Tf Computer Nerds (Gamers, Overclockers, Server-Ists Etc)

[forteh]

Use the gpu hierarchy chart to work out if it's an upgrade or not. Find your current card and generally if your intended upgrade is more than two bands above then it's worth doing.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32899-7.html

Edited September 17, 2015 by forteh

[Muel]

Use the gpu hierarchy chart to work out if it's an upgrade or not. Find your current card and generally if your intended upgrade is more than two bands above then it's worth doing.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32899-7.html

If you're a hardcore gamer, sure. I went up 7 bands with my last upgrade and from a single card to SLI.

Unless your gaming experience is hampered I always say it's best to stick with what you've got and save.

[JT!]

Use the gpu hierarchy chart to work out if it's an upgrade or not. Find your current card and generally if your intended upgrade is more than two bands above then it's worth doing.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32899-7.html

So I'd be going BACK 4 bands if I were to buy this?

[forteh]

Nope, you'd be going forwards 4 bands up to the same band as the gtx 960. Basically it should piss all over your gtx650ti for gaming

If you only use your pc for older games then it's not really that much of an upgrade however it will future proof your gpu for a while yet. For reference my bog standard gtx660 runs any modern games I've tried maxed out without any problems. Obviously if you increase resolution or use multiple monitors you need more gpu power, I only run single monitor so the 660 does me nicely (it's 2 bands above your 650ti).

[JD™]

Might as well join in while the conversation is about GPUs. I've got an office PC that's going spare at the moment so I thought I'd take it home and use it for some games until I need it in the office again. I've got two monitors at home, so I'd like a card that can run something like Project Cars/iRacing across two screens at decent settings. Recommendations? Don't want to spend much, as I'm certainly not going to get much time to actually use it!

[forteh]

Do you really want to run the game over two monitors and end up with the bezel gap slap bang in the middle of your vision? System requirements that I've pulled up would indicate that it will run fine on a 600 series gpu, have a look on ebay for a gtx660/gtx660ti/gtx670 or above and you should pick something up for around 50-80 quid with a little luck.

edit: if it's an office machine does it have enough cpu/ram oomph to run the game and likewise is the psu man enough to drive a modern gpu?

Edited September 17, 2015 by forteh

[JT!]

Nope, you'd be going forwards 4 bands up to the same band as the gtx 960. Basically it should piss all over your gtx650ti for gaming

If you only use your pc for older games then it's not really that much of an upgrade however it will future proof your gpu for a while yet. For reference my bog standard gtx660 runs any modern games I've tried maxed out without any problems. Obviously if you increase resolution or use multiple monitors you need more gpu power, I only run single monitor so the 660 does me nicely (it's 2 bands above your 650ti).

So my 650ti is in the 10th band right?

So, I'm looking for the 7950 in the second column? ... because it's a Radeon. The only 7950 I see is in the 6th row down.

Edit: I see where I'm going wrong. Got it upside down haha.

Maybe I will take it. Just bought GTA5 so wouldn't hurt for that.

[JD™]

Do you really want to run the game over two monitors and end up with the bezel gap slap bang in the middle of your vision? System requirements that I've pulled up would indicate that it will run fine on a 600 series gpu, have a look on ebay for a gtx660/gtx660ti/gtx670 or above and you should pick something up for around 50-80 quid with a little luck.

edit: if it's an office machine does it have enough cpu/ram oomph to run the game and likewise is the psu man enough to drive a modern gpu?

Fair point, well made. I guess in that case I should entertain the idea of actually having the capacity for 3 monitors. Ultimately, when I do play the game I want it to be as immersive as possible. I have screens floating about that I can use as well, so that should be no problem. Does that mean two cards though?

Definitely enough oomph elsewhere I'd imagine. I haven't turned it on in a while but it was a dedicated machine for image and video editing so RAM is definitely right up there. I never had complaints about it being slow from those who used it, but I guess we'll soon find out. I could hook it up to something if needed, but I'll probably just wait until I get it home...

[forteh]

So my 650ti is in the 10th band right?

So, I'm looking for the 7950 in the second column? ... because it's a Radeon. The only 7950 I see is in the 6th row down.

Edit: I see where I'm going wrong. Got it upside down haha.

Maybe I will take it. Just bought GTA5 so wouldn't hurt for that.

If you've bought gta5 then I would definitely grab it for 40 quid!

Fair point, well made. I guess in that case I should entertain the idea of actually having the capacity for 3 monitors. Ultimately, when I do play the game I want it to be as immersive as possible. I have screens floating about that I can use as well, so that should be no problem. Does that mean two cards though?

Definitely enough oomph elsewhere I'd imagine. I haven't turned it on in a while but it was a dedicated machine for image and video editing so RAM is definitely right up there. I never had complaints about it being slow from those who used it, but I guess we'll soon find out. I could hook it up to something if needed, but I'll probably just wait until I get it home...

Three monitors would be a far better experience but then you either need a far more powerful single card solution or the option to run SLI/crossfire with two cards. Muel would be able to give far more insight into this as he has a multiple monitor sli setup.

Personally I would go with a single monitor and head tracking for a driving sim on a budget given that you potentially don't have the hardware overheads to run SLI or power hungry single cards.

Grab a ps3 eye camera for a fiver from amazon, a 3 point usb IR tracking clip from ebay for about 15 quid and use opentrack to drive the whole lot. Headtracking = absolute f**king win for simulations

edit: or screw the monitors and buy an occulus rift if Hayley won't divorce you

Edited September 17, 2015 by forteh

[JD™]

Grab a ps3 eye camera for a fiver from amazon, a 3 point usb IR tracking clip from ebay for about 15 quid and use opentrack to drive the whole lot. Headtracking = absolute f**king win for simulations

This thought had never even entered my mind. Is it seriously that simple?

[forteh]

Yup, I made my own IR usb clip but you can buy them from ebay for not a lot! The ps3 eye is a superb webcam, all you need to do is put a visible light filter over the lens, I use a small section of floppy disk cut out. Attach the clip to your headset, plug it into a spare usb port, configure opentrack (which admittedly can take a little while to sort out till you get your head around it or you can have my profile which works nicely) and away you go

If you don't want to use an IR clip (its a bit of a ballache if you don't use a headset) then you can use a paper marker tracker. Basically it's a passive tracker that follows a printed square that is attached to your head in some manner (hat or clipped to glasses?). IR led clip is the best solution though and when set up gives very accurate, super smooth 6dof movement.

[JD™]

I like this idea. Must remember to stick an order in...

[forteh]

If you go down the ps3 eye route then hit me up for the drivers, they're not windows native and now a paid download (it's only a couple of quid) but I'll send them over

[JD™]

Just ordered, although the clip is coming from HK so it'll be a little while until I get it set up.

[forteh]

You might be suprised, I've had stuff from honk kong/china faster than from london!

Try this link for the drivers...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ha5m78905n1cwnw/CL-Eye-Driver-5.3.0.0341.exe?dl=0

I think the file might be on dropboxes blacklist, if it doesn't work then ping me an email address and I'll send it over.

edit: Nope, it doesn't work

Edited September 17, 2015 by forteh

[Luke Rainbird]

*Puts hand up*

Never looked into head tracking, but since you make it sound so easy and awesome may have to get involved. Haven't even looked into it - how does it work in game etc? You turn your head, it moves the field of view/similar?

Edit; First link on Google. Moves the view around a touch when looking through corners from what I can make out? Seems useful!

[forteh]

Open track gives you 6dof (degrees of freedom) so yaw, pitch, roll and then sliding translation in x/y/z axis. You can bind any of them to what you want in game. The amount your view turns in game depends on what acid curves you set up.

In elite I only use yaw and pitch. In arma3 I use yaw and pitch as normal, z translation (leaning forward) to zoom view and x translation (leaning sideways) to lean/peak round corners. In dcs a10c I use full all 6 dofs apart from roll as I did it has limited application in the cockpit.

Open track gives you 6dof (degrees of freedom) so yaw, pitch, roll and then sliding translation in x/y/z axis. You can bind any of them to what you want in game. The amount your view turns in game depends on what acid curves you set up.

In elite I only use yaw and pitch. In arma3 I use yaw and pitch as normal, z translation (leaning forward) to zoom view and x translation (leaning sideways) to lean/peak round corners. In dcs a10c I use full all 6 dofs apart from roll as I did it has limited application in the cockpit.

Open track gives you 6dof (degrees of freedom) so yaw, pitch, roll and then sliding translation in x/y/z axis. You can bind any of them to what you want in game. The amount your view turns in game depends on what acid curves you set up.

In elite I only use yaw and pitch. In arma3 I use yaw and pitch as normal, z translation (leaning forward) to zoom view and x translation (leaning sideways) to lean/peak round corners. In dcs a10c I use full all 6 dofs apart from roll as I did it has limited application in the cockpit.

Open track gives you 6dof (degrees of freedom) so yaw, pitch, roll and then sliding translation in x/y/z axis. You can bind any of them to what you want in game. The amount your view turns in game depends on what acid curves you set up.

In elite I only use yaw and pitch. In arma3 I use yaw and pitch as normal, z translation (leaning forward) to zoom view and x translation (leaning sideways) to lean/peak round corners. In dcs a10c I use full all 6 dofs apart from roll as I did it has limited application in the cockpit.

Open track gives you 6dof (degrees of freedom) so yaw, pitch, roll and then sliding translation in x/y/z axis. You can bind any of them to what you want in game. The amount your view turns in game depends on what acid curves you set up.

In elite I only use yaw and pitch. In arma3 I use yaw and pitch as normal, z translation (leaning forward) to zoom view and x translation (leaning sideways) to lean/peak round corners. In dcs a10c I use full all 6 dofs apart from roll as I did it has limited application in the cockpit.

[Luke Rainbird]

Alright chill out, I got you the first time.

[forteh]

Think I need to try a different browser on my phone!

Think I need to try a different browser on my phone!

[forteh]

This is a test with Firefox mobile instead of dolphin

Edit: yup that seems to work ok

Edited September 17, 2015 by forteh

[Greetings]

I've connected two redundant drives that started to pack up many years ago. They appear in good health according to some software I downloaded but they did report errors in the past and Windows is doing it now. Should I just ignore the Windows message?

 

 

[JD™]

Turns out I made a bit of a boob and brought the wrong spare PC home. This was one that just used to track rankings of websites, and as such it's poverty spec. It's here now though, so I thought I'd ask the best route I should take. Currently it is:

AMD A4-3300 APU 2.5ghz
Integrated Radeon HD Graphics
16gb ram (I haven't opened the case but I'm pretty sure it's DDR3)

In my eBay basket at the moment is an AMD A10-6800k and a GTX660. Are either of those going to be rubbish choices? I don't really want to be spending the £150 they're going to come to anyway, so I'd prefer no more pricey options. If there's a reason I shouldn't get those together though I want to know obviously. Thanks in advance PC guys.

[Muel]

Turns out I made a bit of a boob and brought the wrong spare PC home. This was one that just used to track rankings of websites, and as such it's poverty spec. It's here now though, so I thought I'd ask the best route I should take. Currently it is:

AMD A4-3300 APU 2.5ghz
Integrated Radeon HD Graphics
16gb ram (I haven't opened the case but I'm pretty sure it's DDR3)

In my eBay basket at the moment is an AMD A10-6800k and a GTX660. Are either of those going to be rubbish choices? I don't really want to be spending the £150 they're going to come to anyway, so I'd prefer no more pricey options. If there's a reason I shouldn't get those together though I want to know obviously. Thanks in advance PC guys.

My colleague who sits next to me has an A10-6800k and it's pretty dire. Shockingly slow for CPU clock speed intensive stuff and the multi-tasking capabilities is pretty crap. Struggles to run more than 1 VM at once for testing in, whereas my i5-3450 handles 3 happily.

Given the board you've got though I'd say that's a reasonable way of doing a £150 upgrade for general home use and a bit of light gaming (if that's what it's for?).

Does it have an SSD? Can get 128gb ones for £40 now so would be silly not to IMO. Best upgrade you'll ever do.

[Muel]

I've connected two redundant drives that started to pack up many years ago. They appear in good health according to some software I downloaded but they did report errors in the past and Windows is doing it now. Should I just ignore the Windows message?

I've always trusted HD Tune. Is it a software or hardware RAID you're running them in?

[JD™]

My colleague who sits next to me has an A10-6800k and it's pretty dire. Shockingly slow for CPU clock speed intensive stuff and the multi-tasking capabilities is pretty crap. Struggles to run more than 1 VM at once for testing in, whereas my i5-3450 handles 3 happily.

Given the board you've got though I'd say that's a reasonable way of doing a £150 upgrade for general home use and a bit of light gaming (if that's what it's for?).

Does it have an SSD? Can get 128gb ones for £40 now so would be silly not to IMO. Best upgrade you'll ever do.

One thing at a time

It'll only really be used for gaming, although very infrequently. As I mentioned earlier in the thread I just want to be able to play some racing sims with a 'fair' level of immersion when I do get the chance to play. Just waiting for my iRacing updates to download and then I'll see whether it'll run at all on this setup. Unlikely I'd imagine, but worth a go. 

CPU wise, apparently the same 'category' are the FX-8120, Phenom 2 X6 1075T, A8 3850, Athlon X4 651K although I haven't checked them out price wise. Is there a certain 'type' that is better for the gaming side?