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  1. H

    Is AMD done for?

    AMD is losing money pretty fast. The estimate I saw is that they are expected to go totally broke by about 2018. The real problems : they owe 2.4 billion dollars, and are making -150 million a quarter. The main reason they aren't doing so well is their products are marginally...
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    2600 vs 2600k

    VT-d is only for a machine that is running MULTIPLE virtual machines. You can still have 64-bit guest OSes without it. Desktop users are almost certainly only going to have 0 or 1 VMs at worst.
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    2600 vs 2600k

    Ironically, all this whining about the VT-x and VT-d features obscures the fact that these features merely accelerate virtual machines a little bit. (like 10% on one set of benchmarks I saw). Given you can comfortably overclock a 2600K a good 40% without any issues with heat, voltage, or...
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    2600 vs 2600k

    1. Almost no home users ever need this. There's usually a way to make old applications work in Windows 7 w/o XP Mode. Or use a different application. I have used virtual machines before back when I had xp 64 bit and I needed a crucial app to run. The users that do need this feature are...
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    Aftermarket cooler for i7- 2600k

    Supposedly it does, and that guy here (Idon'tCare) with the PhD showed a chart one time proving it. It takes a significant temperature drop before this happens...achievable with phase change, but not with water/air obviously.
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    Aftermarket cooler for i7- 2600k

    Most likely you will not succeed without being forced to give the CPU enough voltage that it will fail prematurely in a few months. If you want the CPU to last for it's 3-5 year service life, you need to limit how high you set the voltage. I've heard 1.35 V is the limit for Sandy Bridge. And...
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    2600 vs 2600k

    Because you are leaving money on the table. "Overclocking" this particular CPU, with the unlocked multiplier...is just setting the CPU to develop it's real performance numbers. Intel has deliberately hobbled the chip because it already destroys the competition in performance, and when AMD...
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    Problem with new memory

    Change the page file. Microsoft just uses a formula to calculate page file size...about 1.5 times the amount of RAM you have. I would cut it down to say, 2 GB fixed and an additional 4-8 GB or so as the maximum size. (so windows would only increase the page file size if it needs it, leaving...
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    Intel 20gb Larson Creek SSD

    :thumbsup::thumbsup: This. That's the right configuration for a high end PC from now on.
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    SSD usage comparison thread

    As it is now, you can do that. The 3 year warranty still applies if you use up all your NAND.
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    SRT cache hack?

    No, you can't. I just wasted 60 seconds at the Romex forums to find out that the SSD does not act as a cache that is persistent between reboots like the Intel tech. That's a pretty huge difference.
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    SSD usage comparison thread

    No, it won't function for 90 years of continuous use (well, it probably wouldn't...) but this means that with 10k writes the media is not going to ever wear out before other parts on the SSD fail (stuff like capacitors and solder joints and so forth). It's real lifespan is probably ~10-20...
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    SSD usage comparison thread

    Have to post mine. The drive is my OS drive, it has all my programs and all my documents. The swap file IS on this SSD.
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    SRT cache hack?

    This is just BEGGING for some experienced hackers to get to work on Intel's software. The 64-gigabyte limit and the Z68 limit badly need to be lifted. Here I am, sitting on an x58 system I bought new just a year ago, a system that uses an Intel SSD, and Intel won't let me use their cache...
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    When will the core wars stop?

    We could shift to new algorithms. The pinnacle of computation known today is the human brain, and the algorithm it uses effectively allows it to work with billions of parallel threads, with no single thread responsible for any crucial function. (crucial decisions by the brain are are consensus...
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    Re-Use the old CPUs/systems, or get rid of them?

    At some point, it's got to be better to buy newer hardware than to run the old stuff due to power efficiency. I'm not sure when that point is, precisely : it's case by case, but obsolete computing hardware beyond a certain age will cost you more money to run than you save vs. just buying new...
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    Sandforce Overprovisioning Levels and SSD Longevity

    I don't think anyone has managed to toast even one of the SSDs based on a good controller through media wear-out. I've not seen a single reference to it anywhere. One would think someone somewhere had some SSDs sitting in a test bench writing and reading at the max data rate 24/7 to find out...
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    Quick Sync is not available for P67 motherboards

    If you read the original article here on Anandtech, you'll see that quick sync is not quite as good a quality as software using the CPU, but that the visual differences are almost imperceptible. And it is at least 2 times faster, sometimes more. Truth is, quick sync is most useful for...
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    Any of you with high clocked 920s going SB?

    "Ever" is a strong word. You can grab a 6 core right now for 540 bucks on ebay. (it's the 970, but they overclock just as high as a 980x) And the $317 sandy bridge (2600k) blows the doors off every $999 extreme edition processor ever released except for the 980x in some benchmarks.
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    Any of you with high clocked 920s going SB?

    i7 930 @ 4.1 for me. Ditto to all the above : assuming I could run a Sandybridge @ 4.5 ghz 24/7 at a safe voltage for a 32nm, then it's about a 17% performance boost factoring in the IPC improvements of Sandybridge. But it would be a side-grade : no triple channel memory, no SLI with x16...
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    SSD caching a great idea?

    The roots for the concept of SSD caching have to do with OS paging. The OS paging algorithms are very, very efficient at guessing which portions of RAM aren't going to be accessed again and copying those pages to the disk. Misses are very rare (although still agonizingly slow, as anyone who...
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    Quick Sync is not available for P67 motherboards

    So if there's no quick sync...what DOES the GPU on a 2600K do for you if you are running on a P67 board? Is it just a piece of cold, useless silicon that never even powers up?
  23. H

    Fuzzy blanket + cold weather = ZAP! One MX 518 is DOWN!

    About 15 minutes ago, I adjusted a blanket covering my legs (it's kind of cold in here) and picked up a huge static charge. I reached for the mouse and ZAP I could feel a huge spark come from my thumb and go into the mouse. For some unrelated reason the thumb buttons quit working....Funny...
  24. H

    Are the big price drops over for now?

    Now that ATI and Nvidia have both shot their loads with major chip releases, are we in for a period of relatively stable pricing? That is what usually happens, right? Over the next year or so, until both sides get close to releasing their next generation of part, prices for specific graphics...
  25. H

    What happens when future games have bigger textures?

    And what about the SLI case? In SLI, each card has to have a complete copy of all VRAM assets : the effective memory of an SLI system is the ram of one card. Yet, with 2 gpus doubling performance, an sli system will run games very well for at least a year longer than a solo card that is obsolete.
  26. H

    What happens when future games have bigger textures?

    I overrode this with a command line switch. I'm running the game completely maxxed out.
  27. H

    i7 at 4.1 : what video card(s) should I pair with it?

    Yes, but I never play it because the game itself is not that fun. The world's over and you're sneaking through the subways fighting mutants? Stabbing people in the back with a rusty knife or using a worn out firearm to kill them? Actually, that sounds pretty fun..brb...
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    Help me resolve this internet argument : does texture size affect framerates ?

    In a case where there is surplus VRAM, and all other factors held equal, do bigger textures lower framerate? My friend insists loudly, over and over again, that they do not. Since the final rendering resolution is the same, and the video card has enough memory, he doesn't think it matters at...
  29. H

    What happens when future games have bigger textures?

    ATI 6970, 6950 : 2 gigs of RAM, but with current drivers the GPU is slower. (probably because they failed their planned die shrink) Nvidia 570 : 1280 megs RAM. Today, the 570 wins most benchmarks. But presumably, games like Crysis 2 and ID's Rage and other upcoming projects are going to...
  30. H

    i7 at 4.1 : what video card(s) should I pair with it?

    Budget : not now. It's not that I couldn't blow $600-$1000 on gpus if I really wanted to, it's just that every single game that I actually play doesn't need more power. I want to down-migrate my 460 into my old e6400 system (it's running on a $10 video card because the old 8800GT failed), and...
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    i7 at 4.1 : what video card(s) should I pair with it?

    My current rig is an i7 clocked at 4.1 ghz and I've got a GTX 460 for now. I'm trying to think ahead a little : how much GPU power do I need to hit a point where in most games the load is basically balanced between the CPU and GPU. That is, where the CPU is at near 100% utilization and so is...
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    Help me find good games that justify better GPUs

    ^This. Note the thread title. "Good games that justify a better GPU. I named some of the best games available for PCs that have excellent gameplay, and noted that older GPUs will run those games maxed out (except for AA) at 60 fps at 1920x1200.
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    If you disable Intel TM, will your CPU melt down if cooling fails?

    Condensing your wall of text : So, you're saying that the most common way for a CPU to die is for the motherboard to fail and take the CPU down with it. This mechanism of failure is the same regardless of whether you overclock or not. Fair enough, I've heard of this happening, and once the...
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    Help me find good games that justify better GPUs

    Crysis : hmm. I was able to play it so-so on an 8800 GT. A 460 is probably enough to run it on high without anti-aliasing.
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    Which to buy dell u2711 or HP ZR30w?

    Yeah, I had a u2711 for a few hours (sold it on ebay that very evening) and I didn't like it. The pixels are too darn small to see anything. Between the two, I'd pick the zr30w. For an eyefinity/vision setup : get smaller IPS panels for the 2 side displays and orient them vertically. I...
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    Help me find good games that justify better GPUs

    My current system : i7 OCed to 4.1, 12 gigs DDR3 1600 CAS 7, X-25M SSD, a western digital black for mass storage. My GPU : a single GTX 460 1GB. So I've got a top of the line processing system but a mid range budget GPU. I'm trying to justify going SLI or getting a better GPU to...
  37. H

    If you disable Intel TM, will your CPU melt down if cooling fails?

    Seero : working at high temps will shorten the CPU's life. Silicon does age and wear out, eventually. This happens a lot faster at higher temps - Intel estimates every 10 degree C doubles the rate. The reason, however, is not for the reason you state. The chip doesn't actually "fry" - a few...
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    If you disable Intel TM, will your CPU melt down if cooling fails?

    Seero : Ben's right. A spike in voltage is not going to melt the chip. The reason is thermodynamics - there is insufficient energy delivered with a small voltage spike (large voltage spikes can't happen) to actually damage a physical object like a microchip linked to a heatsink. What DOES...
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    If you disable Intel TM, will your CPU melt down if cooling fails?

    No it can't. Thermodynamics won't allow it. Even a significantly overclocked chip cannot dissipate heat fast enough for that to happen right away, assuming that it is reasonably well coupled to the thermal reservoir of the heatsink. I will concede that the higher temps my cpu reaches at...
  40. H

    Why the price difference bewtween these CPU's

    Sorta correct, Seero. As far as I know, the only features that are unlocked are : they unlock the multiplier for the highest end chips. They also pick the best chips and label them as Xeons and unlock the additional QPI link. Ultimately, though, every chip in a series comes from the exact...