PC Discussion Thread - All PC related in here.

[Leopardi 0]

Hoot1988

i can only give you personal advice from my previous experiences i just feel that Nvidea are slightly better with the card drivers

And I can tell you that I feel they are not. In fact, they are far worse when it comes to 3D gaming - ArmA crashing every 10-30minutes, and an annoying driver bug with the textures lapping onto each othe (something related to z-buffer)r:

[echo1 0]

I don't have any problems with my card, and a video of a guy using an overclocked card who's design is three years old isn't the best proof that ATI > nVidia.

[vilas 478]

i have very weird problem, after installing new DirectX and new drivers for NVidia slide rulles , active button preview disappeared from some programs

for exampl when you push button on software menu, it is "down" normally, now i see no difference between pushed and not pusshed button

slide rules are not shown on dialog boxes

what could happen ?

[von_paulus 0]

Hi vilas. You can always try to uninstall the new nvidia drivers and install the previous ones to see if the problem is with the drivers.

[Pyronick 21]

I don't have any problems with my card, and a video of a guy using an overclocked card who's design is three years old isn't the best proof that ATI > nVidia.

That's because nVidia slowed down API support. From 2007 to 2009 there has been little technological advancement.

nVidia had the position to use the TWIMTBP programme to nerf games down to the SM4.0 spec. (which I prefer to call SM3.1 due to the identical SIMD instruction set)

AMD is still recovering from the financial problems caused by the acquisition of ATI. So the Direct3D 10.1 (which should have been Direct3D 10 and available for Windows XP) API hasn't been promoted as much.

Some native D3D10.1 games have actually been downgraded to D3D10 spec so nVidia cards perform better.

Not only this stopped progress, but also the pushing forward of CUDA and pushing back of DirectX Compute Shaders made sure we still are stuck to crappy PhysX middleware and CPU-processed fixed-point computations because CUDA is proprietary.

As an aspirant automotive engineer I have to work with so-called thousand+ dollar nVidia Tesla "supercomputer" hardware for CFD in SolidWorks.

But the package we use for that is CUDA accelerated and it still gets beaten by my HD 4870 using AMD Stream and old-fashioned OpenGL through an older SolidWorks plug-in.

Edited May 23, 2009 by SgtH3nry3

[vilas 478]

rulers - probably in English language it is good name for those slides "contrast, brightness" etc.

and there is no difference button down/up on some aplications

reinstalling DX and drivers ? than Arma not work

cause i had old DX and dr. and than i had problems with Arma

now problems with Arma dissapeared but graphical software not work :(

previously i couldn't play, now i cannot edit simple TGA :(

[echo1 0]

As an aspirant automotive engineer I have to work with so-called thousand+ dollar nVidia Tesla "supercomputer" hardware for CFD in SolidWorks.

Purely out of curiosity, what sort of CPU, RAM and OS is on that thing?

[Pyronick 21]

Purely out of curiosity, what sort of CPU, RAM and OS is on that thing?

It's a Dell PowerEdge.

Which has Windows Server 2008, 2 Intel Xeon quadcores and a hell of lot of RAM (96 GB I believe, not sure though), hotswap drives and what not.

It also has a Quadro graphics card, not sure what kind of though.

Amazingly a simple Core 2 Quad with a HD4870 1GB gets higher Napier-Stokes ratings (more precision, better floating point numbers) but does it quicker aswell.

Where it takes 2 days to compute the turbulent airflow of an Audi Sport R10 TDI through corners Porsche and Du Pont of the Le Mans (circuit de la Sarthe) track on the ideal line, my 800 euro DIY computer does it in less than 24 hours.

I'm no nVidia hater by all means. I loved my 8800 GT, unfortunately I got the memory problems. But that can happen with all cards.

Edited May 23, 2009 by SgtH3nry3

[maddogx 13]

Hey guys. Need some help here:

I've had my ASUS P5N-E SLi motherboard for a while now and it's a fair enough board. The problem is it doesn't overclock quad cores very well, so my Q6600 is stuck at 2,7GHz (9x max multi, FSB upped from 1066 to 1200. Any higher and POST is a no-go :().

So I've decided to grab myself a new motherboard some time this week. I have several criteria though, due to my current hardware:

- Must be a quad-core capable socket 775 motherboard

- Must support DDR2 at 800MHz

- SLi is not an issue, all the board needs is a single PCI-E 2.0 16x slot for my GTX285

- I have a PCI-E 1x sound card, so the mobo must have at least one corresponding slot

- At least one PCI-E 1x slot must not be blocked by and preferrably not even be too close to the GFX card (the GTX285 is huge)

- The motherboard must have a SATA RAID controller

- Most importantly: the motherboard must be good at overclocking quad cores. I want to push my Q6600 up to 3,2GHz (FSB 1600, 8x multi).

I don't really want to buy anything other than the motherboard, so DDR3 mobos are really out of the question. I spent a couple of hours today searching for a good motherboard, but it's so hard to find one that meets all my criteria and doesn't cost a fortune. Maybe someone here has just the right mobo for me in mind. :)

[von_paulus 0]

I'll advise ASUS P5QL-E or P5Q PRO. But I don't know much about overclocking.

[echo1 0]

To be honest - just about anything from either Gigabyte or ASUS with the P45 chipset. I'd find one in your price range, and google for reviews. If you can't find a review from a large site, take it as if you have read a bad review.

[vilas 478]

has anyone idea what could happen (previous site prescribed problem)

after instal of new drivers and directx (except brighter screen) now i have no slide rulers and buttons working in some programs

[MehMan 0]

Well, first try to revert back to the old drivers and see if that helps.

[vilas 478]

not helped, i even unistalled drivers at all, uninstalled software (one software for photo-textures edition, not Photoshop)

nothing helps :(

maybe new DirectX ??

[Pyronick 21]

not helped, i even unistalled drivers at all, uninstalled software (one software for photo-textures edition, not Photoshop)

nothing helps :(

maybe new DirectX ??

Could you tell me your operating system and graphics card (plus the driver version) you have installed?

[vilas 478]

Win XP SP2

newest drivers (6,14) and DX9 (march 2009)

VGA 8800 GTS 512MB

software than not works for example - old Corel, not possible to buy new, cause prices of legal software are (dirty words)**** comparing to east europe earnings

Edited May 24, 2009 by vilas

[MehMan 0]

I recently updated Dx9 and it's working flawlessly.

[vilas 478]

should i give screen if you not belive ?

i have no buttons pushed/not pushed , i have no rulers/slides :(

i have no "color choose" box, i have no color options at all ;(

when making new picture, i cannot choose colour :(

normally on right side, one option should be dark gray (chosen arrow, mask, brush or other tool)

as visible on screen, "preview" button is down, but other than Windows-menu type buttons not work :(

so i don't know - if mask is chosen, if object is chosen, if rectangle, circle or line tool is chosen

simply my old Corel 11 OEM not works after installing new DX and drivers

so what could cause this ?

on Corel forums there was no such problem present at all

noone claimed on such issue, could directX change something in buttons menu in software ?

or maybe i have anti-corel virus ? heh ?

Edited May 24, 2009 by vilas

[von_paulus 0]

I'd try a couple of things before doing a clean windows installation.

I'd uninstall completely the Nvidia drivers by using "Guru3D - Driver Sweeper" or a similar program.

After the reboot I'd pause the Anti-virus, firewall or any security program. These programs sometimes mess with drivers installation. To be safe I'd disconnect myself from the internet during these procedures.

Then I'd install the latest nvidia drivers again.

If this don't work I'd consider restoring the windows to a previous restore point.

[echo1 0]

software than not works for example - old Corel, not possible to buy new, cause prices of legal software are (dirty words)**** comparing to east europe earnings

Have you tried using GIMP? It's free to use. The interface isn't the most easy to use, but I've been told that it's quite good (never used it much myself, I'm not very artistic :p )

[MehMan 0]

If you really need Corel, you've got the money for it. It's not meant for screwing around, but it's a highly developed professional tool meant for printing work. And if you're good at corel you've usually got a job as a graphics designer. And graphics designers don't get paid badly.

[vilas 478]

haha

not funny

everyone who make addons must have some kind of profesional software

and money here not important, cause software was working good before drivers and directx instal

so now simply i would not be able to do addons , lost for community, for me more time to play missions and walk with girl :P

simply after DX and drivers instal - rulers, buttons disappeared

and Corel is very good software, better than Photoshop in my opinion

i just want it to work, without it , i cannot finish Russian Federation reskins

Edited May 24, 2009 by vilas

[vilas 478]

my problem solved, most stupid error:

- i changed style to WindowsXP (i had classic)

- than i chaned back to "classic style"

and all is okay

hmmm

strange ???

but all is okay after double changing windows styles

seems it was Windows bug, changes infected rulers, buttons in some way, now all works super

really strange

[maddogx 13]

... anything from either Gigabyte or ASUS with the P45 chipset...

Thanks for the tip. I found the Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L would suit my needs perfectly. :)

It has a PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot and lots of PCI-E 1x slots, so no worries about the GFX card blocking my sound card. Also I've found some accounts of people running a Q6600 on it at 3,2GHz with no problems. Overall it just fits. Funny I never even considered Gigabyte before you mentioned it. I was always kind of an ASUS fanboy.

Anyway, one thing I'm still wondering about is whether or not this board will significantly boost the performance of my GTX285. I mean, it's currently running on a PCI-E 1.0a 8x slot, but how much (theoretical) performance gain can I really expect from the 2.0 16x slot?

[echo1 0]

Ah yes, the DS3 is the specific model I'd usually recommend, good choice. And to answer your question - I'm not entirely sure whether most graphics cards (even the high end ones) actually take full use of PCI-E 2 or x16 slots.