PC Discussion Thread II - All PC related discussion goes here.

[Janez 507]

Speaking of frying GPUs, Amazon's New World MMO is reportedly doing just that. It's suspected that it has to do with game not having any limitations on the power draw, letting GPUs run on max all the time, even in menus. Video exploring the situation below but I also wonder, why is this still not considered and taken into account to this day. It took AMD and NVIDIA something like I dunno, 15, 20 years? to come up with driver level FPS limit.

Now there is also the fact that average Joe has no idea that they have those levers available to them and that they really should look into using them. I'm not sure we can expect that from users though, not this way, not at this level of attention. For now, this probably out to be up to developers to take preventative measures either on engine level or through warnings and perhaps enforcing/promoting different defaults.

This also shows that making games is a bit beyond just throwing bunch of money into an office building and expect a game to be conjured up in return.

 

 

[Tankbuster 1733]

Guys, can I ask... is this a monitor refresh rate problem?

 

[Valken 621]

On 8/30/2021 at 2:14 AM, Tankbuster said:

Guys, can I ask... is this a monitor refresh rate problem?

 

 

Based on the noise your GPU is maxed out! Set the GPU to VSYNC ON and see if it fixes it. It might be overheating...

 

The flickering should not be a refresh issue, you can test with a lower res and VSYNC OFF to confirm.

 

 

[mr_centipede 31]

I kinda had it with my Radeon 5700 XT when I overclock the VRAM. But only when I'm in ARMA 3 (or when playing games generally) and then the game crash and the radeon settings reset itself to factory default.

[Tankbuster 1733]

4 hours ago, Valken said:

 

Based on the noise your GPU is maxed out! Set the GPU to VSYNC ON and see if it fixes it. It might be overheating...

 

The flickering should not be a refresh issue, you can test with a lower res and VSYNC OFF to confirm.

 

 

The noise is the children using the vacuum cleaner in the next room 🙂

How do I turn VSYNC on for Windows? That video is of the desktop

[Janez 507]

1 hour ago, Tankbuster said:

How do I turn VSYNC on for Windows?

 

You don't, when in 2D/idle mode it's at a set refresh rate automatically. Those artifacts/flickering are typical of GPU problems. I've had some, to a degree similar issues with bad drivers in Cyberpunk 2077 (flickering, in other games the GPU was mostly just cooking even when near idle) but that's a game. So maybe drivers but likely a hardware issue. Do you have any more info, is it like that all the time or only sometime? If so, when, what were you doing? Does it happen in 3D apps?

 

It might be a monitor issue though or connectivity perhaps? Check your cables and connectors. Also, have you installed any new hardware recently?

 

Otherwise, alternative to Vsync in 3D environments is maximum driver level frame rate limit that you can set in your respective GPU control panels, be it AMD or NVidia.

 

P.S.: children on the cleaning duty while you nerd on the PC, what a boss you are. I love it! 😄

[Tankbuster 1733]

2 hours ago, Janez said:

 

You don't, when in 2D/idle mode it's at a set refresh rate automatically. Those artifacts/flickering are typical of GPU problems. I've had some, to a degree similar issues with bad drivers in Cyberpunk 2077 (flickering, in other games the GPU was mostly just cooking even when near idle) but that's a game. So maybe drivers but likely a hardware issue. Do you have any more info, is it like that all the time or only sometime? If so, when, what were you doing? Does it happen in 3D apps?

 

It might be a monitor issue though or connectivity perhaps? Check your cables and connectors. Also, have you installed any new hardware recently?

 

Otherwise, alternative to Vsync in 3D environments is maximum driver level frame rate limit that you can set in your respective GPU control panels, be it AMD or NVidia.

 

P.S.: children on the cleaning duty while you nerd on the PC, what a boss you are. I love it! 😄

GPU problems? The GPU is brand new, it's an RTX 3080. It does this all the time, depending on the res and refresh rate I set, read below.

That video is when the monitor was at 2560 x 1440 @ 60Hz. I made a custom profile to run at that resolution at 50 Hz and the flicker stops. Also, I can run the monitor at 1920 x 1080 @ 60 without flicker.

The flicker occurs in Arma regardless of what I set the desktop res to until I manually change the arma3.cfg to refresh = 50. Then the flicker goes away.

The monitor (AOC Q3277PQU) spec says it supports native 2560 x 1440 @ 60 , but I can't make that work as described above.

Also note I have two Dell P2418D monitors other side of the AOC and they are happily running at 2560 x 1440 @ 60 Hz with no problems

[Valken 621]

@Tankbuster Going to assume you have a new power supply and using the in the box GPU to monitor cable. 

 

I had a problem with AMD 6950 back then until I swapped in the cables from the box. Turns out my older Nvidia cable was not HDMI compliant but with bog VGA cables, it worked.

[Janez 507]

@Tankbuster, congrats on your new 30xx card, hopefully you can still feed your family. 🙂 

 

Yeah, so as I mentioned, there is number of factors at play. Check the cable situation first.

• GPU, even if new, can be faulty but what I would check first is the PCI-e if GPU is slotted properly. Motherboards have those pins on right hand side to hold it in place these days but it can still happen. So take it out and put it back in. Since your GPU is new I doubt this is the case but as a tip, if your PC has been sitting for a while, clean it with either vacuum cleaner or air compressor (be careful not to over spin the fans and damage the bearings) and use Isopropyl type alcohol to clean the connections, especially ones delivering power - to hard drives and whatnot. Obviously make sure power delivery to PC is disabled first! Flip the PSU switch, extension cord switch or just pull the power cable out. Be sure to check all those power related connections whether they are dusty or not though.
• Software, drivers and Windows. As we establish you're running NVidia, you can refer to some of my previous post like a page back in this thread about potential problems with DCH drivers and some Windows versions. Use DDU to do a clean sweep. You can also try older drivers and ultimately older versions of Windows 10.
• Cables, connectors and ports. Make sure those are all sitting properly. If you have other spare cables, try those and as Valken mentioned, make sure those cables are actually compatible.
• Monitor, difficult to troubleshoot, if you have a spare PC or compatible laptop, you can try that and isolate/narrow down the issue.
• Lastly, how is your power output situation? Is only your PC and peripherals going out of wall socket through extension cord or you have any other high power consuming device connected to that wall socket?

So, if all seems well with the above and issue still persists, contact either monitor manufacturer tech support or take the whole setup to a shop/repair service. Hopefully you wont have to but please, if you find yourself in this situation again, state all this in your OP. I'm assuming a lot here and we're going back and forth more then necessary, when all this may very well be common knowledge to you and may have already done all that. You've been around for a long time, you know what's up, it's like the editing section. 🙂

[Tankbuster 1733]

17 hours ago, Valken said:

@Tankbuster Going to assume you have a new power supply and using the in the box GPU to monitor cable. 

 

I had a problem with AMD 6950 back then until I swapped in the cables from the box. Turns out my older Nvidia cable was not HDMI compliant but with bog VGA cables, it worked.

Power supply not new, but only a couple of years old. It's a Corsair 750w unit.

I've tried a number of different cables, including an *k certified DP cable, issue persists.

[Tankbuster 1733]

12 hours ago, Janez said:

@Tankbuster, congrats on your new 30xx card, hopefully you can still feed your family. 🙂 

 

Yeah, so as I mentioned, there is number of factors at play. Check the cable situation first.

• GPU, even if new, can be faulty but what I would check first is the PCI-e if GPU is slotted properly. Motherboards have those pins on right hand side to hold it in place these days but it can still happen. So take it out and put it back in. Since your GPU is new I doubt this is the case but as a tip, if your PC has been sitting for a while, clean it with either vacuum cleaner or air compressor (be careful not to over spin the fans and damage the bearings) and use Isopropyl type alcohol to clean the connections, especially ones delivering power - to hard drives and whatnot. Obviously make sure power delivery to PC is disabled first! Flip the PSU switch, extension cord switch or just pull the power cable out. Be sure to check all those power related connections whether they are dusty or not though.
• Software, drivers and Windows. As we establish you're running NVidia, you can refer to some of my previous post like a page back in this thread about potential problems with DCH drivers and some Windows versions. Use DDU to do a clean sweep. You can also try older drivers and ultimately older versions of Windows 10.
• Cables, connectors and ports. Make sure those are all sitting properly. If you have other spare cables, try those and as Valken mentioned, make sure those cables are actually compatible.
• Monitor, difficult to troubleshoot, if you have a spare PC or compatible laptop, you can try that and isolate/narrow down the issue.
• Lastly, how is your power output situation? Is only your PC and peripherals going out of wall socket through extension cord or you have any other high power consuming device connected to that wall socket?

So, if all seems well with the above and issue still persists, contact either monitor manufacturer tech support or take the whole setup to a shop/repair service. Hopefully you wont have to but please, if you find yourself in this situation again, state all this in your OP. I'm assuming a lot here and we're going back and forth more then necessary, when all this may very well be common knowledge to you and may have already done all that. You've been around for a long time, you know what's up, it's like the editing section. 🙂

I've reseated the card and its power cables. The machine is fairly clean. I use an airblower every few months to clean it and it's got no dust in it right now.

I've tried older drivers.

The PC is on a multigang cable. I plugged it into a wall socket.

The issue persists. I'm really suspecting the monitor which claims to be able to do 60Hz at native, can't. I'm already in touch with AOC. They've pretty much said what you guys have. I think I'll look to pick up a new monitor in the sales later in the year.

[Janez 507]

9 hours ago, Tankbuster said:

The issue persists. I'm really suspecting the monitor which claims to be able to do 60Hz at native, can't.

Yeah, I keep coming back to this as well.

Kinda similarly for a while now, I've been playing with this idea to have my PC in a separate room from my desk and one of the headaches would be achieving max refresh rate @ max resolution due to cable and dock limitations. There are some optical cables (really expensive though!) these days but the whole powered dock situation is rather dodgy to say the least. Availability of those components is also, to a degree, limited to North America. Though, if anyone has some recommendations or insights on the matter, please share!