The Tech Random Crap Thread

GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
drifter said:
I hesitated about posting this, but I'm just going to toss this out there and let other people dissect it.

Pros: 8th gen Intel ( i5-8400), 16 GB DDR4

Cons: $510, slower GPU (RX-550)
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That's a big con, and a lot of money for a 5-generations-back video card. That would be a deal killer for me.

Performance comparison to most similar Nvidia card, and the current standard economy grade card:
1542314684362.png


As far as radeon cards would go, I wouldn't go for anything earlier than the R9 270X (which performs about on par with an Nvidia GTX 1050), and even then, it'd have to be an unbelievably cheap deal.

1542314881026.png
 
Eriol

Eriol

PatrThom said:
Apple stopped supporting 32-bit apps at all on mobile with the release of iOS 11, and they announced when 10.14 was released this October that it will be the last macOS to support 32-bit code.
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This is a PC-games focused discussion, I wouldn't say anything about mobile OR about macOS. But good on them.

PatrThom said:
NVIDIA ended all support for 32-bit OSes in April, AMD ended it in October. Steam support for XP/Vista will end on Jan 1, 2019. No word from Microsoft yet on when they’re going to end support for 32-bit code, but they’re still pushing out updates for WinXP Embedded, sooo...who knows.
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I can attest to in the last year I've worked on NEW programs that only compile in 32-bit mode. NOT by choice! But still plenty of software being developed for 32-bit mode, even though it's running on a 64-bit OS. Often the reasons for this are non-technical.

PatrThom said:
Skyrim was the first one I kept hearing about, because while the vanilla game can run in a 32-bit memory space, it was already close enough that patches/updates/mods pushed it to the point where people with only 4GB just couldn’t run it because it would run out of RAM, and Skyrim is almost 10yrs old. I’d say the writing has been on the wall for quite a while now.
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Similarly, how long has the writing been on the wall for IPv4? Not that it's stopping people from writing bad code that only works with IPv4 either! And Skyrim still limped along with the "high memory" amounts in 32-bit mode. Skyrim SE is 64-bit (IIRC) so it's fine, but "original" Skyrim isn't. That's why I cited Fallout 4 as an example, as it was the first "Elder Scrolls or Fallout" game that was 64-bit.


But what's the ACTUAL number of major GAMES running 64-bit only? I hope you're right that it's most. But I don't actually know.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Eriol said:
But what's the ACTUAL number of major GAMES running 64-bit only? I hope you're right that it's most. But I don't actually know.
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I've noticed a considerable upswell of 64 bit games in the last 5 years or so. Original skyrim, after all, is a 7 year old game. Around 2013 they started to make the move over, and today, I'd say as many of the games that I play are 64 as not, at least.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Eriol said:
But what's the ACTUAL number of major GAMES running 64-bit only? I hope you're right that it's most. But I don't actually know.
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Well, it's easy to see that most games coming out require a 64-bit OS. I'm not sure how many have 64-bit executables, but I'm willing to bet that any of the ones I've listed that want more than 8GB of RAM are not 32-bit programs.

It's not very easy to get definitive answers on what programs are 64-bit and which are 32-bit, though. Best I can tell you actually have to run the game yourself and check in task manager to know for certain. I'm not about to fire up all my games and figure out which ones are 64-bit or not. What would be the point, anyway? Regardless of if games are actually using 64-bit executables, there are still good reasons to have more than 8GB of RAM for a computer.

EDIT: Best I can tell, ABZU has a 64-bit exe. It's an indie game with moderate system requirements, and it came out in 2016. If it's running 64-bit, there's a good chance a lot of games are. Probably most games running on the Unreal 4 engine.

EDIT 2: Other games I've found on my system that, I think, have 64-bit exes: Firewatch, Stories: Path of Destinies, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit (which is basically a demo for Life is Strange 2), and Gone Home. Note that some of those do NOT require a 64-bit OS, but have installed a 64-bit exectuable to my system.
 
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PatrThom

PatrThom

Eriol said:
This is a PC-games focused discussion, I wouldn't say anything about mobile OR about macOS. But good on them.
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Eh, it was more to show which way the wind is blowing. Microsoft is notorious for stubbornly refusing to deprecate stuff as long as possible, so I wasn’t expecting them to be leaders in this area.
Eriol said:
But what's the ACTUAL number of major GAMES running 64-bit only? I hope you're right that it's most. But I don't actually know.
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I can’t say that it’s most, though I suspect any game with an on-disk installed size > 8GB will likely be 64-bit simply out of necessity. And if the OS momentum continues the way it is, developers may HAVE to build for 64-bit if they want to reach the largest audience. The Steam hardware survey says that the total overall percentage of ALL 32-bit OSes combined is under 2%, and that percentage will fall still further after Jan 1. If I was a game developer right now working on some unfinished project, you had better believe I would be prioritizing 64-bit development over 32.

—Patrick
 
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Null

Null

So it looks like what I probably should look for is 12 GB, Intel i5 or i7 with a 4xxx+ chip, 3.2 or faster GHZ, GeForce 1050, and easily upgradeable storage.

How do you use a former computer's hard drive as storage, as Ravenpoe and GB mentioned?
 
grub

grub

That is a solid machine. 3 generations newer processor and video card. That should last for a good while.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Dammit, Nvidia, you had a halfway sensible numbering scheming going on. The 700 series led to the 800s, then 900s, and now 1000s... so naturally your next line of cards should have been the 1150, 1160, 1170 and 1180 right? NOPE. 2000 series because FUCK YOU EVERYTHING HAS TO SOUND BETTER THAN EVERYTHING THAT'S COME BEFORE COMBINED OOH YEAH FEEL THE EXCITEMENT
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Have you not heard those people describing the incidents of cards overheating/catching fire as “the N2k bug?”

—Patrick
 
Cog

Cog

My brother's brand new hard drive died after 4 days, then his old hard drive (the one who the new one was replacing) also died. Coincidence o he should be checking for something?
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
It could just be bad luck. The only thing I could think of that could cause it other than the drive being defective from the manufacturer, would be if his power supply's voltage regulation was out of whack... but I'd think there'd be more problems than just this if that were the case. Still, if a THIRD hard drive suddenly dies...
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

It can also be external influence. If they are mechanical drives, being dropped/falling over is a quick way to accidentally shorten their life, and many people don't realize that playing loud music/bass nearby or leaving them on top of anything else that vibrates strongly can also hurt them.
Other hardware possibilities include using mounting screws that are too long, putting the drive somewhere inside the case where it is right in the path of something very hot, plugging the power into the same line that supplies your video card, not keeping the data/power connections tight enough to stay connected, letting something touch the exposed electronics, covering the "do not cover this hole!" hole, and so on.

--Patrick
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
In case anyone had doubts, Walmart's gaming PCs are crap!


TL;DW They paid over $2,100 for a PC that was a bad value, and what they got was the $1,600 model in the more expensive model's case/color. (Half the RAM, a 1070 instead of a 1080Ti, etc.)

Even then, what they got was crap. Poor airflow, outright bad design choices (i.e. No USB 3 ports on the top of the case, because that header on the motherboard is entirely taken up to provide 1 USB type C port on the rear of the machine), mediocre parts, etc.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

figmentPez said:
In case anyone had doubts, Walmart's gaming PCs are crap!


TL;DW They paid over $2,100 for a PC that was a bad value, and what they got was the $1,600 model in the more expensive model's case/color. (Half the RAM, a 1070 instead of a 1080Ti, etc.)

Even then, what they got was crap. Poor airflow, outright bad design choices (i.e. No USB 3 ports on the top of the case, because that header on the motherboard is entirely taken up to provide 1 USB type C port on the rear of the machine), mediocre parts, etc.
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Linus looks like he needs a hug after putting the same system (the cheaper one) through its paces...
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Speaking of Linus, and speaking of our earlier RAM discussion:



Incidentally, my 96GB qualification passed. It took 42hrs. Yeesh.

--Patrick
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Say, are you having trouble keeping your rig cool? Well, do I have the solution for you!

1543887239813.png


...VRRRuRanteedRRRtoRkeepRRRRRunningRRRRchilledRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRthermalsRRRRR

—Patrick
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
figmentPez said:
I remember when people were using Peltier coolers to OC their Celeron 300s to 450Mhz.
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Remember? Heck, I was one of them! Several buddies of mine all each bought a Celeron 333a, and we overlocked them to FIVE hundred whopping Megahertz. It was a wild time to be alive (1998).
 
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