming. Don't think I've seen it get to 70 yet. How hot are we talking?
I hear it's quite a power hungry card too.

The fan on my MSI GTX 970 doesn't even need to turn on until it's above 60 degrees.

Luck100 · 31-01-2015 7:16pm

Apparently AMD is cutting the price on the 290x. I get the feeling they are trying to push excess stock out the door before the 3xx series launches. They have an ad making of the GTX 970 4GB issue, but not sure why you would cut your price when the competitor just stubbed his toe. Unless you smell a chance to push some stock before the 3xx series drops the hammer on the 290/290x. Just like the 970/980 crushed the values on 780/780ti for NVidia.

TerrorFirmer · 31-01-2015 7:52pm

wotzgoingon · 31-01-2015 8:17pm

^^^^That is so funny.

challengemaster · 31-01-2015 8:54pm

Luck100 wrote: »

but not sure why you would cut your price when the competitor just stubbed his toe. Unless you smell a chance to push some stock before the 3xx series drops the hammer on the 290/290x. Just like the 970/980 crushed the values on 780/780ti for NVidia.

They're doing 2 things at once:

To push those people over the edge who are going "well... its not like I'm using more than 3.5gb of vram anyway so it doesn't really affect me, i'll keep my card". Those people feel even better when they return a 970 for full cost price and buy a 290/290x and still have pocket change.

Secondly they're trying to squeeze the 970 out of the market altogether for new buyers. Bang/buck just shifted straight to AMD, there's no incentive to buy a 970 new now.

TerrorFirmer · 31-01-2015 10:15pm

wotzgoingon wrote: »

^^^^That is so funny.

"The electricity bill for the 290x alone can sustain a village in africa for a month"

ED E · 31-01-2015 10:30pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNGi06cq_pQ

EoinHef · 01-02-2015 3:02am

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

*SNIP*

Ha,definitely how i feel about it. The whole thing is getting a little out of hand. Should Nvidia have corrected the specs earlier? Yes definitely. Do i really think that was on purpose or deceptive? No,i believe it was a mistake.

As i said earlier im going to keep my 970,other than this small issue it really is a fantastic card. Low TDP,low temps and high clocks. Im sure anybody who gets there hands on a 970 will be very happy with it.

After doing a bit of testing im fairly sure from the games i have,you would need to go looking for the problem. At the settings it requires to re produce the problem i dont really have playable frame rates anyway @1440p.

What im trying to say is;yes in certain situations is it a problem? Yes
Do i think it will affect 99% of users? No,far from it.

As ive shown,games like Arma 3 at ultra on a single 970 are playable and dont really come anywhere close to pushing that 3.5GB limit,the card itself is bottleknecked before the memory is. In my experience so far the memory has not been a limiting factor.

If anybody wants a specific game tested i will accomadate if i have the game. Ill try create a set of conditions to push vram usage over the 3.6GB mark. I cant test if i dont have the game though.

@Danger781
My advise to you is go get the cards and get them into your rig. Test a few games and see how you get on. Id bet my house after seeing the performance you will not want to send them back. Just my opinion,but dont write them off before you try them. As long a 4K is not an immediate concern i reckon you be fine for a long time @1440p anyway.

EDIT: Are we really using Ubisoft games as a bench now? The only Ubisoft game i have is Far Cry 3 so cant test any of there games bar that one. When it comes to PC ports though Ubisoft are hardly famous for there PC ports lately.

EoinHef · 01-02-2015 4:20am

Luck100 wrote: »

Apparently AMD is cutting the price on the 290x. I get the feeling they are trying to push excess stock out the door before the 3xx series launches. They have an ad making of the GTX 970 4GB issue, but not sure why you would cut your price when the competitor just stubbed his toe. Unless you smell a chance to push some stock before the 3xx series drops the hammer on the 290/290x. Just like the 970/980 crushed the values on 780/780ti for NVidia.

Ive zero problem with AMD having a little joke at Nvidias expense. Nvidia would do exactly the same in there position. A few internet jokes are fine imo.
Id agree they may want to push the 290(x's),but tbh unless you want DX12,DSR,MFAA and some other benefits of owning an Nvidia card the 290(x) is really a better option for now imo. I went 970 as i have a 750W psu and i reckon i would have had to up that to 850-1000W for CF 290X's. As is i could probably run tri 970 sli on a 750W:)

Hows 970 sli going for you btw?

Id imagine,i know you have a 1440p monitor and have overclocked your cards,that you just set games to ultra @1440p and get great framerates. Depending on game SLI support obviously.

I see your on OC.net and have read your posts there regarding overclocking 970's in SLI. And from what i read there 970 SLI is very impressive at 1440p.

TerrorFirmer · 01-02-2015 4:29am

I actually agree, in that the limitations of the 970, realistically, are fairly trivial. Comparatively speaking, the 290 is a better card in light of recent revelations, but really, for the most part, the limitation of the 970's ability to address vram past 3.5gb won't be an issue for, I'd say, 90% of people who bought that card - yet, a huge amount of overall buyers will return cards based on the media storm. And that's a disaster for Nvidia. Particularly for example. benchmarks using Advanced Warfare - a game that has neither the complexity nor requirement of innumerable more advanced games, yet for whatever reason, swallows up vram - all the more fuelling the panic about the GTX970.

Don't get me wrong, Nvidia are in the wrong here, but I think the reaction far outstrips the reality.

Having said that, I've always been of the belief that the 290 was the better option vs the 970 based simply on price; it's only reinforced by his latest hullabaloo.

I think considering the scandal over the 970, the high price of the 980, and the under-whelming price to performance ratio of the 960 at its current price, Nvidia are suddenly in world of trouble - AMD can scarcely believe their luck.

glynf · 01-02-2015 1:08pm

Lets hope Nvidia get a rude awakening form this whole episode. The pricing on their higher spec. cards over the last two generations has become stupidly expensive. If AMD start trouncing them in sales around the 290 vs. 970 mark, surely they will have to re-evaluate the price point vs. performance of their cards.

With any luck the 980ti will come out at the 550-600 mark, and not for Titan money:)

marco_polo · 01-02-2015 2:34pm

Hi guys don't want to cross post but I know there are a few network knowledeable folks around here that mighn't frequent the broadband forum.

Have a thread over there about a upc internet connection issue that has me stumped, if anyone has any idea I'd be glad to hear them over there

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057372511/1

Ta in advance

Luck100 · 01-02-2015 4:52pm

EoinHef wrote: »

Ive zero problem with AMD having a little joke at Nvidias expense. Nvidia would do exactly the same in there position. A few internet jokes are fine imo.
Id agree they may want to push the 290(x's),but tbh unless you want DX12,DSR,MFAA and some other benefits of owning an Nvidia card the 290(x) is really a better option for now imo. I went 970 as i have a 750W psu and i reckon i would have had to up that to 850-1000W for CF 290X's. As is i could probably run tri 970 sli on a 750W:)

Hows 970 sli going for you btw?

Id imagine,i know you have a 1440p monitor and have overclocked your cards,that you just set games to ultra @1440p and get great framerates. Depending on game SLI support obviously.

I see your on OC.net and have read your posts there regarding overclocking 970's in SLI. And from what i read there 970 SLI is very impressive at 1440p.

Yep, 970 SLI is a blast allright. Basically pump everything up to ultra and go have fun. Some slightly older games like Serious Sam 3 I was running with DSR at 5K resolution no problem. The controversy over the memory architecture misinformation is really overblown in my opinion.

Danger781 · 01-02-2015 7:32pm

EoinHef wrote: »

@Danger781
My advise to you is go get the cards and get them into your rig. Test a few games and see how you get on. Id bet my house after seeing the performance you will not want to send them back. Just my opinion,but dont write them off before you try them. As long a 4K is not an immediate concern i reckon you be fine for a long time @1440p anyway.

I think that's exactly what I'll do. Bought direct from Amazon anyway, so if there is any issue down the line I can return them. They're still in parcel motel, but I'll be collecting them in a few minutes and then installing them later this evening.

deejer · 02-02-2015 12:43pm

raspberry pi 2

Been thinking of picking one of these up for a while but never actually went about getting one. Read about this today and just picked one up there now.

Looks promising. Especially the Windows bit for me anyway.

Tinder Surprise · 02-02-2015 12:57pm

first quick performance tests look impressive

.youtube.com/watch?v=pZz8MW3DSqA

Serephucus · 02-02-2015 1:05pm

Looks like a very nice little computer. I have a first-gen unit that I tried running XBMC on, but it was a bit on the slow side navigating the UI (playback was fine). Might well pick one of these up.

Baked.noodle · 02-02-2015 1:10pm

Raptr security update: Please reset your password

Posted in Raptr and one other community
Maintaining the highest level of security around your Raptr account information is of the utmost importance to us, so we're very sorry to inform you that some Raptr user data may have been recently compromised in an attack similar to hacking activities that have targeted other high-profile sites and services such as Xbox Live and Sony's PlayStation Network.

User names, email addresses, password hashes, and some first and last names may have been accessed. This means that although the passwords are hashed, users with weak passwords are vulnerable to unauthorized access. It's important to note that our two-factor authentication system used for redeeming Raptr Reward Points ensures that even if your Raptr account was among those compromised, the points you've earned as a Raptr member are protected.

Although the potential risk to Raptr users is pretty minimal, we urge you to access any accounts on other sites and services in which you use the same login and password associated with your Raptr account and change the related password(s) immediately.

Reset your password at your earliest convenience in order to help safeguard your Raptr account. In doing so, we strongly advise you to use a password that is reasonably complex and not associated with another site/service account.

>>RESET YOUR PASSWORD HERE<<

We're extremely sorry about this situation and are committed to further improving account security going forward.

Sincerely,

Dennis Fong
Founder & CEO, Raptr

Don't use it myself.

pleasant Co. · 02-02-2015 2:34pm

deejer wrote: »

raspberry pi 2

Been thinking of picking one of these up for a while but never actually went about getting one. Read about this today and just picked one up there now.

Looks promising. Especially the Windows bit for me anyway.

Yeah, I'd quite like to pick up something like this for my nefarious activities (watching streams of tennis events not broadcast over here, or on cable) but flash is such a killer, wonder how it'd do on the Rpi2?

Gbear · 02-02-2015 6:00pm

I just spotted on the LifeProTips reddit that you can control click tabs in Chrome to move groups of tabs around instead of having to rearrange them one at a time.

This changes everything.

Danger781 · 02-02-2015 10:07pm

How do I enable SLI?

With Crossfire it was enable / disable, simple as.

Danger781 · 02-02-2015 10:14pm

I went with Maxmise 3D performance, assume that was correct

glynf · 02-02-2015 10:19pm

That's the one, congrats on the new cards. are you running surround?

Danger781 · 02-02-2015 10:31pm

glynf wrote: »

That's the one, congrats on the new cards. are you running surround?

Cheers

And no, I use my main 1440p monitor for browsing, gaming, etc.

Then I have a 32" 1080p TV to my right so I can sit on the couch for watching series / movies

TerrorFirmer · 02-02-2015 11:19pm

Just found a 6870 X2 for sale online.

Never knew such a card existed! Not even based on any AMD reference design which is very unusual.

So that's what I learned today...

deejer · 03-02-2015 9:35pm

Sat down this evening and looked at everything thats online in the house. There are 18 devices connected to my home network. 9 wired and 9 wireless. Now some are used more than others and a couple of them are probably not used much at all but i didn't realise it was that many.

Its probably higher that average (for those outside the B&U forum) but it shows how much I value my internet connect I think (All 3Mb of it)

Calibos · 03-02-2015 11:43pm

A tear ran down my cheek after reading that. You poor thing!!

3mbit ?? Jaysus!!

Currently connected to my Asus Router:

3x Desktops
2x Laptops
7x Smartphones
6x XBMC media player HTPC's
2x Tablets
2x NAS devices

Switching from 120mbit to 240mbit (UPC) in the next day or two.

Serephucus · 03-02-2015 11:50pm

Yeah, all that on 3Mb is kind of nuts. I don't think I could manage that without going nuts. :P

Mine:
2x desktops (wired, wireless)
1x server (wired)
1x phone signal over ethernet yoke (wired)
4x laptops
4x smartphones
1x tablet
1x chromecast

Off Topic Thread V2.0

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