It's Friday, which means it's time for PC Perspective's weekly mailbag, our video show where Ryan and team answer your questions about the tech industry, the latest and greatest hardware, the process of running a tech review website, and more!
Here's what you'll find on today's show:
00:37 – Reviewers biased on i5-8400 reviews?
02:35 – Vega 56 performance close to Vega 64?
04:43 – HDR limited by monitor panel tech?
07:27 – Why do NVIDIA and AMD use blower style coolers?
09:54 – Backup software recommendation?
12:26 – Where are the 8-core Ryzen laptops?
13:51 – Will NVIDIA ever support FreeSync?
16:24 – Upgrade Xbox One X with SSD?
17:43 – i7-8700 vs. i7-8700K?
19:18 – Ryzen 5 1600 for gaming and Plex Server?
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Where is your article about
Where is your article about the new razer cell phone?
I have a question about
I have a question about process tech, how long do you think it will be before quantum tunnelling becomes an issue? We were told it would be around 5nm but IBM then go and produce a 5nm chip.
Like global foundry’s “7nm”
Like global foundry’s “7nm” it might be more marketing than a true 5nm process, though I wouldn’t know really. Maybe they just found a fix.
The effects of quantum
The effects of quantum tunneling can become apparent on scales much larger than 5nm depending on how the transistor is designed and what materials are used.
FinFet’s are one example of how transistor designed changed in an attempt to postpone the problem, i say postpone as quantum tunneling is inevitable as you decrease sizes, to postpone the effects of QT further they’re now looking at changing the materials that are used.
What ever happened to
What ever happened to Eye-finity? Can RX 560, for example, drive 2 to 3 displays and report it to the OS as one?
What graphics card would you recommend for a 1440p 60Hz monitor that has only hdmi and displayport inputs? I mostly do web browsing, watching videos, editing text files, and viewing pdf files? I do use all the gpu acceleration features of Chrome browser though.
Eyefinity still works fine,
Eyefinity still works fine, pretty sure I could still do 3 4k VSR displays with my RX 560.
They really need a GPU-Open version of Nvidia’s perspective correction stuff that I don’t think anyone uses. The thing they showed at the Pascal Demo.
Vega 56 or 1070ti for 1440p, Probably Vega 56 if you plan to upgrade to an adaptive sync display as Free-sync should always be cheaper than G-sync.
thumbnail caption:
“damn it,
thumbnail caption:
“damn it, I just shit my pants yet again!”
^ Spoken from experience.
^ Spoken from experience. Made for a rough Friday morning I bet. Don’t sweat it, my 18 month exhibited the same behavior until recently.
Speaking to local backup
Speaking to local backup software, with the feature set you’re after, I use Acronis TrueImage. Acronis allows for local image files/restoration, has the ability to create a bootable drive to perform a restore from, files contained within the backup image can be accessed an extracted individually, backup scheduling, version tracking, incremental and full backup, etc. Solid value for $50.
https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/computer-backup/
Same number of ROPs(64)
Same number of ROPs(64) between the Vega 56 and the Vega 64 so any games not needing even the Vega 56 complement of shaders for the game then there is not going to be much difference in gaming between the Vega 56 or 64. The texture fill rate on the Vega 56 is 329.5 GTexel/s(224 TMUs) while the texture fill rate on Vega 64 is 395.8 GTexel/s(256 TMUs). The slight difference in pixel fill rate(Vega 56: 94.14 GPixel/s | Vega 64: 98.94 GPixel/s) is probably due mosty to TMU count differences with clock rate differences less so.
So Vega 56 is pretty much very similar to the Vega 64 with the Vega 56 having a much lower shader count to compete better with Nvidia’s power usage metrics.
So TechPowerUp’s GPU database is a nice place to start when looking up GPU ROP/TMU as well as other hardware figures on shipping GPU variants and Vega 56 is pretty much matching the GTX 1080 in ROP counts(64) also the same as the Vega 64. And the GTX 1080, Vega 56, 64 all have the same number of ROPs but different clock abilities.
The Vega 56/64 GPU variants have way more in the Texture Mapping Unit/texture fill rates resources than even the GTX 1080 has while being similar to the GTX 1080ti in TMU/Texture fill rates but the 1080Ti’s 88 ROPs can really fling the FPS out there. Even with the 1080Ti’s having the same TMU(224/354.4 GTexel/s) count as the Vega 56(224 TMUs/329.5 GTexel/s). So the GTX 1080Ti’s little bit of extra TMU fill rate above the Vega 56 is mostly higher clocks, and the Vega 56 can perform similar to the Vega 64 if the games are not needing any extra shader resources. And look at the Nvidia competition and you will see that ROP counts and clock rates are what allows Nvidia’s GTX 1080Ti to win the day in the FPS metrics with that 88 ROPs and Nvidia’s higher clock speeds(base and boost) out of the box.
The really big question is why do you not see online any direct ROP to ROP comparsions between competing makers GPU
products and even say the Vega 56 and 64 where reviewers do little more than posting tables of ROP/TMU/other units counts and clock speeds/other but never actually going into any effort to point those differencs or similarities out in their reviews or even theorizing about these ROP/TMU and clock speed differences. And that’s mosty due to that they are not allowed to do that sort of comparsion and still expect to be on the recieving end of any review samples if they dig a little too far. It’s not hard to look for yourself and see these ROP/TMU counts and their respective pixel/texture fill rates in GPixel/s and GTexel/s
and figure that out for yourself but all questions will not be answered where answering the question runs counter to what the review sample terms and conditions say or imply.
Is there any technical reason
Is there any technical reason the 1070 Ti couldn’t have come with faster GDDR5x?
memory controller maybe,
memory controller maybe, otherwise it’s to save money I’d wager, but looking at 1070ti OC results it doesn’t even need it to pass a 1080.
I was half hoping for 5x just
I was half hoping for 5x just to cockblock the miners a little.
Why does no one understand
Why does no one understand what bottleneck means for gaming? Can’t it be simplified to
CPUs bottleneck refresh rate
GPUs bottleneck resolution
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Any reason AMD doesn’t FOSS their full GPU platforms? Drivers BIOS and all?
Can they offer Turning off GPU cores in Wattman to hit a higher frequency with Vega? Since cores don’t seem to matter too much for gaming?
Lawyers and maybe AMD is
Lawyers and maybe AMD is using some third party licensed IP in all that Drivers BIOS and ALL. And AMD is in the process of producing open source drivers but the lawyers have a say in that process to make sure any non AMD owned code is rewritten with code that’s not legally tied up by any IP licensing constraints.
There is the RADV other open source Vulkan driver stack that doing well enough on its own, until AMD drops its completely Open Source drivers in the who knows when time frame.
Go over to Phoronix and ask there as there is an AMD driver person that posts in the Phoronix forums often. And while you are there ask Phoronix to get rid of that nasty banking ad that appears and floats over the forum/article text blocking the articles/forum posts from being read. I hate to have to resort to ad blocking on websites like PCPer and Phoronix but it looks like there is no other choice if they can not restrict the ad’s ad-script from borking the readers reading experience. And that banking ad video is a nasty little bastard that shoud not have ever been allowed to be pushed out by Phoronix’s ad partner.
When do you think we’ll see
When do you think we’ll see gaming laptops with AMD cpu with integrated Vega gpu, and Nvidia discrete gpu?
If the laptop OEMs can get a
If the laptop OEMs can get a Ryzen 7 1700 in a laptop form factor they will easily be able to get a laptop with a desktop Raven Ridge APU inside and maybe not need a discrete GPU for gaming on a little higher resolution.
I’d like to see a gaming laptop with a desktop Raven Ridge APU inside and a disctere mobile Vega(Probably Vega 11) GPU with some ability to share in the gaming graphics/gaming physics workload both discrete GPU and integrated GPU.
Since the entire laptop market has gone thin and light at 15 Watts, 35 watts has become more of a desktop wattage and laptop form factors(Regular form factor and not thin and light) can easily support a 35+ Watts cooling solution. So for AMD’s desktop Raven Ridge APUs there will probably be 35 Watt variants that are considered “Desktop” grade and I’m thing that most of the desktop Reven Ridge APUs will come in a 35-65 Watt configurations that could easily be installed in a laptop.
I’d also like to see Raven Ridge Desktop APUs come in some Mac Mini form factor mini dasktop bare bones offerngs with an AM4 socketed APU/Dual Channel memory. And If HP can produce a business mini-desktop with an Intel T series 35 watt socketed part then HP/Others should be able to offer some OEM variants that are similar to Apple’s Mac Mini with an AMD desktop Reven Ridge APU option.
I’m thinking that I could go with a Mini-Desktop system based around an AMD Raven Ridge 35+ Watt APU with Dual Channel Memory and get one of those Portable USB monitors and a keyboard and forget about getting another laptop, as laptop OEM’s are still too focused on those thin and light form factors that never have enough cooling when the gaming load gets heavy.
The Home Builder market really should try and create a standard MB/System mini-desktop build where folks can build their own mini-desktop systems that are portable with there being portable monitors sold with a protective travel case and nice foldable keybard with cherry switches so folks could have the option of a little more PC power on the road with a system that is more fully configurable by the user and not the OEM. Hell even the Samsung Phones are offering a dock that could be used to interface the phone to a portable USB monitor and the phone running a desktop Linux Distro.
It’s 11:15 AM on nov 11 2017,
It’s 11:15 AM on nov 11 2017, and Big News is dropping and where the god damn fuck is PCPer’s reporters!
In the Bed Sleeping after an all night jug band hoedown drunk fest. It’s the Damn End of Days with Intel and AMD all holding hands across an silicon bridge module chip.
God fucking Damn PCper your hours are later that bankers hours.
Ha ha It’s Nov the 6 and I’m
Ha ha It’s Nov the 6 and I’m sleeping as I type this correction! but shit PCPer my broken brain still does not excuse having one reporter awake early enough to catch this BREAKING news. The time is off by at least 60 seconds on that post also.
It’s like Cat and Dogs are shacking up now with Intel and AMD!
So this will probably get
So this will probably get lost in the mists of time but i thought I’d ask anyway as you never know.
Why do you think AMD hasn’t released a higher spec Ryzen mobile chip akin to the recently announced Intel+Radeon 66-100W part, why did AMD stop at 10 Vega cores and no HBM?
for backup online i would
for backup online i would suggest using idrive. catch one of the bargans. i have 2 tb storage for $20 a year.