I guess my concern is if it's one of those things that is never really taken up before the next thing comes around and eclipses it.
But you can always convince yourself that the best thing to do is wait six months and THEN get a new PC.
Ray tracing doesn't look like it's going away. As power increases it'll be easier to handle as the years go on. It's less 3D for TV's and more 3D models in video games. Starts with FF7's block characters, but eventually gets to where we are today.
That said, it's a bit of an unknown how fast it'll be adopted. Right now it seems it's mostly used in AAA games. But with both new consoles supporting it, we could see it more in 2-3 years. The question I'd ask myself is if your ok playing games like Cyberpunk without ray tracing today?
I guess my concern is if it's one of those things that is never really taken up before the next thing comes around and eclipses it.
But you can always convince yourself that the best thing to do is wait six months and THEN get a new PC.
Raytracing does not look to be a gimmick. Both companies are pushing it, with Nvidia being the current frontrunner for the technology, especially when you consider DLSS. And more games are coming with RT support.
That being said, trying to buy parts right now is an absolute fucking disaster and unless you're willing to be subscribed to several discords and have Distill and YouTube running all day for 3-4 months, trying desperately to beat out bots, right now is a terrible time to try and build a computer. I started my build in October and just finished it last week.
So when you said wait six months I involuntarily nodded at the screen.
There's enormous demand and not enough supply. We may see things ease in six months, but maybe not. I figured things would have eased by now and they haven't.
It's hard to make plans unless you're willing to wait and buy from a system builder since they're getting regular shipments. Note that buying from a system builder means paying a pretty hefty premium, though it beats buying from a scalper.
I'd suggest just holding onto your money for now and waiting things out if you can. Hopefully it'll ease in six months.
Considering even legit sellers are pricing above MSRP due to the supply crunch (when they even have stock) it’s really not that much of a premium right now
Ray tracing is really neat and I hope it's in every video game (that can logically make use of it) a year from now
I think it will be. I really am expecting, now that the consoles are out there, that a ton of work is going to go into optimizing how we are doing it as to make it practical for use in most games, for most gamers.
I am expecting a playstation 5 or series X to be able to do cyberpunk at 4k30* with RT on, which means that owners of even upper-mid current GPUs now, or multiple generations of GPUs in the coming years, will be able to get something closer to native 1440p60+ with the feature enabled.
*Actual resolution from frame to frame will almost certainly vary, as they will either be using a DLSS-like or variable resolution to make it work
syndalis on
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Ray tracing is really neat and I hope it's in every video game (that can logically make use of it) a year from now
I think it will be. I really am expecting, now that the consoles are out there, that a ton of work is going to go into optimizing how we are doing it as to make it practical for use in most games, for most gamers.
I am expecting a playstation 5 or series X to be able to do cyberpunk at 4k30* with RT on, which means that owners of even upper-mid current GPUs now, or multiple generations of GPUs in the coming years, will be able to get something closer to native 1440p60+ with the feature enabled.
*Actual resolution from frame to frame will almost certainly vary, as they will either be using a DLSS-like or variable resolution to make it work
I wonder at this. Largely because right now, most games that do RT lighting do it in some sort of hybrid part tradition raster, part RT, try to get the best of both worlds without murdering performance kind of way. So the games that have done it best have a very tailored approach to their engine and art style.
Then you have all the engines that are baking in RT lighting, but thus far I've found what few products support RT in those engines enormously underwhelming. Using the RT in an off the shelf engine seems to carry all the performance penalties using any feature of an off the shelf engine. Which is to say, it's around twice as slow as doing it yourself. We've just had so much computing power for so long, we've forgotten how shitty a lot OTS engines really are when it comes to performance. Nobody cares when Hand of Fate or The Outer Worlds doesn't run as fast or with all the graphical splendor they probably could with Carmack level custom engines. That's not their goal. But IMHO, if you are trying to make a game that pushes the technical envelop, using the RT lighting provided by an OTS engine is a fools errand.
And until it gets to the level where the RT in Unity or Unreal engine is actually performant, you won't see widespread adoption like you are talking about, regardless of what the hardware is capable of. Which will probably take at least 2x the RT performance before those bloated "We can do everything and the kitchen sink" engines will practically be able to make effective use of RT.
So I've finally done something more sweaty than putting together my own PC.
Putting together a friends PC for them. Holy smokes!
So I had some issues with the 8 and 4 pin power sockets on the motherboard. I feel like before that I've plugged in an 8 pin and half another 8 into the 4 pin and that worked? Except this time around it didn't boot with the 4 in, as soon as I took it out it was fine?
If that was incorrect then I'm hoping I haven't damaged anything!
Unless you're doing heavy overclocks you can run on just the 8-pin. It is fine.
Seems weird that you'd have a PSU with two 8-pins for CPU with no 4-pin though? Sure it's not some 4+4s?
So this perplexed me too. I spent a long time fiddling and got nowhere. The 8 was indeed two 4 pins, but all the additional connectors (which were 6 and 2 combo ones) would not fit in the 8 pin slot. Specifically the 2 pin part was not right. I'm like 99% sure since I unscrewed the top part of the case to get a better look and everything. I was very surprised though.
That moment when I clicked power on and got nothing but a quiet click from the PSU though...
Oh and in other questions based on pant shitting moments from the build. Any have any idea why I'm getting BIOS video output through displayport only? Initially was using HDMI (since I've got spare ports on my monitor) and nothing was outputting. Swapped out a DP from my main PC and things were and are hunkydory! Going to be installing windows later, so I'll see if the HDMIs work properly there.
Just for everyone's edification, as connecting the wrong one may cause serious damage. Which you were fortunate to avoid thankfully!
The 8-pin connectors have different layout of rounded vs square: EPS 12V (for CPU) and PCIe (for GPU) won't plug into each other, in theory.
However, some PSUs or connector cables can actually be the wrong design or flawed and could be plugged in inappropriately, so always double check EPS 12V (CPU) vs PCIe (GPU) as best you can.
There is only EPS 12V 4-pin connectors, and only PCIe 6-pin connectors. Both ended up having beefier 8-pin versions, and this is why you see on PSUs 4+4 and 6+2 respectively.
Depending on PSU/cables, it is possible to incorrectly connect part of any of these connectors to the 4-pin. Never rely on "it fits" but check the PSU designations!
Also as previously mentioned, it is just fine to connect only 8-pin on motherboards with both 8-pin and 4-pin side by side EPS 12V. If you have a motherboard with the 8-pin, make sure you connect the 8-pin and not just the 4-pin. Connecting both is safe. You'll only need both if you're doing extreme overclocking and demanding a lot of power for your CPU.
Ray tracing is really neat and I hope it's in every video game (that can logically make use of it) a year from now
I think it will be. I really am expecting, now that the consoles are out there, that a ton of work is going to go into optimizing how we are doing it as to make it practical for use in most games, for most gamers.
I am expecting a playstation 5 or series X to be able to do cyberpunk at 4k30* with RT on, which means that owners of even upper-mid current GPUs now, or multiple generations of GPUs in the coming years, will be able to get something closer to native 1440p60+ with the feature enabled.
*Actual resolution from frame to frame will almost certainly vary, as they will either be using a DLSS-like or variable resolution to make it work
I wonder at this. Largely because right now, most games that do RT lighting do it in some sort of hybrid part tradition raster, part RT, try to get the best of both worlds without murdering performance kind of way. So the games that have done it best have a very tailored approach to their engine and art style.
Then you have all the engines that are baking in RT lighting, but thus far I've found what few products support RT in those engines enormously underwhelming. Using the RT in an off the shelf engine seems to carry all the performance penalties using any feature of an off the shelf engine. Which is to say, it's around twice as slow as doing it yourself. We've just had so much computing power for so long, we've forgotten how shitty a lot OTS engines really are when it comes to performance. Nobody cares when Hand of Fate or The Outer Worlds doesn't run as fast or with all the graphical splendor they probably could with Carmack level custom engines. That's not their goal. But IMHO, if you are trying to make a game that pushes the technical envelop, using the RT lighting provided by an OTS engine is a fools errand.
And until it gets to the level where the RT in Unity or Unreal engine is actually performant, you won't see widespread adoption like you are talking about, regardless of what the hardware is capable of. Which will probably take at least 2x the RT performance before those bloated "We can do everything and the kitchen sink" engines will practically be able to make effective use of RT.
I thought I saw an indie or smaller game that was using RT and they mentioned it was easier for them to use than without RT. I wonder if we don't see more RT from those types of games that don't have a hundred other things going.
Origin ID\ Steam ID: Warder45
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
RT lighting is incredibly easy to get mind blowing results. It's much easier than a lot of the other lighting techniques, both forward and deferred. RT global illumination especially is almost fire and forget once you know how to feed the GPU the culling structures.
Well that's the third motherboard I've gone through on my 2004 Retro PC.
1st motherboard was full of all sorts of problems. Not the least of which being that the AGP slot is totally dead.
2nd motherboard got lost in the mail during the holidays.
3rd motherboard showed up today and it was 100% DOA. Not even a fan spun up.
I'm caving. I really wanted a Socket 754 system with an AGP Geforce 6800, but fate has decided that it's not going to happen. A local electronic scrap dealer has an Athlon X2 CPU & Mobo & Ram deal, verified working. I'll just order a PCI-E Geforce 6800.
Sucks too, because the guy I got the AGP one from doesn't accept returns. So that's money down the drain. Oh well.
So I've finally done something more sweaty than putting together my own PC.
Putting together a friends PC for them. Holy smokes!
So I had some issues with the 8 and 4 pin power sockets on the motherboard. I feel like before that I've plugged in an 8 pin and half another 8 into the 4 pin and that worked? Except this time around it didn't boot with the 4 in, as soon as I took it out it was fine?
If that was incorrect then I'm hoping I haven't damaged anything!
Unless you're doing heavy overclocks you can run on just the 8-pin. It is fine.
Seems weird that you'd have a PSU with two 8-pins for CPU with no 4-pin though? Sure it's not some 4+4s?
So this perplexed me too. I spent a long time fiddling and got nowhere. The 8 was indeed two 4 pins, but all the additional connectors (which were 6 and 2 combo ones) would not fit in the 8 pin slot. Specifically the 2 pin part was not right. I'm like 99% sure since I unscrewed the top part of the case to get a better look and everything. I was very surprised though.
That moment when I clicked power on and got nothing but a quiet click from the PSU though...
Oh and in other questions based on pant shitting moments from the build. Any have any idea why I'm getting BIOS video output through displayport only? Initially was using HDMI (since I've got spare ports on my monitor) and nothing was outputting. Swapped out a DP from my main PC and things were and are hunkydory! Going to be installing windows later, so I'll see if the HDMIs work properly there.
Just for everyone's edification, as connecting the wrong one may cause serious damage. Which you were fortunate to avoid thankfully!
The 8-pin connectors have different layout of rounded vs square: EPS 12V (for CPU) and PCIe (for GPU) won't plug into each other, in theory.
However, some PSUs or connector cables can actually be the wrong design or flawed and could be plugged in inappropriately, so always double check EPS 12V (CPU) vs PCIe (GPU) as best you can.
There is only EPS 12V 4-pin connectors, and only PCIe 6-pin connectors. Both ended up having beefier 8-pin versions, and this is why you see on PSUs 4+4 and 6+2 respectively.
Depending on PSU/cables, it is possible to incorrectly connect part of any of these connectors to the 4-pin. Never rely on "it fits" but check the PSU designations!
Also as previously mentioned, it is just fine to connect only 8-pin on motherboards with both 8-pin and 4-pin side by side EPS 12V. If you have a motherboard with the 8-pin, make sure you connect the 8-pin and not just the 4-pin. Connecting both is safe. You'll only need both if you're doing extreme overclocking and demanding a lot of power for your CPU.
Well now I'm glad I paid attention to the markings on what I thought were otherwise completely identical PCIe and CPU cables!
@jungleroomx I highly recommend you get a small DAC Amp like a Fiio (I can DM you the specific model I bought). It offloads all the processing from the computer and you just plug directly into the amp.
Also congrats on getting some snazzy comfy cans!
---
Wife wants to put a monitor in our spare room that she sometimes uses for Zooms that require a quieter space. Before I go hunting for various sales, does anyone have any screens they aren't using anymore? I'm willing to discuss price. I'm trying to keep from generating even more potential e-waste.
This is for an office environment, so 1080p is more than enough.
Ray tracing is really neat and I hope it's in every video game (that can logically make use of it) a year from now
I said it before, but it's like AA
When AA first came out it was doing SSAA, which smoothed every single thing in the players view (even shit that could not be seen) and incurred a massive penalty in performance. Then came along MSAA, which only did the edges, and then other types like TXAA which did even less (only screenspace, etc etc) with almost zero change to picture quality. Now AA is still a hit, but it's like a 10% hit instead of 50%.
I think that's how it's going to go with RT. Right now it's being brute forced on everything, and I'd bet there's light calculations going on right now that the player will never actually see in any way just sucking up the clocks. I don't think it's possible to do an only screenspace RT (doesn't make sense), but I DO think that with the big boy devs working on it we're going to see some pretty nice implementations of RT that use the dedicated AMD and NVidia hardware.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
@jungleroomx I highly recommend you get a small DAC Amp like a Fiio (I can DM you the specific model I bought). It offloads all the processing from the computer and you just plug directly into the amp.
Also congrats on getting some snazzy comfy cans!
Thanks! I put on the velour cups and these things just went up another level in comfort
Funny enough, these headphones do come with a little amp.
I don't know what kind of power is necessary to drive them (or what the ohms are on those drivers), so I'm hesitant to buy an external amp/dac setup, but if I see it's not some weird proprietary thing and more industry standard I'd probably consider it.
yeah, the big thing for me (when I got my Drop Sennheiser HD6XX) was that it simplified how Windows detected and handled them via the amp, versus trying to tweak settings in Windows themselves.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
yeah, the big thing for me (when I got my Drop Sennheiser HD6XX) was that it simplified how Windows detected and handled them via the amp, versus trying to tweak settings in Windows themselves.
I've already got my heart set on a schiitstack, as I've heard what they can do with even a decent pair of cans (Sennheiser HD 600's I think).
I just don't have the (responsible) money at the moment to commit $700 to an audio solution.
I've never messed around with amps; I have a Drop Sennheiser PC37X headset but my audio setup is not as straightforward as just plugging it into the mobo. The mic jack for it is, but the audio jack on the mobo is occupied by a plug coming from a control dial for my powered dual speakers. Said dial has an aux port, and the audio jack for my headphones is plugged into a stereo extension cable which terminates near the dial. So I plug the end of the extension cable into the dial and now all my PC audio's playing in the headphones.
So not only am I not sure what the benefits of an amp are, or if I care about 'em, but I'm not sure they'd be useful in my setup nor where to put the amp in sequence if I bought one.
Ha. I was considering cancelling my order and just wait until later to get the card since I just spent a bunch of money on a general computer upgrade, but the card went up by $120 since I ordered it. Yeah, might as well get it at my order price then.
@Rius it's largely an audiophile thing. Many people who go hard in the paint on audio prefer external amps because they can provide full power to the headphone drivers, rather than relying on the motherboard. Also an external/third party signal processor often does a better job making things sound better.
So far I've had really good luck with my Soundblaster SBX. It's got a good enough amp, came we an weirdly good beamforming mic, and I really like the SBX software for my new planars, since it allows me to bring back the "boom" for games that I want it in.
This card is one chonky boi. It actually hits the removable drive cage - I only have one drive in it so for now I'm leaving it out and that SSD dangling, it'll just be like this for about ten days until the rest of my new stuff arrivse.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Yeah I've been lowkey looking at Schiit stacks on r/hardwareswap for a while
I posted in the headphones thread but I got my Vali2/Modi schiit stack this week and it's amazing. Just driving some Sony 7506 headphones and they just sound so much better than if they were just plugged into the motherboard.
After the first motherboard being a total nutjob, the second motherboard getting lost in the mail, and the third motherboard having more bulging caps than not and being totally DOA, I got a tickle in the back of my brain.
Now that first motherboard had a lot of issues. Wouldn't POST reliably. AGP slot didn't work. At some point it just began always booting into the bios, never into a device. Super wonky. But it at least POSTed some of the time, and actually showed up.
So I dig it back out. I clear the CMOS. Again. For a really long time. AGP slot is still dead, but the PCI graphics card works. And it stopped always going into the BIOS. In fact it's POSTing very reliably now! And that tickle in the back of my brain is getting louder.
What if the AGP slot doesn't work, because the AGP aperture is FUBARed because of the RAM? What if I have bad/incompatible ram? I mean, I'm used to wonky ram just straight up preventing a system from POSTing in the first place... but what if? I find a dude on craigslist selling some random DDR sticks locally, and low and behold, the AGP slot began working. And the BIOS finally lists AGP 8X as a possibility. That was another thing that was weird. With the original RAM the AGP speed was capped at 4x, even though it was an 8x board.
So, sorry @Bullhead, ended up not using the awesome OCZ sticks you sent me after all. Not sure if it's the RAM or the mobo not being compatible with them. Although part of the tickle in my brain was a random Linus Tech Tips video where he's building a retro PC, and remarking that OCZ ram wasn't that durable. Allegedly they ran them at high voltages, and hid behind a lifetime warrantee if they burned out.
Anyhoo. From there I could not get WinXP to install onto a SATA SSD. Even after adding the SATA drivers to the WinXP install cd using a utility. So I installed it on a downright ancient IDE HDD I had in a junk drawer. Shocked the process didn't kill it. Then I installed Intel's Data Migration Tool (since it's an older Intel SSD) and cloned it to the SSD after getting all the SATA drivers installed.
And then WinXP just gets stuck in an infinite restart loop when it tries to boot off the SSD. So I guess I'm stuck on the HDD until I work that out.
Next up I got the Audigy 2 ZS installed, trouble free, then Doom 3, and then, voila.
Admittedly, not the best picture. It's not that green, I swear.
Got everything moved into the case. Cable management is near non-existent, and I still need to get the side panel on. Probably order an actual quantity of RAM too. Right now I only have 512 MB in there. But it works! RetroPC 2004 is complete, pretty much exactly the way I wanted it!
Awesome! And apologies, those OCZ likely spent some (all?) of their life overclocked to some level, so I may have abused them on top of a poor rep lol. At least the Audigy is kicking ass!
Just when I think I'm about done getting my desk and PC exactly how I want it I go and drop a silly amount of money on a new keyboard. A week ago I was having a hard time justifying $250 on a Logitech G915 and then I come across a keyboard with a keycap swap will perfectly match the brushed silver aluminum, black, and blue theme my PC has. Enter the wireless Iqunix F96 in silver with black keycaps and blue RGB and any sense of too much money goes completely out the window.
@Namrok fwiw I have a couple IDE drives kicking around that you're free to have. I may have a way to wipe them; I have to check(at least 2 are 2.5"). I think I still have a drive in its new packaging but I don't remember if it's IDE. If it is, are you interested?
Also I remember having a collection of old ram but I may have chucked it.
Help me with shipping (pay half) and you can have it.
So I've finally done something more sweaty than putting together my own PC.
Putting together a friends PC for them. Holy smokes!
So I had some issues with the 8 and 4 pin power sockets on the motherboard. I feel like before that I've plugged in an 8 pin and half another 8 into the 4 pin and that worked? Except this time around it didn't boot with the 4 in, as soon as I took it out it was fine?
If that was incorrect then I'm hoping I haven't damaged anything!
Unless you're doing heavy overclocks you can run on just the 8-pin. It is fine.
Seems weird that you'd have a PSU with two 8-pins for CPU with no 4-pin though? Sure it's not some 4+4s?
So this perplexed me too. I spent a long time fiddling and got nowhere. The 8 was indeed two 4 pins, but all the additional connectors (which were 6 and 2 combo ones) would not fit in the 8 pin slot. Specifically the 2 pin part was not right. I'm like 99% sure since I unscrewed the top part of the case to get a better look and everything. I was very surprised though.
That moment when I clicked power on and got nothing but a quiet click from the PSU though...
Oh and in other questions based on pant shitting moments from the build. Any have any idea why I'm getting BIOS video output through displayport only? Initially was using HDMI (since I've got spare ports on my monitor) and nothing was outputting. Swapped out a DP from my main PC and things were and are hunkydory! Going to be installing windows later, so I'll see if the HDMIs work properly there.
Just for everyone's edification, as connecting the wrong one may cause serious damage. Which you were fortunate to avoid thankfully!
The 8-pin connectors have different layout of rounded vs square: EPS 12V (for CPU) and PCIe (for GPU) won't plug into each other, in theory.
However, some PSUs or connector cables can actually be the wrong design or flawed and could be plugged in inappropriately, so always double check EPS 12V (CPU) vs PCIe (GPU) as best you can.
There is only EPS 12V 4-pin connectors, and only PCIe 6-pin connectors. Both ended up having beefier 8-pin versions, and this is why you see on PSUs 4+4 and 6+2 respectively.
Depending on PSU/cables, it is possible to incorrectly connect part of any of these connectors to the 4-pin. Never rely on "it fits" but check the PSU designations!
Also as previously mentioned, it is just fine to connect only 8-pin on motherboards with both 8-pin and 4-pin side by side EPS 12V. If you have a motherboard with the 8-pin, make sure you connect the 8-pin and not just the 4-pin. Connecting both is safe. You'll only need both if you're doing extreme overclocking and demanding a lot of power for your CPU.
Damn, sounds like I caught a lucky break not frying anything then! The PSU would do a tiny click, but then nothing else, so sounds like it saved my butt. I would have felt a total arse if I managed to fry my buddies mobo.
Just for quick clarification: dude moved all his storage to M.2 form factor. Then he designed stickers for each drive. Color coordinated to the build and the lions.
@Namrok fwiw I have a couple IDE drives kicking around that you're free to have. I may have a way to wipe them; I have to check(at least 2 are 2.5"). I think I still have a drive in its new packaging but I don't remember if it's IDE. If it is, are you interested?
Also I remember having a collection of old ram but I may have chucked it.
Help me with shipping (pay half) and you can have it.
Thanks, but I think I'm good. Already ordered some 2x1 GB sticks off the "Supported RAM" list. At least assuming the ebay listing is accurate, which it may not be. Also ordered a SATA to IDE adapter? Maybe that will help the SSD load? We'll see. The goal is to get away from IDE HDDs anyways. I don't trust those things.
Failing that I may just get another SD Card to IDE adapter since that worked amazingly on my 1999 RetroPC. Then again, it's running software with a significantly lower footprint. Oh well! Adapters are cheap and never hurt to have around.
Posts
Ray tracing doesn't look like it's going away. As power increases it'll be easier to handle as the years go on. It's less 3D for TV's and more 3D models in video games. Starts with FF7's block characters, but eventually gets to where we are today.
That said, it's a bit of an unknown how fast it'll be adopted. Right now it seems it's mostly used in AAA games. But with both new consoles supporting it, we could see it more in 2-3 years. The question I'd ask myself is if your ok playing games like Cyberpunk without ray tracing today?
Raytracing does not look to be a gimmick. Both companies are pushing it, with Nvidia being the current frontrunner for the technology, especially when you consider DLSS. And more games are coming with RT support.
That being said, trying to buy parts right now is an absolute fucking disaster and unless you're willing to be subscribed to several discords and have Distill and YouTube running all day for 3-4 months, trying desperately to beat out bots, right now is a terrible time to try and build a computer. I started my build in October and just finished it last week.
So when you said wait six months I involuntarily nodded at the screen.
Considering even legit sellers are pricing above MSRP due to the supply crunch (when they even have stock) it’s really not that much of a premium right now
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
I think it will be. I really am expecting, now that the consoles are out there, that a ton of work is going to go into optimizing how we are doing it as to make it practical for use in most games, for most gamers.
I am expecting a playstation 5 or series X to be able to do cyberpunk at 4k30* with RT on, which means that owners of even upper-mid current GPUs now, or multiple generations of GPUs in the coming years, will be able to get something closer to native 1440p60+ with the feature enabled.
*Actual resolution from frame to frame will almost certainly vary, as they will either be using a DLSS-like or variable resolution to make it work
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I wonder at this. Largely because right now, most games that do RT lighting do it in some sort of hybrid part tradition raster, part RT, try to get the best of both worlds without murdering performance kind of way. So the games that have done it best have a very tailored approach to their engine and art style.
Then you have all the engines that are baking in RT lighting, but thus far I've found what few products support RT in those engines enormously underwhelming. Using the RT in an off the shelf engine seems to carry all the performance penalties using any feature of an off the shelf engine. Which is to say, it's around twice as slow as doing it yourself. We've just had so much computing power for so long, we've forgotten how shitty a lot OTS engines really are when it comes to performance. Nobody cares when Hand of Fate or The Outer Worlds doesn't run as fast or with all the graphical splendor they probably could with Carmack level custom engines. That's not their goal. But IMHO, if you are trying to make a game that pushes the technical envelop, using the RT lighting provided by an OTS engine is a fools errand.
And until it gets to the level where the RT in Unity or Unreal engine is actually performant, you won't see widespread adoption like you are talking about, regardless of what the hardware is capable of. Which will probably take at least 2x the RT performance before those bloated "We can do everything and the kitchen sink" engines will practically be able to make effective use of RT.
Just for everyone's edification, as connecting the wrong one may cause serious damage. Which you were fortunate to avoid thankfully!
The 8-pin connectors have different layout of rounded vs square: EPS 12V (for CPU) and PCIe (for GPU) won't plug into each other, in theory.
However, some PSUs or connector cables can actually be the wrong design or flawed and could be plugged in inappropriately, so always double check EPS 12V (CPU) vs PCIe (GPU) as best you can.
There is only EPS 12V 4-pin connectors, and only PCIe 6-pin connectors. Both ended up having beefier 8-pin versions, and this is why you see on PSUs 4+4 and 6+2 respectively.
Depending on PSU/cables, it is possible to incorrectly connect part of any of these connectors to the 4-pin. Never rely on "it fits" but check the PSU designations!
Also as previously mentioned, it is just fine to connect only 8-pin on motherboards with both 8-pin and 4-pin side by side EPS 12V. If you have a motherboard with the 8-pin, make sure you connect the 8-pin and not just the 4-pin. Connecting both is safe. You'll only need both if you're doing extreme overclocking and demanding a lot of power for your CPU.
I thought I saw an indie or smaller game that was using RT and they mentioned it was easier for them to use than without RT. I wonder if we don't see more RT from those types of games that don't have a hundred other things going.
I want to build stuff!
Well that's the third motherboard I've gone through on my 2004 Retro PC.
1st motherboard was full of all sorts of problems. Not the least of which being that the AGP slot is totally dead.
2nd motherboard got lost in the mail during the holidays.
3rd motherboard showed up today and it was 100% DOA. Not even a fan spun up.
I'm caving. I really wanted a Socket 754 system with an AGP Geforce 6800, but fate has decided that it's not going to happen. A local electronic scrap dealer has an Athlon X2 CPU & Mobo & Ram deal, verified working. I'll just order a PCI-E Geforce 6800.
Sucks too, because the guy I got the AGP one from doesn't accept returns. So that's money down the drain. Oh well.
Well now I'm glad I paid attention to the markings on what I thought were otherwise completely identical PCIe and CPU cables!
Also congrats on getting some snazzy comfy cans!
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Wife wants to put a monitor in our spare room that she sometimes uses for Zooms that require a quieter space. Before I go hunting for various sales, does anyone have any screens they aren't using anymore? I'm willing to discuss price. I'm trying to keep from generating even more potential e-waste.
This is for an office environment, so 1080p is more than enough.
I ordered at 15:09 on Sep 17th so I guess I'm at position <1 in the queue?
I said it before, but it's like AA
When AA first came out it was doing SSAA, which smoothed every single thing in the players view (even shit that could not be seen) and incurred a massive penalty in performance. Then came along MSAA, which only did the edges, and then other types like TXAA which did even less (only screenspace, etc etc) with almost zero change to picture quality. Now AA is still a hit, but it's like a 10% hit instead of 50%.
I think that's how it's going to go with RT. Right now it's being brute forced on everything, and I'd bet there's light calculations going on right now that the player will never actually see in any way just sucking up the clocks. I don't think it's possible to do an only screenspace RT (doesn't make sense), but I DO think that with the big boy devs working on it we're going to see some pretty nice implementations of RT that use the dedicated AMD and NVidia hardware.
Thanks! I put on the velour cups and these things just went up another level in comfort
Funny enough, these headphones do come with a little amp.
I don't know what kind of power is necessary to drive them (or what the ohms are on those drivers), so I'm hesitant to buy an external amp/dac setup, but if I see it's not some weird proprietary thing and more industry standard I'd probably consider it.
I've already got my heart set on a schiitstack, as I've heard what they can do with even a decent pair of cans (Sennheiser HD 600's I think).
I just don't have the (responsible) money at the moment to commit $700 to an audio solution.
Blowing the entire 2021 hardware budget in the first half of January with this + the general computer upgrade.
So not only am I not sure what the benefits of an amp are, or if I care about 'em, but I'm not sure they'd be useful in my setup nor where to put the amp in sequence if I bought one.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
brb running to store
I posted in the headphones thread but I got my Vali2/Modi schiit stack this week and it's amazing. Just driving some Sony 7506 headphones and they just sound so much better than if they were just plugged into the motherboard.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
After the first motherboard being a total nutjob, the second motherboard getting lost in the mail, and the third motherboard having more bulging caps than not and being totally DOA, I got a tickle in the back of my brain.
Now that first motherboard had a lot of issues. Wouldn't POST reliably. AGP slot didn't work. At some point it just began always booting into the bios, never into a device. Super wonky. But it at least POSTed some of the time, and actually showed up.
So I dig it back out. I clear the CMOS. Again. For a really long time. AGP slot is still dead, but the PCI graphics card works. And it stopped always going into the BIOS. In fact it's POSTing very reliably now! And that tickle in the back of my brain is getting louder.
What if the AGP slot doesn't work, because the AGP aperture is FUBARed because of the RAM? What if I have bad/incompatible ram? I mean, I'm used to wonky ram just straight up preventing a system from POSTing in the first place... but what if? I find a dude on craigslist selling some random DDR sticks locally, and low and behold, the AGP slot began working. And the BIOS finally lists AGP 8X as a possibility. That was another thing that was weird. With the original RAM the AGP speed was capped at 4x, even though it was an 8x board.
So, sorry @Bullhead, ended up not using the awesome OCZ sticks you sent me after all. Not sure if it's the RAM or the mobo not being compatible with them. Although part of the tickle in my brain was a random Linus Tech Tips video where he's building a retro PC, and remarking that OCZ ram wasn't that durable. Allegedly they ran them at high voltages, and hid behind a lifetime warrantee if they burned out.
Anyhoo. From there I could not get WinXP to install onto a SATA SSD. Even after adding the SATA drivers to the WinXP install cd using a utility. So I installed it on a downright ancient IDE HDD I had in a junk drawer. Shocked the process didn't kill it. Then I installed Intel's Data Migration Tool (since it's an older Intel SSD) and cloned it to the SSD after getting all the SATA drivers installed.
And then WinXP just gets stuck in an infinite restart loop when it tries to boot off the SSD. So I guess I'm stuck on the HDD until I work that out.
Next up I got the Audigy 2 ZS installed, trouble free, then Doom 3, and then, voila.
Admittedly, not the best picture. It's not that green, I swear.
Got everything moved into the case. Cable management is near non-existent, and I still need to get the side panel on. Probably order an actual quantity of RAM too. Right now I only have 512 MB in there. But it works! RetroPC 2004 is complete, pretty much exactly the way I wanted it!
Oh, maybe this is old news. I am seeing articles from mid-Decmeber about this event.
Also I remember having a collection of old ram but I may have chucked it.
Help me with shipping (pay half) and you can have it.
"I put a computer in my 80s Voltron toy castle"
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/ktknx7
I guarantee the posters in the thread ignored the great work by the OP and started griping about thermals.
I would expect nothing less
also that is an amazing job by the OP, damn
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
Damn, sounds like I caught a lucky break not frying anything then! The PSU would do a tiny click, but then nothing else, so sounds like it saved my butt. I would have felt a total arse if I managed to fry my buddies mobo.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/pablocampy
I uhhh, might have started humming the Voltron theme song when I saw that case.
An absolute masterpiece.
The main black drive is on the other side.
Thanks, but I think I'm good. Already ordered some 2x1 GB sticks off the "Supported RAM" list. At least assuming the ebay listing is accurate, which it may not be. Also ordered a SATA to IDE adapter? Maybe that will help the SSD load? We'll see. The goal is to get away from IDE HDDs anyways. I don't trust those things.
Failing that I may just get another SD Card to IDE adapter since that worked amazingly on my 1999 RetroPC. Then again, it's running software with a significantly lower footprint. Oh well! Adapters are cheap and never hurt to have around.