Awesome, so that means I can definitely keep this potatobrick for a bit longer, while figuring out what it's replacement will be and being able to better budget for it. Kind figure in a few more years, some of the other hardware is going to finally wear out enough and it'll be old enough that it probably will be too much of hassle to bother with piecemeal fixes.
Here is an unboxing of an Omen 16. They also open the case. It has this weird thing where one SSD slot is Gen 4 and the other is Gen 3.
I guess they were thinking Gen 3 drives are easier to come by for a secondary drive. https://youtu.be/cbvSB4VUx6o
The packaging is not quite as fancy as the packaging on a Acer Predator Helios. Acer puts in some more effort on presentation.
Here is an unboxing of an Omen 16. They also open the case. It has this weird thing where one SSD slot is Gen 4 and the other is Gen 3.
I guess they were thinking Gen 3 drives are easier to come by for a secondary drive. https://youtu.be/cbvSB4VUx6o
The packaging is not quite as fancy as the packaging on a Acer Predator Helios. Acer puts in some more effort on presentation.
I had a theory and just double checked it, and the reason for one nvme slot being gen 4 and one being gen 3 is a technical limitation. the PCI-e lanes on the CPU are gen 4, and the boot SSD goes straight to that, and the PCI-e lanes on the chipset are gen 3, which is where the rest of the peripherals, including the second nvme slot, are attahed to.
This is done as much as a cost saving measure as anything, as gen 4 components are more expensive and realistically 90% of workloads can't take advantage of the speed anyway.
yeah it's like current gen ATX motherboards, there's the premium chipsets with extra PCIe 4 lanes and the less premium chipsets with just the CPU PCIe 4 lanes and the rest are PCIe 3.
It looks like to get animated lights on the Omen keyboard you have to download a special app. For some reason, they did not support that right off the bat.
That was worrying me a little bit because the original app that came with it just had basic lighting for the keyboard.
Ah. They updated the orignal app to have animations. So, it is fancier now. I finally found the raindrop animation.
I am installing my XBox games on the C: drive since they make that annoying WindowsApp folder you can't delete. If I have to rest the pc to factory settings, it will just delete it off the drive.
I will put everything else on the SSD I have to put in.
They made it kind of annoying to add a SDD to the Omen. You have to use a thin steak knife blade to pop open the seam on the case. The seam is a little too tight.
I ran into overheating with the Omen 16 and I barely played any games. The GPU and CPU were at a hundred Celsius and I was only downloading some games. I was also copying stuff over the network. For some reason, the CPU was showing maxed utilized in the gaming hub software. I removed McAffee and that seemed to fix it.
Not certain what the problem is.
Also, it seemed like the laptop restarted when I left the room when I was doing all the downloading.
Also, the audio started crackling. I updated the drivers and it did not fix it. I also updated the bios.
Does Windows 11 force a reset when it updates? I am wondering if that happened.
It looks like the audio problem is common with Win11.
McAfee and preinstalled bloatware in general sound like the cpu utilization issue. I have no idea about win11 update restart behavior or audio issues.
McAfee in particular is more of an ancient and dire curse howled up from tartarean depths than a piece of software these years.
Yeah. The CPU freed up after I removed McAffee. Either Win11 forced a restart to update or an app forced a restart. I noticed the Omen console updated. The laptop would not cool down. So, I shut it down.
I will start it up an let it sit for a while tomorrow. See if it gets hot again.
Actually, the laptop was not overheating. The temps were in Fahrenheit. Derp.
Still, Outer Worlds and Witcher 3 were slowing down. So, I will have to see what is up with that.
I did have Outer Worlds on Ultra. So, that might be the problem. It was running fine when I first tried it.
I may have been downloading in Steam at the same time. I notice Steam can hog the cpu.
Hot dog. It looks like it is working now. I will let the laptop sit for a bit and see if the temp goes up.
I installed a bunch of drivers. Even the sound seems to be fixed. So, I am not certain what was up with that.
The games run fine now and it does not seem to be heating things up. I will have to try running them with stats.
What program do they use for that?
I think that HP Assistant program fixed something.
I am installing my XBox games on the C: drive since they make that annoying WindowsApp folder you can't delete. If I have to rest the pc to factory settings, it will just delete it off the drive.
I will put everything else on the SSD I have to put in.
They made it kind of annoying to add a SDD to the Omen. You have to use a thin steak knife blade to pop open the seam on the case. The seam is a little too tight.
Microsoft actually just changed that within the last couple months. You can move Windows Store games to any folder you want. And you've always been able to install them to any drive, but now you should be able to specify a specific location.
oh yeah I don't use geforce experience anymore since they started requiring you to register an account and log in, you can just get the drivers from their website directly instead and not install the experience software.
Nvidia does this annoying thing where you need a password for the GeForce Experience just to download the drivers.
The main problem with installing drivers manually is that you need to do it every time you want to play a new release. I use this little open source utility to keep things up to date without GeForce Experience.
I thiiink they put small optimizations for specific new software releases into graphics driver updates sometimes, but graphics driver updates are rarely software-breaking or even a noticeable performance impact not to have as far as I know. I certainly don't update them for every big new game.
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
I thiiink they put small optimizations for specific new software releases into graphics driver updates sometimes, but graphics driver updates are rarely software-breaking or even a noticeable performance impact not to have as far as I know. I certainly don't update them for every big new game.
They do it on almost every driver release, dude.
Both nvidia and AMD.
Like, here are the current radeon release notes for the optional driver release on the 25th:
AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 22.4.2 Highlights
Support For:
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt™.
And for nvidia's most recent release on the 26th?
Game Ready Drivers provide the best possible gaming experience for all major new releases. Prior to a new title launching, our driver team is working up until the last minute to ensure every performance tweak and bug fix is included for the best gameplay on day-1.
Game Ready for Dune: Spice Wars
This new Game Ready Driver provides the best day-0 gaming experience for Dune: Spice Wars. In addition, this new Game Ready Driver offers support for the latest releases and updates including Chernobylite’s introduction of ray tracing, the addition of NVIDIA DLSS to JX3 Online, and the early access launch of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt.
And it can mean anywhere from 2-20% increase in performance depending on how much they needed to tweak things.
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Hmm, is that so? I had always heard the best thing to do with graphics drivers was don't update them unless something breaks.
oh.. no the exact opposite is true. if you're not updating on a regular basis you're literally leaving both performance and efficiency on the table.
I think that is what happened with this Omen 16. The graphics were pausing in the games and then it worked fine after the graphics driver was updated.
I was having a weird problem where Win11 was scaling 200%. I adjusted the setting. So, I will see if that fixes it. I wonder if the HP Gaming Hub is messing with that.
I did set the laptop to use the RTX 3070 all the time and not the Intel graphics.
I have learned with this laptop that you need to update everything for it to work right. It was not working right out of the box. It seemed like some updates messed it up and other updates fixed it.
with a new build or a new laptop from the factory you definitely want to update all the drivers once initially at least, yeah
tend to be a bunch of windows updates you have to get too
Yeah, generally keep all the things up to date all the time. There might be a bad patch every so often, but that's generally well known within a day or two of a patch/update.
Companies (generally) don't update/patch things with the intent on making them work worse than they did before.
Yeah. I had a really weird thing happen with the speakers crackling, but an update fixed it. I updated the audio drivers and that didn't fix it. Some other update fixed it. I think it was an issue with Win11.
The HP Support Assistant does this weird thing where it forces a restart, but it shows that it did not make an update. It is doing something, but not telling you.
I am debating uninstalling it since it forces restarts. Don't quite like that.
I'm pretty jealous of my wife's Alienware X17. Man is it a sexy laptop. The 4k screen is really nice and the mechanical keyboard might be the best laptop one I've used.
I ran 3DMark on the laptop and checked the temps afterward. It seems fine. I will try running Afterburner while playing a game for a while and see if the temps get high.
I will try it with Cyberpunk with RTX on. That should put it under some stress.
This guy shows the Omen command center app. Sometimes it takes a while to load. I think it is because it is connecting to your account.
I will see if I can turn that off. https://youtu.be/B6eQsJU10pM
Anyone know of an audio switch that I can use so I can switch my speakers between my desktop and laptop? Either that or I will just connect the laptop to the TV. That seems easier.
Anyone know of an audio switch that I can use so I can switch my speakers between my desktop and laptop? Either that or I will just connect the laptop to the TV. That seems easier.
Really, a laptop hooked up to a TV is great. I need a longer HDMI cable.
Getting an extension cable in the mail tomorrow.
My TV screen seemed too dark. I bumped it up to Dymamic.
I am wondering if there is some input lag on playing PS1 games in an emulator. I notice Incredible Crisis is really touchy on the inputs.
Maybe it is supposed to be that way.
So I've got a MSI stealth laptop from a couple of years back that has a 2060 in it, which should be fine for its only purpose: playing destiny 2 on lunch at work. Unfortunately, after upgrading my main computer at home, I'm now noticing performance issues more, and I have no idea if it's even possible to fix. The short story is: this model has no MUX option, and based on utilization it looks like Destiny is splitting the difference between intel graphics and the 2060, resulting in FPS that's capping out at 40ish even on low settings. I told Nvidia control center to force it (and everything else) to use the 2060, but it had zero impact. The MSI Dragon center application doesn't have an option to turn off hybrid graphics, and I've triple checked that everything that can be set to a performance mode is set to it. Anyone ever encounter this kind of issue before? I'm assuming that disabling the onboard graphics via the BIOS would just disable the laptop's display.
You should be able to force it to use the GPU if you right click desktop, go to nvidia control panel, click Manage 3D Settings, and find a field in there where you can tell it to only use the nvidia GPU. You can set it on an application-specific basis for destiny 2 only as well. BUT, this might not help, as I would not be sure that the laptop using the GPU and CPU graphics in tandem is causing you to lose performance. Try that and see if it improves anything, if not you're probably just hitting the limits of the laptop 2060 chipset. Laptop GPU chipsets are downclocked from desktop versions significantly to reduce power consumption and especially heat.
e: oh reading comprehension lol, you already did that.
Hmm. Reading online it sounds like you should be able to get at least 90 FPS on a 2060 mobile. Yeah that's a mystery, I guess you could try disabling the onboard graphics in the BIOS. Can you open up the bottom easily and see if it needs to be cleaned of dust, also? Also also what kind of CPU do you have in there, could you be getting bottlenecked by the CPU?
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I guess they were thinking Gen 3 drives are easier to come by for a secondary drive.
The packaging is not quite as fancy as the packaging on a Acer Predator Helios. Acer puts in some more effort on presentation.
I had a theory and just double checked it, and the reason for one nvme slot being gen 4 and one being gen 3 is a technical limitation. the PCI-e lanes on the CPU are gen 4, and the boot SSD goes straight to that, and the PCI-e lanes on the chipset are gen 3, which is where the rest of the peripherals, including the second nvme slot, are attahed to.
This is done as much as a cost saving measure as anything, as gen 4 components are more expensive and realistically 90% of workloads can't take advantage of the speed anyway.
That was worrying me a little bit because the original app that came with it just had basic lighting for the keyboard.
Ah. They updated the orignal app to have animations. So, it is fancier now. I finally found the raindrop animation.
I will put everything else on the SSD I have to put in.
They made it kind of annoying to add a SDD to the Omen. You have to use a thin steak knife blade to pop open the seam on the case. The seam is a little too tight.
Not certain what the problem is.
Also, it seemed like the laptop restarted when I left the room when I was doing all the downloading.
Also, the audio started crackling. I updated the drivers and it did not fix it. I also updated the bios.
Does Windows 11 force a reset when it updates? I am wondering if that happened.
It looks like the audio problem is common with Win11.
McAfee in particular is more of an ancient and dire curse howled up from tartarean depths than a piece of software these years.
Yeah. The CPU freed up after I removed McAffee. Either Win11 forced a restart to update or an app forced a restart. I noticed the Omen console updated. The laptop would not cool down. So, I shut it down.
I will start it up an let it sit for a while tomorrow. See if it gets hot again.
Also, get either PCDecrapifier or Revo Uninstaller to clear bloatware.
Still, Outer Worlds and Witcher 3 were slowing down. So, I will have to see what is up with that.
I did have Outer Worlds on Ultra. So, that might be the problem. It was running fine when I first tried it.
I may have been downloading in Steam at the same time. I notice Steam can hog the cpu.
I installed a bunch of drivers. Even the sound seems to be fixed. So, I am not certain what was up with that.
The games run fine now and it does not seem to be heating things up. I will have to try running them with stats.
What program do they use for that?
I think that HP Assistant program fixed something.
The US Govt has a contract with McAfee for their AV solution. I hate it.
Microsoft actually just changed that within the last couple months. You can move Windows Store games to any folder you want. And you've always been able to install them to any drive, but now you should be able to specify a specific location.
Now I need to benchmark some games and see if the temp is not getting high.
The main problem with installing drivers manually is that you need to do it every time you want to play a new release. I use this little open source utility to keep things up to date without GeForce Experience.
They do it on almost every driver release, dude.
Both nvidia and AMD.
Like, here are the current radeon release notes for the optional driver release on the 25th:
And for nvidia's most recent release on the 26th?
And it can mean anywhere from 2-20% increase in performance depending on how much they needed to tweak things.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
oh.. no the exact opposite is true. if you're not updating on a regular basis you're literally leaving both performance and efficiency on the table.
I think that is what happened with this Omen 16. The graphics were pausing in the games and then it worked fine after the graphics driver was updated.
I was having a weird problem where Win11 was scaling 200%. I adjusted the setting. So, I will see if that fixes it. I wonder if the HP Gaming Hub is messing with that.
I did set the laptop to use the RTX 3070 all the time and not the Intel graphics.
I have learned with this laptop that you need to update everything for it to work right. It was not working right out of the box. It seemed like some updates messed it up and other updates fixed it.
tend to be a bunch of windows updates you have to get too
Companies (generally) don't update/patch things with the intent on making them work worse than they did before.
The HP Support Assistant does this weird thing where it forces a restart, but it shows that it did not make an update. It is doing something, but not telling you.
I am debating uninstalling it since it forces restarts. Don't quite like that.
Watch out on the web. There is a fake MSI site that has an Afterburner with a trojan. My Windows Defender caught it.
I will try it with Cyberpunk with RTX on. That should put it under some stress.
This guy shows the Omen command center app. Sometimes it takes a while to load. I think it is because it is connecting to your account.
I will see if I can turn that off.
Something like this?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0894N22CL/
The option for automatic select is greyed out.
Is there something I have to do to fix this? It was originally set to it, but I played around with it and set it to the Nvidia GPU.
Getting an extension cable in the mail tomorrow.
My TV screen seemed too dark. I bumped it up to Dymamic.
I am wondering if there is some input lag on playing PS1 games in an emulator. I notice Incredible Crisis is really touchy on the inputs.
Maybe it is supposed to be that way.
e: oh reading comprehension lol, you already did that.
Hmm. Reading online it sounds like you should be able to get at least 90 FPS on a 2060 mobile. Yeah that's a mystery, I guess you could try disabling the onboard graphics in the BIOS. Can you open up the bottom easily and see if it needs to be cleaned of dust, also? Also also what kind of CPU do you have in there, could you be getting bottlenecked by the CPU?