Hardware Discussion Thread

sink

Ryan451 wrote: »

Are they the 2GB versions?

Yes, with reference coolers and reference clock speeds. They will look like this.



and have core clock of 800 Mhz and memory clock of 1250 Mhz.

Tea_Bag

i linked to this earlyier, but this Sapphire HD 6950 2GB is apparently the one to go for.

Ryan451

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-msi-hd-6950-twin-frozr-iii-power-edition-pci-e-21-%28x16%29-5000mhz-gddr5-gpu-800mhz-1408cores

Is this a reference 1 card?

Tea_Bag

Ryan451 wrote: »

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-msi-hd-6950-twin-frozr-iii-power-edition-pci-e-21-%28x16%29-5000mhz-gddr5-gpu-800mhz-1408cores

Is this a reference 1 card?

no. take a look at the cards we pointed out, it has to be reference (ie reference PCboard, reference cooler etc)

it has to physically look like them, be 2gb, and stock clocks 800mhz etc.

Ryan451

Tea_Bag wrote: »

no. take a look at the cards we pointed out, it has to be reference (ie reference PCboard, reference cooler etc)

it has to physically look like them, be 2gb, and stock clocks 800mhz etc.

Thanks. I thought they just may have replaced the big square ugly thing with that awesome looking Twin Frozr III Cooler :P

Also on alot of the cards im looking at have 5000 Mhz memorry clock, and it should be 1250?

sink

Ryan451 wrote: »

Also on alot of the cards im looking at have 5000 Mhz memorry clock, and it should be 1250?

That's because they're using the effective data transfer rate and not the actual clock speed. GDDR5 memory use quad data rate as opposed to double data rate in typical DDR memory, so you would multiply the base clock by four to get the actual data transfer rate.

Tea_Bag

Lads ive gone and bought the Phenom X4 955 from the BA thread on amazon, and im wondering what i can get on adverts for my current CPU? any ball park figures?

its an Athlon II X3 450 2.9ghz Rana with a full and stable unlock to Phenom II X4 B35 (with a 6mb L3 cache) it'll be posted with its box and unused CPU heatsink.

cherryghost

Tea_Bag wrote: »

Lads ive gone and bought the Phenom X4 955 from the BA thread on amazon, and im wondering what i can get on adverts for my current CPU? any ball park figures?

its an Athlon II X3 450 2.9ghz Rana with a full and stable unlock to Phenom II X4 B35 (with a 6mb L3 cache) it'll be posted with its box and unused CPU heatsink.

Probably around the same price you just paid on the 955 :pac::pac::pac:

Tea_Bag

cherryghost wrote: »

Probably around the same price you just paid on the 955 :pac::pac::pac:

Ha it would be great to get a good return on my investement. but seriously, €55-€60? whats the lowest you'd accept?

cherryghost

45-50 minimum. Would defo not go any lower than that. X2's still fetch up to that price on some models still

deejer

480GB OCZ Vertex 3 SATA 6Gb/s 2.5-inch

I guess one in stock is plenty for the moment.

Scorpion venom

deejer wrote: »

480GB OCZ Vertex 3 SATA 6Gb/s 2.5-inch

I guess one in stock is plenty for the moment.

Lol Id say your right

Solitaire

On the other hand, Z68 could cause a run on low-capacity SLC drives... MLC isn't too good for SSD caching due to the low write speeds. A wee ~20GB SLC drive on the other hand can survive constant super-fast writes...

It really is a feature for gamers, as other users don't get much of the benefit and can just stick the OS on a fast 40-80GB MLC SSD. For gamers with a big catalogue that won't fit on even a largish SSD though, SSD caching could come in very handy indeed... you no longer need to install the games on the SSD to gain much of the load time benefits...

Tea_Bag

Introducing.... The Nvidia GTX 560...

This is basically a slightly crippled GTX 560Ti and is equivalent to a GF114 class GTX 460 1Gb but with a slightly lower (10W) powerdraw. Both cards have the same 336 SPs, 7 SMs, 32 ROPs, 512KB of L2 cache, and 1GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit memory bus.

performance comparison will just be down to clock speed.

honestly, @ a price difference of less than €15 difference between the baseline GTX560 and a Gygabyte custom cooled 560Ti, i dont see why anyone would buy this, but there you go.



and a little off topic, ive OC'd my GTX460 from 675mhz to 850mhz without any voltage increases and a drop in temp of 2 degrees with no fan speed modification!! epic awesome. Mafia 2 benchmarks (everything maxed) brings up my min fps up 3 and average up 7 or so. good stuff.

Monotype

At least it doesn't enter "SE" level of crapiness.
It's good for nVidia when someone searches for 560 and 6950 and sees a 560 a fair bit lower.

marco_polo

Tea_Bag wrote: »

Introducing.... The Nvidia GTX 560...

This is basically a slightly crippled GTX 560Ti and is equivalent to a GF114 class GTX 460 1Gb but with a slightly lower (10W) powerdraw. Both cards have the same 336 SPs, 7 SMs, 32 ROPs, 512KB of L2 cache, and 1GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit memory bus.

performance comparison will just be down to clock speed.

honestly, @ a price difference of less than €15 difference between the baseline GTX560 and a Gygabyte custom cooled 560Ti, i dont see why anyone would buy this, but there you go.

and a little off topic, ive OC'd my GTX460 from 675mhz to 850mhz without any voltage increases and a drop in temp of 2 degrees with no fan speed modification!! epic awesome. Mafia 2 benchmarks (everything maxed) brings up my min fps up 3 and average up 7 or so. good stuff.

Seems like another one of those Nvidia products where the target market is those who won't know the difference TBH.

deejer

took me a minute to find this thread

I have a 4870x2 at the moment and it is doing the job fine. Might sound silly but I actually just dont like the look of it in my case (I recently bought a windowed side panel for my FT02) and I am looking to change/upgrade. So two questions

1. How much can I expect to get for my 4870x2 and
2. What would you recommend as a replacement without spending too much more than what I am going to get for the 4870x2.

Performance wise I don't need too much more but I guess when you are going about changing it is best a move a few steps up the ladder to keep things up to date. Anyway appreciate all assistance!

Stainless_Steel

deejer wrote: »

took me a minute to find this thread

I have a 4870x2 at the moment and it is doing the job fine. Might sound silly but I actually just dont like the look of it in my case (I recently bought a windowed side panel for my FT02) and I am looking to change/upgrade. So two questions

1. How much can I expect to get for my 4870x2 and
2. What would you recommend as a replacement without spending too much more than what I am going to get for the 4870x2.

Performance wise I don't need too much more but I guess when you are going about changing it is best a move a few steps up the ladder to keep things up to date. Anyway appreciate all assistance!

5850 x 2 or 6850 x 2 ???

Ryan451

Hi guys. I just installed a new Hard rive and it will not show up under Hard Drives in My Computer. When I enter the Devices & Printers it shows up as a device. Any tips on what I can do or what the problem is?

marco_polo

Ryan451 wrote: »

Hi guys. I just installed a new Hard rive and it will not show up under Hard Drives in My Computer. When I enter the Devices & Printers it shows up as a device. Any tips on what I can do or what the problem is?

Does it show up under Disk Manager?, it most likely just needs a Drive Letter assigned (and perhaps a format as well which can also be done from Disk Manager).

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Change-add-or-remove-a-drive-letter

Ryan451

Thanks Marco-polo (and Trevor 451). Worked a charm!

Mister Man

deejer wrote: »

took me a minute to find this thread

I have a 4870x2 at the moment and it is doing the job fine. Might sound silly but I actually just dont like the look of it in my case (I recently bought a windowed side panel for my FT02) and I am looking to change/upgrade. So two questions

1. How much can I expect to get for my 4870x2 and
2. What would you recommend as a replacement without spending too much more than what I am going to get for the 4870x2.

Performance wise I don't need too much more but I guess when you are going about changing it is best a move a few steps up the ladder to keep things up to date. Anyway appreciate all assistance!

On adverts they seem to be going for 100E. Give or take, but really, not much point in getting rid of the GPU just because you don't like the look of it.
What would be your budget for a new card?

deejer

ya that is probably my card you see on adverts! there was a couple of them sold in the last few months for around 120-130 euro but there is no interest in mine. Guess I might hold onto it but not sure if I will use it again.

Its also not just the look. I have a fairly small room and when this card starts throwing out heat you know all about it! if we get this great summer they are talking about I am going to be under pressure.

I dont want to spend anymore than 200 - and on a hd 22" monitor I imagine that would be plenty dont you think?

farna_boy

AMD Press Release

The interesting parts:

AMD today launched its 9-series chipset line-up today, helping PC builders to develop next generation high performance desktop platforms. The company also unveiled its 2011 HD Tablet Platform, based on the AMD Z-Series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), enabling vivid media display and content creation capabilities for the fast-growing market of Microsoft Windows-based tablets. These new AMD products are designed to enable more immersive digital experiences for the PC and tablet markets.

...AMD’s 9-series chipset provides the foundation for unlocking the highest-octane AMD desktop experience. The chipset is a key component of AMD’s next generation “Scorpius” desktop platform, which will also feature the 8-core “Zambezi” processor and AMD Radeon™ HD6000 series discrete graphics cards for immersive HD entertainment and gaming experiences, extreme multitasking, tweaking, and overclocking...

VISION Technology aligns closely to the evolving PC purchasing process by minimizing the use of technical jargon and specifications to help consumers choose the best PC for their needs. To ensure customer clarity on offerings when choosing the right PC, AMD has moved to a new numbered tier system. Notebooks and desktops powered by the latest AMD Fusion APUs align with the following experiences:

VISION A8 Series PCs will enable Brilliant HD Performance, for consumers who want extreme multi-tasking, online gaming and video editing.
VISION A6 Series PCs will enable Brilliant HD Entertainment, great for advanced multi-tasking, photo editing and HD video playback.
VISION A4 Series PCs will enable Brilliant HD Every day, perfect for Web browsing, basic multi-tasking and staying in touch with family and friends.
VISION E2 Series PCs will enable Smart HD with smooth 1080p HD video playback with the AMD Video Accelerator.
AMD HD Internet Series will enable vivid, on-the-go computing experiences on mobile devices like ultrathins and netbooks.

So basically, the top of the line processors are going to be "8 core" and these cpus are the ones that are targeted for gaming and overclocking. Looking forward to some benchmarks now. I'm not sure that there will be a massive difference (read any) between these processors and Sandybridge, but it would be nice if some competition was restored.
If these CPUs do compare favourably to Sandybridge, I may be tempted to upgrade, given the shelf life of AMD processors.

Solitaire

I managed to look through a dozen pages of utter sh!te without seeing a single number, metric or relative comparison :mad:

When the hell did Dell buy out AMD? :pac:

Not a mention of Fusion or Bulldozer either. Yawn.

Unregistered.

Solitaire wrote: »

Not a mention of Fusion or Bulldozer either. Yawn.

Rumors of a delay until September.

cherryghost

Unregistered. wrote: »

Rumors of a delay until September.

I read around somewhere that there's TDP issues :pac::pac:

deejer

cherryghost wrote: »

I read around somewhere that there's TDP issues :pac::pac:

Yep. Typical alright.

http://www.fudzilla.com/processors/item/22942-amd-officially-confirms-bulldozer-delay

Solitaire

I heard mutterings from their board partners on Tom suggesting the mux/demux system is way behind performance-wise too, and AMD will need one more full stepping to create saleable parts. Not as bad as Fermi but not plain sailing either.

Then again there are rumours that AMD had almost counted on the extra stepping, as all their fab partners are tied up with ongoing Ontario/Zacate and the newly released Llano orders as well as Interlagos preorders. They don't even have the capacity to make Zambezi any more than a paper launch even if it was ready to go into full production

kaisersose77

can anyone tell me if the performance of intel quicksync depends on how powerful the sandybridge processor you have? or does the quicksync feature works at the same speed on all sandybridge processors?