The slippery slope of pc gaming

[integrale_evo]

I've started remembering why I gave up and moved onto consoles all those years ago.

I seem to spend more time running benchmarks and tweaking to raise my fps count, despite only using a 1080 60hz monitor, than I do playing the games I want to run well.

A recent upgrade the cpu because why not turned into a new motherboard, cpu and cooler for 'future proofing'

Thank god real world budget caps kick in because it's easy to start looking at graphs and thinking a £1000 2080ti is actually quite good value for the performance it gives

Still, I've discovered how to flash a graphics card bios so have changed mine to a different version which lets me turn the fans down to zero so at idle the system is now virtually silent, just the power supply tucked away in the base of the tower and a 135mm cpu fan idling along at 200rpm.

I need the weather to warm up so I can go and play with cars instead of playing with computers

[RobYob]

Liquid cooled GPU, do it!

I'm now playing through The Witcher 2. looks damn good with everything maxed (although not 4k) and the GPU barely ticking over, at least once I'd set the max framerate to prevent the card throwing 150fps around uselessly.

[Beany]

Must be said, I keep thinking I should do something about my PC.

It's an A8-3870k with 16gb of RAM and an R280 4gb in it. So it's technically really old in the grand scheme of things.

But every time I look at prices, given most of what I do these days is wanking/banking and the odd bit of retro gaming, I wonder if it's worth the bother/expense. What would I actually gain other than perhaps some slightly cooler running/less power usage for something that's on for about four hours a day, and is almost never hammered to the max?

Meh.

[Mito Man]

I’ve had my gaming PC close to a year and reckon I’ve got back half of its value through buying cheaper games unlike rip off consoles. That said I just signed up to the Xbox £1 3 month game pass and cancelled the renewal immediately. That’ll tide me through Christmas

[Matty]

The XBox game pass for PC is fantastic - I got 2 months for £1, then got 4 months free with my AMD processor. I've played though about £200 worth of titles in that time.

Regarding upgrades, I bought a new 3700X/Mobo/Ram setup which had made a huge difference. I've still got the old 980GTX I bought from David on here a few years back....was looking for RTX's in the BF/CM deals but nothing I've got my eye on a 2070...

[DaveE]

I've started remembering why I gave up and moved onto consoles all those years ago.

I seem to spend more time running benchmarks and tweaking to raise my fps count, despite only using a 1080 60hz monitor, than I do playing the games I want to run well.

A recent upgrade the cpu because why not turned into a new motherboard, cpu and cooler for 'future proofing'

Thank god real world budget caps kick in because it's easy to start looking at graphs and thinking a £1000 2080ti is actually quite good value for the performance it gives

Still, I've discovered how to flash a graphics card bios so have changed mine to a different version which lets me turn the fans down to zero so at idle the system is now virtually silent, just the power supply tucked away in the base of the tower and a 135mm cpu fan idling along at 200rpm.

I need the weather to warm up so I can go and play with cars instead of playing with computers

See also hifi/audiophiles etc

[Beany]

DaveE - nah, with PC upgrades you can actually objectively measure improved performance.

I'm not intending to go above 1080p any time soon so the mid range cards would probably do me for a good while.

I could do with some better monitors/stands, but getting them used would be fine, and even high refresh displays are getting cheaper, and 120/144hz would probably make more of a difference in every day use than an extra half a teraflop of math power.

I mean, it's not like GZDoom takes up that much graphics resources

[integrale_evo]

I was looking at a 2070 super as the next move but then spotted a twin of my graphics card at a reasonable price and as dual cards are something I've always wanted to play with ( even though I know it's not the way forward with a lot of modern games ) I'll see what 2x 1070ti in sli are like.

If it doesn't work very well they're still making decent money secondhand so would be able to sell the pair and get a single 2070 or similar.

I did think about a new monitor, but to my eyes 60hz vsync still looks butter smooth. Admittedly I've never actually used a high refresh rate setup so might be missing something amazing.

[Matty]

I've used a 144Hz panel at a mates, and they're as great as everyone says they are. Ultra smooth, and gaming at 100+FPS does look/feel great. You really can tell once you go back to a 60hz panel.

However, that was @1080p. I'm now used to my 1440p, and not only are 1440p/144hz panels expensive, you also need serious hardware to push that kind of frame rate at that resolution....I don't want to invest that kinda cash TBH.

If you can't or don't want to invest that kinda money, probably best to live in ignorance

[Beany]

I've used a 144Hz panel at a mates, and they're as great as everyone says they are. Ultra smooth, and gaming at 100+FPS does look/feel great. You really can tell once you go back to a 60hz panel.

I'd like it for just general desktop use, never mind games. I'm not sure if that makes me sad or not, or maybe I just remember using 1280x960 CRTs driven past 75hz

[Mito Man]

Well with a racing game if you’re going 160 mph your screen only refreshes every 1.2 metres at 60 hz which is quite a blind spot and leads to less accuracy when hitting braking points and apexes.
Even more pronounced with FPS games.

[RobYob]

If you're not playing Dwarf Fortress in ASCII you're a lightweight.

I'd question if anyone bar the pros has the skill to make use of >60fps in a competitive FPS let alone a sim.
It will surely look nicely, but I'm deeply skeptical it gives you an advantage.

[RobYob]

I’ve had my gaming PC close to a year and reckon I’ve got back half of its value through buying cheaper games unlike rip off consoles. That said I just signed up to the Xbox £1 3 month game pass and cancelled the renewal immediately. That’ll tide me through Christmas

Speaking of hardcore G4M3Z, untitled Goose Game looks like a lot of fun and I think is on XB pass.

[Beany]

Well with a racing game if you’re going 160 mph your screen only refreshes every 1.2 metres at 60 hz which is quite a blind spot and leads to less accuracy when hitting braking points and apexes.
Even more pronounced with FPS games.

Yeah, I quite enjoy dipping into this:



So high refresh rates are of interest to me.

[Mito Man]

I’ve had my gaming PC close to a year and reckon I’ve got back half of its value through buying cheaper games unlike rip off consoles. That said I just signed up to the Xbox £1 3 month game pass and cancelled the renewal immediately. That’ll tide me through Christmas

Speaking of hardcore G4M3Z, untitled Goose Game looks like a lot of fun and I think is on XB pass.

I’m currently going through Life is Strange 2. Sadly it’s not a patch on the previous 2 for me.

[integrale_evo]

1070ti + 6600k


1070ti + 9900k


1070ti x2 in sli + 9900k


Time to call it quits for a while

[Mito Man]

So doubling the GPU only yields a 50% increase - what’s causing the bottleneck?

[integrale_evo]

It's a combined test, the gpu only score goes from 22451 to 41499, so not bang on double, but close. I'm also running less of an overclock on the cards, the upper card is starting to get a bit warm.

[Mito Man]

I see, good result then.

[integrale_evo]

Works well for the benchmarks, not going to give the same gains in gains.

GtaV can use both equally but quite a few others only see / use one card.

It's just something I've wanted to try for years.

In fact since I built my first pc in 1998. I had planned a 3dfx voodoo card to run alongside a normal 2d card, but there was a decent deal on the voodoo banshee at the time which was a single card all in one solution, so I never did it back then.