New Gaming PC (the slippery slope)

[danutz_plusplus]

Ok, I installed my 1080ti back into my old pc while setting up the new one, and I tried GTA4 on the 1080ti. And surprisingly it runs a lot smoother than the 3080ti. After a bit of search the web, apparently others have reported similarly, even on the 3080. And some have mentioned that apparently this issue is when the framerate is way too high. That sounds insane. It runs so high, that it causes stuttering issues ... weird. I guess it's pretty certain we won't be getting an official fix from Rockstar.

 

[pibbuR]

I have windows 11 and window blinds works just fine for me. So it is possible.

Everywhere I've looked it says that WB and Win11 is not compatible. Stardock is working on WB11, but it seems to be difficult. When I used it the windows GUI partially disappeared, trying to come up again and again and again. Fences disabled it self, saying it tried to enable itself - I couldn't get rid of that dialog.

But it's interesting that you get it to work.

pibbuR who now will (desperately) try to find out how he can get it to work on his PC.

 

[Redglyph]

Ok, I installed my 1080ti back into my old pc while setting up the new one, and I tried GTA4 on the 1080ti. And surprisingly it runs a lot smoother than the 3080ti. After a bit of search the web, apparently others have reported similarly, even on the 3080. And some have mentioned that apparently this issue is when the framerate is way too high. That sounds insane. It runs so high, that it causes stuttering issues ... weird. I guess it's pretty certain we won't be getting an official fix from Rockstar.

I've capped the framerate to 60 by default, for all apps, after I heard the card's coil whine while playing an older game (NWN). The framerate was several hundreds FPS. Unity games were generally not properly capped from their own settings either.

If you're running anything based on Electron (like VS Code) and the fonts get blurry, you'll also have to disable FXAA. Not sure when they'll fix that.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Well, I went through hell all through last night. Assembling the pc and getting it to work.

And I hate my new case. While more spacious, it lacks the fantastic design of the previous one where you could assembly everything on the main backplate where the motherboard is installed, and thus install everything outside the case. This new case made me get into all the tight corners, dropping screws, and all that fun stuff.

Anyway, after hours setting eveything (just replacing the default fans on the case with new ones took FOREVER), I install win10 off a retail stick I had bought ages ago, so it naturally came with an older version of win10, and so it required installing updates. I had done this plenty of times on my Intel systems. Took a bit of time, but it all went smoothly.

Well, with the modern hardware the older version of win10 would constantly BSOD, and updates could never manage to be installed. It's amazing that such an older version would be so incompatible with modern hardware. Anyway, after googling all the and trying to see what others are saying (since mind you, apparently this particular mobo and cpu is notoriously unstable? glad I found this out after buying it ), enabling disabling any bios thing I could think of, I sort of got it stable, but it would still crash, between 10-15 mins.

So I was ready to pack it all up, and was convinced I was returning everything, when I had the thought that maybe I can skip the updates (I had no confirmation that the outdated version of win10 would cause this amount of instability mind you; it was just a hunch) if I just write a more up to date version of it on a flash drive. So I went and did even better, I installed win11. And surprisingly, it runs flawlessly on win11. No crashes whatsoever. No issues. Everything is solid.

Man, what a night. I didn't sleep all night, but I'm glad it's over. If I ever have to assemble another pc it'll be too soon.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I've capped the framerate to 60 by default, for all apps, after I heard the card's coil whine while playing an older game (NWN). The framerate was several hundreds FPS. Unity games were generally not properly capped from their own settings either.

If you're running anything based on Electron (like VS Code) and the fonts get blurry, you'll also have to disable FXAA. Not sure when they'll fix that.

Great point. I tried it with GTA4. Forced it to max 60 through nvidia's control panel, and it now runs flawlessly

 

[danutz_plusplus]

On my pusher's website, several users complained that the Dark Hero was very picky when it comes to memory. So, when buying it, I consulted the ASUS website, and made sure to buy RAM explicitely listed as supported. Still, after installing the thing, it would not boot properly (Win 10). For me, the solution was to upgrade the BIOS, affter that it went very smoothly (still using Win 10) and it's been rock solid (and stable ever after).

Have you BTW overclocked (yet)? I used the Asus AIsuite3, running the default overclock procedure, not doing any manual adjustments. I'm now running it at 33% overclock speed (4.525 Ghz on all cores). I suppose I could get it even higher by fine-tuning parameters, but I don't know enough to do that. And I don't bother trying to find out.

BTW, another thing you may already know: To get the RAM running at 3600, you have to set that in BIOS. By default it chooses 2*** something. Unless they changed that.

pibbuR who somewhat later upgraded to Win11, which he regrets jus a little bit.

Yeah, I updated the bios using their usb method, and didn't see any improvement. The only improvement was when I disabled stuff like core performance boost and another overdrive thing, iirc. That dropped the BSOD to only after 10 mins. Otherwise it would crash at 1-2 mins after booting.

Yeah, I think I know about the ram needing the XMP profile enabled or something.

 

[pibbuR]

Yes. I'm sure that you know what you are/were doing. Didn't mean to be patronizing, but I see what I wrote seems like I were. Sorry.

Anyhow, glad you got it working. It's a great system - when it works.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Yes. I'm sure that you know what you are/were doing. Didn't mean to be patronizing, but I see what I wrote seems like I were. Sorry.

It's ok, I didn't patronized. I appreciate the help.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Now that some time has passed, seems I'm thinking about an upgrade in my ultrawide monitor. My current one is a pretty average one, 34" at 3440x1440 at 60Mhz. And I'm kind of tempted by this one

Electronics & Accessories | Dell USA

Shop Electronics Deals and get huge savings with our Sale on Monitors, Docking Stations, Webcams, Audio & more at Dell.com.

www.dell.com

38", 3840 x 1600 and 144Mhz. The refresh rate and the greater height are the things that winking at me, currently. I'm not sure which would be the competitor for this. Plus, it's still an IPS, which is mandatory for me.

 

[DArtagnan]

Now that some time has passed, seems I'm thinking about an upgrade in my ultrawide monitor. My current one is a pretty average one, 34" at 3440x1440 at 60Mhz. And I'm kind of tempted by this one

Electronics & Accessories | Dell USA

Shop Electronics Deals and get huge savings with our Sale on Monitors, Docking Stations, Webcams, Audio & more at Dell.com.

www.dell.com

38", 3840 x 1600 and 144Mhz. The refresh rate and the greater height are the things that winking at me, currently. I'm not sure which would be the competitor for this. Plus, it's still an IPS, which is mandatory for me.

Fair enough.

I would personally strongly recommend an OLED screen - like the "gaming" version of certain LG screens, like the recent C2.

The tech is perfect for gaming in every possible way - and the only true downside (chance of burn-in) has become easy to mitigate.

I'll never go back after my CX, that's for sure

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Fair enough.

I would personally strongly recommend an OLED screen - like the "gaming" version of certain LG screens, like the recent C2.

The tech is perfect for gaming in every possible way - and the only true downside (chance of burn-in) has become easy to mitigate.

I'll never go back after my CX, that's for sure

Yeah, that's a big one. Unfortunately I need an IPS screen.

I went for it, and I'll have to see how it is.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Well, I got the new monitor and am mostly pleasantly surprised, the 144Mhz really unlocked how smooth it all looks. But I think I really underestimated how much of a load this has on my graphics card, since now my games can render up to 144fps.

Basically, with G-Sync on and V-Sync on, in either Control, or RDR2, or Division 2, my framerate is usually between 80/90 and 144fps, and my card stays at around 75C-80C with fans at 80/90% speeds. At 60fps max it would top out at around 60C and 50% fans speed.

Another weird thing about it, even though it's only slightly curved, it actually feels narrower. And measured with a ruler it's around 10cm wider, even curved, than my previous one. But it "feels" slightly narrower. Weird.

But I'm happy about the extra 4cm in height. It makes it a feel a little better.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Nevermind what I said about it feeling narrower. I'm not sure what's going, since I've placed it close to the position the previous one was in, and it's absolutely ginormous while in games. I thought the other one occupied my whole field of view, but this is even more. I think the height really does do considerable good. And I think the monitor might also be closer to my eyes, since it's stand is larger and pushes the screen closer to me.

But man, the load on the gpu is no joke. I used to play Days Gone, at 60fps with most on high settings. And it never went over 60C, on the 1080ti. On this system, it's at 75C, 90% fan speed, at 120-130fps. And Deacon looks enormous on screen. It was the same game I played, but it kind of feels unwieldy, having it this close.

 

[JDR13]

But man, the load on the gpu is no joke. I used to play Days Gone, at 60fps with most on high settings. And it never went over 60C, on the 1080ti. On this system, it's at 75C, 90% fan speed, at 120-130fps. And Deacon looks enormous on screen. It was the same game I played, but it kind of feels unwieldy, having it this close.

Yeah, that's a trade-off you have to deal with when it comes to higher refresh and framerates. I guess you could use a FPS limiter if you're concerned about the heat and fan speeds.

It's probably just my inability to discern it, but anything over 60fps looks pretty much the same to me. I still think these ultra high refresh rates are more of a marketing gimmick than anything else.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Yeah, that's a trade-off you have to deal with when it comes to higher refresh and framerates. I guess you could use a FPS limiter if you're concerned about the heat and fan speeds.

It's probably just my inability to discern it, but anything over 60fps looks pretty much the same to me. I still think these ultra high refresh rates are more of a marketing gimmick than anything else.

Yeah, I lowered the default refresh-rate to around 100Mhz, instead of 144. Since I didn't just want to bother with a frame limiter. Didn't really investigate the difference. Anyway, it lowered the load a bit. I'll experiment some more to find what's a good balance.

I was also under the impression that 60 is more than enough, until I saw 80-100fps on a friends system, and I noticed the increased fluidity. So, I think 100 is more than enough for me.

 

[wolfgrimdark]

This thread is exactly why I get all my PC's prebuilt

 

[DArtagnan]

80-100 FPS would be the sweet spot for me as well.

Anything below 80 will bother me - and it will bother me more if it's below 60.

60 FPS is fine for the most part - though not ideal, but the rate will fluctuate significantly in most games, and so if average FPS is at 60, it means segments of the game will likely be well below that - which will be particularly noticeable for me.

That said, what's probably at least as important for me would be input latency and combined responsiveness. I've played games with very good frame rates - but, for whatever reason, they control like pigs.

Anything above 100 will yield diminishing returns - and I don't really care.

It's easy enough to detect the difference in fluidity, though, it just doesn't make a difference to me.

I have three different monitors on my desktop.

I have a 200hz, a 120hz and a 60hz screen - and I can definitely feel the difference between 120hz and 200hz, especially when GSYNC is enabled and there's very low input latency.

It's just that there's no detectable impact on my gameplay and the increased responsiveness doesn't seem to help me in any way.

Beyond that, I don't play a whole lot of games that can provide steady frame rates of 200.

But I've played a few of them, including WoW - and it's an interesting feeling when everything is so fluid and responsive. I know people who claim that they benefit a lot from 200+ frame rates, especially certain shooter fanatics. That's where I get sceptical myself - but we all differ in such ways.

Also, some games are less annoying with lower FPS. For instance, turn-based games or certain strategy games don't really benefit much from 60+ FPS - at least not for me.

 

[Redglyph]

This thread is exactly why I get all my PC's prebuilt

I'm a believer in pre-built PC too. But they must be built from standard components, my last PC is a brand (Lenovo) because I had no other choice due to the shortage, and it's rather bad. The main components are rebranded, I have no idea where they're coming from, and they lack the monitoring / settings we usually get. I think there are some good brands, like HP, but there's always the risk of getting a closed system.

I had a few short series pre-built PC from competent computer parts vendors in the past and it was very good because they knew the best worry-free components from experience.

 

[Couchpotato]

I'll usually buy open box pre-built PCs from NewEgg. Get a nice discount on good but not top of the line PCs, and never received a broken one. Parts do vary though yes.

Go with Asus or MSI pre-built gaming PCs.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I'm not sure I'm ready to consider pre-built, but it sure was a pain in the ass to setup everything by hand. Especially when you lose practice, and you do it so rarely. And I also have quite big hands and thick fingers, so I can't get into plenty of tight spaces. I'm just glad it's done for now.

After some experimenting, I've decided on 85Mhz, that seems to be a good balance. I can keep all games at 80+ fps with max settings. And the gpu load is not that considerable, that with fan speeds at 60-70% I can keep it at 65-70C.