Hardware Discussion Thread

N64

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57551433-75/windows-8-sales-well-below-projections-report-claims/

Well hopefully they will learn from their mistakes and make Windows 9 well... not suck as much as 8!

ShadowHearth

N64 wrote: »

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57551433-75/windows-8-sales-well-below-projections-report-claims/

Well hopefully they will learn from their mistakes and make Windows 9 well... not suck as much as 8!

the amount of ****....

retailers did not rolled over to windows 8 yet! - they fecking wont. A lot of offices and retailers are using windows XP as their software is written for it and it is a stable, simple, low resources OS.
4 million copies sold!!! - the only reason they sold a few copies, because they were pushing this 15eu upgrade deal and a few sheep jumped the ship. the other reason was that laptops were preinstalled with win8 and consumer did not had choice on which windows to go for.

Microsoft, at least publicly, doesn't seem to agree with these assessments. CEO Steve Ballmer, speaking at the Churchill Club in Santa Clara, Calif., this week, said Windows is off to a spectacular start.
Oh, you! you make me smile!

Fluffy88

I'd like to challenge those who hate Windows 8 ....

win8.png

Considering the huge performance improvements Microsoft made to Windows 8 if you can use it almost exactly as you use Windows 7 why wouldn't you use it?
I wouldn't go out and buy it myself, but if I got it with a new laptop I wouldn't go buying a Windows 7 licence when you can install Start8 and never have to look at that crappy Metro UI.

EDIT: I forgot to mention there is a something like 10% FPS increase in games ...

ShadowHearth

Fluffy88 wrote: »

I'd like to challenge those who hate Windows 8 ....

win8.png

Considering the huge performance improvements Microsoft made to Windows 8 if you can use it almost exactly as you use Windows 7 why wouldn't you use it?
I wouldn't go out and buy it myself, but if I got it with a new laptop I wouldn't go buying a Windows 7 licence when you can install Start8 and never have to look at that crappy Metro UI.

EDIT: I forgot to mention there is a something like 10% FPS increase in games ...

why fix something that is not broken? Performance gains my hole.

Little thing that it does not sell as good as they expected already says a lot. People just do not switch. they comfortable where they are.
I still dont understand performance gains they are talking about. what performance? are they like apple now where they say that new iphone 5 opens safari 1.2X times faster then 4s?

The only reason i can see how MS will push everyone out of windows 7 is cut the support. directx 11.1 is an example of it.

Dont understand me wrong. W8 works AMAZING for tablets and phones. in fact i want to get myself lumia 920 or HTC 8x or 8s for myself this year. Windows 8 is not an PC OS.

Serephucus

I'd be in agreement with Shadow on this one. You get a few nice features (the task manager being a prime example) but you have to tweak quite a few things to even get it back up to the same level as Win7.

54kroc

I put Windows 8 on my two machines and tbh until I read Fluffy88 post earlier I was getting ready to reinstall Windows 7, needless to say Start8 makes a difference.
The only thing I'm missing is the Asus fan control in the AI Suite which doesn't seem to work in Windows 8.

Fluffy88

Oh I agree this whole Metro thing is completely useless for a PC but great on a tablet.

But with Start8 you get back a Windows 7 style desktop where you don't ever see Metro. And there is big performance gains, boot up takes around 10 seconds and I have tested to see if there is an increase in FPS in games and I have seen FPS go from around 30 min to a 35 min and about a 5 FPS increase in avg in Orcs Must Die!
So there definitely is a lot of optimisations in the OS compared to 7.

Like I said before, I'm not going to spend even €15 to upgrade my own laptop to 8, but if I was to buy a new laptop that came with 8 I would just install Start8 and use it since there isn't a huge difference.
I'm not trying to defend Microsofts decision to ignore PC users and force them to use some crap tablet OS but some people are over reacting a little too much imo.

ShadowHearth

i would put that 5fps extra because of a fresh install of windows, then windows 8 optimisation.

anyway, there is nothing new 2 camps will say here today.

i wont buy or use windows 8, but if someone is using, then good luck to them.

glynf

How does the desktop look with the mod for a traditional start menu Fluffy? Do you still get Aero, translucent windows, peek and all that stuff?

Fluffy88

Let me boot back into 8 and I'll check :P
As I said, I'm not using it as my main OS I still hate it a little, just it's not as bad as some people make out to be.

Serephucus

AFAIK, it's flat. No Aero. You still get Peak I think though.

glynf

Thanks lads, think I will give it a go with the HTPC build I'm planning on next, roll on January and my feckin Vat number.

Fluffy88

I think Aero has been binned, no translucent windows at all. Apart from the Metro UI probably the biggest problem I have is the loss of Aero, this new "No Chrome" window system doesn't have the same finish as Aero has. As far as I can see they have removed the heavy graphical features to help low power mobile systems.

We still get most of the other stuff from 7 though, peek is there and all other shortcuts and desktop feature are there, except Gadgets but who used those? :P

win8-aero.jpg
win8-switch.png

In the second screen shot there is something else I just noticed, there is no more quick info bar along the bottom of windows explorer to show some info about the selected file, which to me seems like a very stupid thing to remove.

Serephucus

Not going to Win8 so! Not sure how I'd manage without my network traffic and CPU usage gadgets.

N64

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Start-Menu-Windows-8-Steven-Sinofsky-Steve-Ballmer-Stardock,19161.html

heres hoping

RUCKING FETARD

Aero Isn’t Gone in Windows 8: 6 Aero Features You Can Still Use

Dubba

Probably not telling you guys something you don't already know, but anyway here you go:

You can use the free app on http://rainmeter.net/cms/ to customize your desktop, i.e gadgets. Used it myself for a bit but prefer a clean desktop so I don't use it anymore.

Start 8 cost €4 for a Win 7 style Start function and when purchased can be used across multiple machines... I have it on my desktop and laptop, for just for the initial price.

I think Win 8 is great for a casual user, its boots faster - my newish, non ssd laptop boots in 20sec now as opposed to 1min plus with Win 7. My desktop boots twice as slow for some reason, probably because it 2yrs old.
Also I find things just work that little bit quicker with Win 8... opening Chrome, etc. It runs all my apps no problem at all but supposedly people run into issues with drivers so I'm hesitant to put it onto my works computer for fear of printer / network issues that I might have trouble fixing.

Eboggles

Thought that I should throw this up here...

Club 3D Announces Radeon HD7870 Jokercard.

At first I thought it was just another mediocre Club3D card, but then I saw the shader count: It has 1536 stream processors (vs 1280 for original ghz 7870).

Article:

Club 3D unveils today its brand new Radeon HD 7870 jokerCard graphic card, the new premium graphic card of the acclaimed Club 3D Radeon HD 7870 Poker Series. The Club 3D Radeon HD 7870 jokerCard graphic card features the highly awarded CoolStream high performance cooling design, a Limited Edition of the Radeon HD 7870 GPU powered by 1536 Stream Processors and the memory running at an amazing clock speed of 6000 MHz. Prepare to be blown away by the incredible speed of the Radeon HD 7870 jokerCard in the hottest DirectX 11 and DirectX 11.1 games and Microsoft Windows 8 WDDM 1.2. Experience amazing graphics with Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA 2.0) and Adaptive Anti-Aliasing technologies that help smooth out jagged edges without compromising performance.

The Club 3D Radeon HD 7870 jokerCard delivers exceptional performance at 15% faster compared to the standard GeForce GTX 660 and delivers astonishing performance at an incredible value. Combine two Club 3D Radeon HD 7870 jokerCard graphic cards to create a Dual CrossFire configuration and take your gaming performance to extreme levels.

Featuring a non-reference design, the high performance heatpipes keep the GPU temperatures low when running in idle and under load. The included 92mm fan is designed to operate under extreme load conditions.

FEATURES

• Highly awarded CoolStream cooler

• Reliability, 100% tested, verified and RoHS compliant

• UEFI and Windows 8 compliant

• Built for powerful entertainment and productivity

Looks like this is the fabled HD7890 that was supposed to be released soon. The only reason I'm actually giving this a lot of attention is because it's basically the same price as a regular HD7870 on HWVS, at €235. That said the one on hardwareversand looks a bit different, but I'd put that down to them being lazy.

Can't wait for reviews, if this overclocks well it'll be great!

RUCKING FETARD

Dubba wrote: »

Probably not telling you guys something you don't already know, but anyway here you go:

You can use the free app on http://rainmeter.net/cms/ to customize your desktop, i.e gadgets. Used it myself for a bit but prefer a clean desktop so I don't use it anymore.

Any try the 4th one on this list?

I really should just try it myself...

Tea_Bag

Club 3D is starting to bring out some decent cards at competitive prices. The new 7950 royalking is a beast of an overclocker.

slight bump in vcore and people are getting 1200mhz+ and 1600 on the memory. going by Toms review, its faster than a highly OC'd 680.

on HWVS its €290, which is pretty competitive cause they start at €280 for the cheap XFX model.

ShadowHearth

Tea_Bag wrote: »

Club 3D is starting to bring out some decent cards at competitive prices. The new 7950 royalking is a beast of an overclocker.

slight bump in vcore and people are getting 1200mhz+ and 1600 on the memory. going by Toms review, its faster than a highly OC'd 680.

on HWVS its €290, which is pretty competitive cause they start at €280 for the cheap XFX model.

yeah, i sow that review. madness how good that card is! 2xthose bad boys and you got yourself a beast! it would only be 600eu aka 1xgtx680!

Monotype

RUCKING FETARD wrote: »

Any try the 4th one on this list?

I really should just try it myself...

That was available to Linux over half a decade ago. I tried it myself at the time a fair bit. More just for fun really than productive. It could be handy if you need extra desktop space and just have an average size screen. Still no easier than just switching to another program, but you get to keep the layout of the windows.

RUCKING FETARD

Monotype wrote: »

That was available to Linux over half a decade ago. I tried it myself at the time a fair bit. More just for fun really than productive. It could be handy if you need extra desktop space and just have an average size screen. Still no easier than just switching to another program, but you get to keep the layout of the windows.

What age did you say you were again?:P

Serephucus

There's also a very similar application that I've used a couple of times (I think the first was at least two or three years ago) called Deskspace. A lot less gimmicky looking that that one, but did much the same thing.

PseudoFamous

Dunno the name of it, but Microsoft had one of those programs too, it was freeware for XP, must have been 2005 I'd used it, but it had been out a few years longer.

Monotype

RUCKING FETARD wrote: »

What age did you say you were again?:P

Sure when you think about it, my join date is half a decade ago... although I'm pretty sure I had one circa 2003 or 2004, but I couldn't remember even what email address I used.

Burgo

Monotype wrote: »

Sure when you think about it, my join date is half a decade ago... although I'm pretty sure I had one circa 2003 or 2004, but I couldn't remember even what email address I used.

Same here, had an old account with a really old email address that got lost in time.

I remember installing some distro years ago that had beryl i think on it, was amazed by it, so slick looking compared to xp, and jesus beryl hasnt been around for a long time.

Since we are talking about age, someone on another forum I frequent pointed out a shocking revelation; that I started playing cs when I was twelve I'm twenty four now, I've been playing the same damn game for half my life

JackieChan

Guys,
for 1080p gaming is it worth spending 20 quid+ for the 2GB 7850 over the 1GB.
Most of what I've seen it doesn't make a huge difference.
Also does it make much difference what brand? I was tempted to go for the Sapphire due to the dual fan but again is it worth spending the extra few quid on this over the HIS model for instance?

Deano12345

JackieChan wrote: »

Guys,
for 1080p gaming is it worth spending 20 quid+ for the 2GB 7850 over the 1GB.
Most of what I've seen it doesn't make a huge difference.
Also does it make much difference what brand? I was tempted to go for the Sapphire due to the dual fan but again is it worth spending the extra few quid on this over the HIS model for instance?

For 20/30 quid, yeah the extra gig of VRAM is worth it, like it really is becoming the standard for cards nowadays. Sapphires coolers are pretty good too (and this is coming from someone who has a normal single fan non-ref Sapphire card). Cooler cards will last longer and overclock better, so if the difference was like 40 quid between a reference 1GB or a dual fan 2GB card, it would still be worth it

JackieChan

thanks Deano, pretty much what I was thinking.
It's just that I read a review of the MSI 1GB 7850 that showed demos where the extra VRAM didn't add much of a performance improvement(with the exception of Skyrim +texture pack) but then I think how long I've gotten out of my 1GB 4870 which certainly wouldn't have been the case with the 512MB version.