What Game are you currently playing ?

[Ekona]

Come on then, what's the trick? Don't be subject changing now.

[Strudul]

I've been using Compaq one that came free with some crappy PC World machine for the past decade with no problems. Mice make a massive difference, and I hat using anything but the one I have, but keyboards are all pretty much the same unless you opt for different switches (e.g. mechanical). The only thing it's missing is features (macros / anti-ghosting / n-key rollover etc) and a £100 price tag.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Strudul

[Strudul]

(Watch the difference of the fps in the top left corners, pretty sure i spotted a few points with a 20fps difference) Edited March 14, 2017 by Strudul

[Ekona]

I love the macro features on my Logitech one, but oddly not for games: They're so helpful for filling out webforms with your name and address!

 

I was looking at the keypad things yesterday, like the ones that also have a mini joystick by the thumb? Never tried one though, can't work out if they'd actually be any better or just a bit gimmicky.

[Strudul]

My mouse has macros and I never really use them.

 

Chrome fills out web forms for me.

[Ekona]

That kinda shows my point off for me, most of the time it's only an extra 5-8fps despite a whole ghz o/c. If it could take you from 45fps to 60fps then yes, absolutely worth it, as if you're not gaming at 60fps on the PC then you might as well be on a console.

[Aashenfox]

Come on then, what's the trick? Don't be subject changing now.

 

The trick to overclocking is matching voltage to cooling capacity without overvolting (requiring disabling of various motherboard auto-trickery), and having a strong chip in the first place. We select motherboards and graphics cards generally for this purpose, a motherboard with military spec copper that can handle extra voltage, powerful regulators that will keep the power smooth, and most importantly, some sort of hybrid cooling (enclosed rad, minimum). Of course if you just go buy a 300 quid MB and a K chip, you can expect to fairly easily get close to the limits. Graphics card overclocking is indeed both a lottery and usually not worth it, these days. A serious user would only overclock GFX for a reason, say for example that one had a monitor with active sync, but the graphics card wasn't 'quite' capable of keeping up at the monitors native refresh of 144hz, you might overclock just a touch to get a more natural sync and get the best out of the monitor, there really is SOOOO much to consider, overclocking is an art form and once again, the PSU is arguably the most important part.

 

I didn't mean to be rude Dan, my apologies, but I felt insulted by my offer of help doing what I spent a lifetime doing being reduced to two lines of text.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Aashenfox

[Ekona]

My mouse has macros and I never really use them.

 

Chrome fills out web forms for me.

FF does it too, but sometimes it still gets things wrong which is where the macro comes in handy. Or even just filling in email addresses or using it for bbcode, that's also helpful.

[Strudul]

That kinda shows my point off for me, most of the time it's only an extra 5-8fps despite a whole ghz o/c. If it could take you from 45fps to 60fps then yes, absolutely worth it, as if you're not gaming at 60fps on the PC then you might as well be on a console.

The important points are where it takes you from 20 to 40. That's the difference between it being playable and unplayable.

[Strudul]

Even a 5 fps difference can be noticeable if it's at a critical number.

[Ekona]

That's fine, but why didn't you just say that in the first place?!

 

And for clarity, never have I given anything than genuine and helpful advice to ANYONE who has ever PMd me about tyres. If they make the effort to ask then I always make the effort to give a reasoned and detailed answer. I know I can come across as brusque in open forum if people are asking stupid questions, but I refute the allegation that I'd ever do that when someone genuinely reaches out for advice.

 

How do you feel about modern BIOSeses and other programs that self-boost CPUs and gfx chips without intervention? Any good, or be just as worthwhile turning off?

[Ekona]

That kinda shows my point off for me, most of the time it's only an extra 5-8fps despite a whole ghz o/c. If it could take you from 45fps to 60fps then yes, absolutely worth it, as if you're not gaming at 60fps on the PC then you might as well be on a console.

The important points are where it takes you from 20 to 40. That's the difference between it being playable and unplayable.

True, but they were spikes rather than overall higher numbers. At that point, I'd simply lower the gfx quality setting to achieve a more stable frame rate.

[Aashenfox]

As for mice and keyboards, again, usually selected by serious gamers for arbitrary attributes. For example, I'm a tournament gamer, I care that my keyboard is up to the task, however, I have a problem with desk space. For this reason I chose the Roccat compact gaming keyboard. For mouse, I need to be able to adjust it for comfort or accuracy. My Razer Ouroboros was chosen exactly for this. When I'm shooting I make it as small as possible and touch it with my fingertips, when I'm relaxing and doing normal stuff, I extend it to be more comfortable as a palm rest. The fact that it's high dpi is just icing, like I say, I play tourneys and I can't tell the difference after 2000dpi.

 

The monitor is THE most important part of a gaming rig. Adaptive Sync. If you haven't experienced it, there's nothing I can say to convince you. If you have the money (they are expensive, particularly G-Sync), it is the single biggest upgrade you can make to your gaming experience. Even with a mediocre graphcs card, the effect is like a 30% upgrade, but the overall effect is impossible to describe, it makes EVERYTHING (even web browsing) silky! If you do have a nuts graphics card, it's even better as you can finally SEE the frames you are producing above 60hz which were previously invisible.

[Aashenfox]

That's fine, but why didn't you just say that in the first place?!

 

And for clarity, never have I given anything than genuine and helpful advice to ANYONE who has ever PMd me about tyres. If they make the effort to ask then I always make the effort to give a reasoned and detailed answer. I know I can come across as brusque in open forum if people are asking stupid questions, but I refute the allegation that I'd ever do that when someone genuinely reaches out for advice.

 

How do you feel about modern BIOSeses and other programs that self-boost CPUs and gfx chips without intervention? Any good, or be just as worthwhile turning off?

 

I don't doubt it, while you and I are both smart, cocky and occasionally belligerent, I know for sure that we both have much to offer on various topics. We're learners and we love to impart, that much is obvious. I'm completely serious when I offer the same service on PC building to anyone who is interested.

 

The BIOS is a very important tool for overclocking, stock ones that come from the factory are usually out of date, sometimes you can get a lot of extra and important features by updating. Mostly we rely on the BIOS for voltage and fan control as well as temp warnings. I'm a big fan of MSI and ASRock boards fwiw. I also like MSI GFX cards usually, they're cooling is second to none (Twin Frozr)

 

Software that claims to be a one-click overclock is always dangerous, however, tools like MSI Afterburner, Sandra are essential but must be used properly. One of the hardest things to do is disable all the nanny stuff in windows and on modern boards, that prevents you from achieving a good overclock. Really it all comes down to how far you want to go, how serious you want to get. For most people the advice you initially posted would be fine. I'm here for the others.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Aashenfox

[BulletMagnet]

Took my watercooling loop for the GFX out when I changed to a GTX 1070, because the fans will only spin when needed and the cards nowadays run cooler than their predecessors (had an EVGA GTX 770 before with XSPC waterblock before)

Also the day after I installed the 1070, my old trusty X-Fi Fatal1ty Pro decided to die, but seeing it's from 2003, it's done me a decent service over the last 14 years.

Was replaced with a SoundBlaster Z-Series (because onboard is horrible)

Edited March 14, 2017 by BulletMagnet

[Aashenfox]

I've been shocked how hot my 1080 founders runs, something will definitely need to be done about the cooling before summer when I'll have ambient 40C (no aircon in my office).

[Strudul]

I've been shocked how hot my 1080 founders runs, something will definitely need to be done about the cooling before summer when I'll have ambient 40C (no aircon in my office).

You don't get to whinge unless you are running SLI 480s

[Stuggerz]

Is anyone still playing rainbow six siege?

 

I've got bk into it. Season 2 is amazing.. got me hooked again.

 

Xbox one gamer tag: Stuggerz

Shout me if anyone plays

I play it far to much such an amazing game. Only gold rank 1 but my mates are diamond and when you join there games its like a new game. The way everyone plays on diamond is insane I cant even compete at the moment to be honest but its all about practice on that game.

 

Sweet, You xbox one, Ps or PC?

[Aashenfox]

I've been shocked how hot my 1080 founders runs, something will definitely need to be done about the cooling before summer when I'll have ambient 40C (no aircon in my office).

You don't get to whinge unless you are running SLI 480s

 

Mate, I'll have to find you a photo of my litecoin mining rig, EIGHT Radeon R290Xes (2 rigs, 4 in crossfire on each) all running 24/7 at 88*C for 4 months. After selling the cards I just about broke even! It was a stupid venture lol. That thing was a space heater, and I mean a PROPER space heater. My wife's office (300m2) where I was running it was like a Turkish Sauna every morning (55c), luckily it's our business so nobody complained, lol. They would go in every morning and open all the windows,

 

I never did do a gaming benchmark on one of those rigs, should have, but I was all like 'I'm going to get stupid rich on crypto mining' Doh!

Edited March 14, 2017 by Aashenfox

[mammoth200]

I've been shocked how hot my 1080 founders runs, something will definitely need to be done about the cooling before summer when I'll have ambient 40C (no aircon in my office).

You don't get to whinge unless you are running SLI 480s

 

Mate, I'll have to find you a photo of my litecoin mining rig, EIGHT Radeon R290Xes (2 rigs, 4 in crossfire on each) all running 24/7 at 88*C for 4 months. After selling the cards I just about broke even! It was a stupid venture lol. That thing was a space heater, and I mean a PROPER space heater. My wife's office (300m2) where I was running it was like a Turkish Sauna every morning (55c), luckily it's our business so nobody complained, lol. They would go in every morning and open all the windows,

 

I never did do a gaming benchmark on one of those rigs, should have, but I was all like 'I'm going to get stupid rich on crypto mining' Doh!

 

Still, now is a good time to have bitcoin mate, I found out about the mining waaay to late to even think of building a rig for mining, bit of a shame really!

[Ekona]

If we're talking about cards with excessive heat, I had one if the original 5800Ultra cards, like a bloody Hoover when that fan kicked in!

[Aashenfox]

Hottest card I ever used was a GTX 295 back in the day (12 years ago??), it was the first time they had tried to sandwich two gpus onto one board, with only one card worth of cooling. Naturally, it was a disaster. Artefacts would start after about an hour of use, and the GPU once reached 118*c.

 

I still have it though, in a cupboard, and I think it would still work (as a heater) if I plugged it in.

 

I've been shocked how hot my 1080 founders runs, something will definitely need to be done about the cooling before summer when I'll have ambient 40C (no aircon in my office).

You don't get to whinge unless you are running SLI 480s

 

Mate, I'll have to find you a photo of my litecoin mining rig, EIGHT Radeon R290Xes (2 rigs, 4 in crossfire on each) all running 24/7 at 88*C for 4 months. After selling the cards I just about broke even! It was a stupid venture lol. That thing was a space heater, and I mean a PROPER space heater. My wife's office (300m2) where I was running it was like a Turkish Sauna every morning (55c), luckily it's our business so nobody complained, lol. They would go in every morning and open all the windows,

 

I never did do a gaming benchmark on one of those rigs, should have, but I was all like 'I'm going to get stupid rich on crypto mining' Doh!

 

Still, now is a good time to have bitcoin mate, I found out about the mining waaay to late to even think of building a rig for mining, bit of a shame really!

 

I'm an idiot, I sold the litecoins a while ago, but held onto my bitcoins. Then recently, a friend of mine got the new malware that encrypts your drive then asks for BTC payment. I should have told him sorry I can't help, but instead I wanted to be Jack the Lad because very few people know anything about this, so I foolishly ran in with 'Yeh, I've got loads of Bitcoin, falling out of my pockets, how many you want?', at that point it was too late. I had 3.6 and what does he ask for...3. I gave them to him at market rate (and it was a good day as well, they were 15% up), but now I only have .6.

 

Gutted. If anyone wants to know how to obtain bitcoin relatively inexpensively and safely, again, just shoot me a pm (NO YOU CAN'T HAVE MINE!), it's a surprisingly involved process. I will start acquiring again someday, but not until the Zed is finished. Stupid mistake, they'd still be appreciating in my wallet right this second. I genuinely believe one bitcoin will eventually be worth 10,000 dollars. It may take 20 years, but it will happen. Crypto currencies are the future.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Aashenfox

[Strudul]

Worse than the 5970? That thing barely worked without a custom flash.

[Aashenfox]

I skipped that one, heard there were issues. Lol

[Ekona]

I hate Radeon cards, their driver support has always been so poor compared with Nvidia. Even if on occasion the hardware has been better, I just can't bring myself to ever consider one.