General PC help/advice (1 Viewer)

[Jonno]

@2scoops out of curiosity is it all steam games that crash..??

 

[2scoops]

No, Project Cars and iRacing

 

[Jonno]

No, Project Cars and iRacing

(from what iv read online)..As stupid as it sounds but it could be a sound card conflict.. If it is only thoes two id suspect a hardware conflict.
(youv probbly done it allready but) Have you tried disabling certain hardware an elimination of things may find your issue

 

[2scoops]

I have as much as I can, tried a different graphics card too

 

[MelBonkers]

I'm an old fart: when 2scoops told me I had to look in the technical forum I went to the projectcars forums LOL.

But it looks like I solved the issue by putting my gpu back to stock clocks. The pc looks stable now in PCARS.

 

[Jonno]

Ok after searching the internet for a gaming laptop seems i may be out of luck as there really pricey. if i find one with a low tag i think great read reviews only to find it is to good to be true lol.
So my question is....
What are the main things i need to look at for a laptop to play games.. I know im going to need a quad core cpu but what else..

 

[Havocc]

I would like to get rift but bad news my i7 3770 can't handle that (according to oculus testing software) and even worse news i can't upgrade my cpu without changing mobo, so i don't know what to do

 

[Pamellaaa]

I would like to get rift but bad news my i7 3770 can't handle that (according to oculus testing software) and even worse news i can't upgrade my cpu without changing mobo, so i don't know what to do

My 3770K with really quite mild overclock handled it fine when I had a go with @Battenberg's rift recently, that plus a 980 and 16gb of ram gave very few problems and even when pushing the game hard we maintained a playable framerate and there was room to turn some settings down if required as well.

 

[Havocc]

I have gtx970 and 8gb ram, plus i would need an usb3 card, looks like those cards are cheap and i can plug them to the 2nd pci-e slot i have

 

[Tom]

@Havocc I have an older i7 2600K, with a GTX 970, and it's fine with ASW on. It's not very pretty, and it's a bit choppy at times, but it's still wonderful. Although I use my motherboard's USB 3 ports, the Oculus software reports them as USB 2 (idk why), and both work fine. So I reckon you're good to go as is, but getting a USB 3 card can't be a bad idea.

 

[Jonno]

Guys whats the best thermal compound to use..??

 

[Cluck]

For CPU -> heatsink you mean? I've used Arctic Cooling MX paste for a few years and not had any bother with it. Has tended to get pretty good reviews aswell.

 

[Jonno]

For CPU -> heatsink you mean? I've used Arctic Cooling MX paste for a few years and not had any bother with it. Has tended to get pretty good reviews aswell.

yes mate heatsink is thermal paste/compound...thanks ill check it out

 

[Gopher04]

Going to pick a 1070 soon, but a bit confused about which way to go with the cable connections, I use 2 monitors my main, and a extended monitor, now on the 1070 you have dvi/dpi and hdmi connections, on the monitors I have dvi on the extended one, and on the main screen I have dvi/hdmi, one of these can be connected using the dvi cable still, one has to have a hdmi to dvi cable, or dpi to dvi cable, or I could use hdmi to hdmi on the main screen only.
I was thinking of staying with dvi to dvi on the extended monitor and dpi to dvi on the main monitor, any opinions would be helpful.

 

[ramiboo]

I'm not sure you'll see any benefits from running a Display port to DVI connection. As far as I know, the only real difference between HDMI and DVI is that you can have audio over HDMI. The Refresh and quality is the same. So I'd go HDMI to the main and DVI to the Extended.

If you upgraded the main monitor to one that supports Display port then you can use it then. @Cluck might offer more advise with this.

 

[Gopher04]

Yeh I knew there wouldn't be any real benefits, it was just to see which would be the best cable combo for the moment, and the fact that hdmi doesn't use a form of clamp system like dvi and dpi do, plus a few years back hdmi from want I read was the best way to go for PC's, but hey what do I know.

 

[Cluck]

In terms of image quality, there should be absolutely no difference between DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort. HDMI and DP can both carry audio as well as working at much higher resolutions but that's about it.

I can't think of any reason for choosing one over the other, in terms of which one to use as the primary interface, it really makes little odds as far as I can tell.

 

[Alex du Plessis]

DisplayPort version 1.2 can support video resolutions of up to 3840 x 2160 pixels (4K) at a refresh rate of 60 Hz, and it supports all common 3D video formats. In terms of bandwidth, it can manage 17.28 Gbps. Version 1.3, when it arrives, will support up to 8192 x 4320 (8K) resolution, or two simultaneous 4K streams. It will also double bandwidth to 32.4 Gbps.

The downside of DisplayPort at the moment is that it doesn't support ethernet data, and the standard doesn't have an audio return channel. However, it is capable of multiple video outputs which means more than one display.

Meanwhile, HDMI version 1.4 is the most common at the moment. This supports the same 4K resolution as DisplayPort 1.2, but at just 30 Hz (or 4096 x 2160 at 24 Hz). HDMI 2.0 is new on the scene in a few devices such as this Sony TV. This doubles the refresh rate to 60 Hz as well as increases bandwidth from 10.2- to 18 Gbps.

Unlike DisplayPort, all HDMI supports return audio and you can buy versions which include up to 100 Mbps ethernet.The former means you can upstream audio to a device like an AV receiver if, for example, your TV gets broadcast TV but you don't want to hear the audio from the built-in speakers.

It also supported Consumer Electronics Control (CEC), a feature which lets users control enabled device with one remote control.
In terms of audio, there's really no difference as both the latest versions of HDMI and DisplayPort support up to eight channels of digital audio at up to 24-bit and 192 kHz.

Most HDMI cables are short (a metre or two) and if you want to cover a long distance you might need to use a signal booster or an 'active' cable which amplifies the signal itself. The HDMI standard doesn't specify a maximum length.

For DisplayPort, you can deliver 4K video over a length up to 2 m using a passive cable. You can run a passive cable up to 15 m but you'll be limited to 1080p (full-HD) resolution, as defined by the standard. In practice it should manage up to 2560 x 1600-pixel resolution over 5 metres without issue.

Sorry for the long post but I saw this so added it to the conversation and I agree with @Cluck there is very little difference which our eyes will not even see, especially my old ones

 

[Cluck]

Technically, there should be zero difference in image quality - they are all transmitting a digital signal after all.

Personally, if it's a hi-resolution monitor AND it has a DisplayPort connection, then that's the connection I would use. HDMI would be my second choice, followed by DVI (resolution permitting)

 

[Gopher04]

Cluck gives me nice simple answer, Alex then complicates it..lol, ok lets simplify this abit forget the extended monitor for now, I'm just going with the dvi connections both ends for that one, the main monitor I have 3 choices:

hdmi to hdmi
hdmi to dvi
dpi to dvi

is there any real benefit which ever way I go, or is there away I should go, not forgetting I use 27" 1920x1080p 60hz monitor right now.