The computer and electronics super geek thread

[azrael]

37 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I need a VPN (well, I'm constantly hearing people these days telling me everyone needs a VPN, but yeah).  The three most important things to me are, in order of importance, 1) if it works in China, 2) how good it is at unblocking geo-locked content on Netflix/Hulu/etc, as well as blacked-out hockey games on NHL TV, and 3) overall speed.

After digging around it sounds like the best options are ExpressVPN and NordVPN*.  I actually signed up for ExpressVPN's free trial last time I went to China, and it worked 95% of the time (it wasn't super fast, but that seems less like an issue with ExpressVPN and more that internet in China is kind of slow).  There's a part of me that wants to go with NordVPN because it's cheaper, around $125 for three years vs $100 every year.  But from what I've read, while NordVPN checks all the boxes ExpressVPN is a little better at the those three things that matter most to me.  Any Nord users out there, or better yet, anyone that's tried them both?  Is ExpressVPN worth the extra money?

*I've read about other VPNs that are just as fast, good at unblocking content, secure, etc, and even cheaper.  However, because of that #1 concern that it work when I'm in China, right now I'm only considering NordVPN and ExpressVPN.

Both rank fairly high for travelers in China. NordVPN appears to have more servers but ExpressVPN has speed. I don't use either but they're on my list when my current VPN subscription expires. If your ExpressVPN subscription is up, maybe it's worth a shot to try NordVPN.

[kajnrig]

Former Intel principal engineer on, well, how to fix Intel. An hour long, so get some popcorn ready.

[azrael]

Rumored Nvidia 3000-series prices:

3060- $400 (or $399)
3070- $600 (or $599)
3080- $800 (or $799)

And *drum roll*

3090 - $1400 (or $1399)   

And the leaked pic of the 3090 shows the (massive) card eating 3 expansion slots.

[mikeszekely]

3 minutes ago, azrael said:

Rumored Nvidia 3000-series prices:

 

Not cheap, but the 60/70/80 aren't as bad as I thought they'd be after hearing earlier that the 3090 would be $1400.  I was worried that the 3080 was going to be $999.

[David Hingtgen]

Yeah, at those prices, think I'll probably keep my 1080 for a while longer.   3060 should be roughly equivalent to 1080 I think?  

[mikeszekely]

4 minutes ago, David Hingtgen said:

Yeah, at those prices, think I'll probably keep my 1080 for a while longer.   3060 should be roughly equivalent to 1080 I think?  

3060 should be a definite upgrade from the 1080.  A 2060 is already extremely close to a 1080 in performance.

[Sanity is Optional]

For those prices I will gladly exchange this 5700XT for a 3060.

I figured I'd give ATI a shot, and I regret it.

[azrael]

The leak also shows the 3090 with a new 12-pin power connector. So yeah, for that person who’s wallet is burning a hole in their pocket, you better have the PSU to back up that purchase. 
 

 

[Sanity is Optional]

If we get any for my work I'll post pics. Currently we're using sets of 3 2080s for image analysis.

[MacrossJunkie]

5 hours ago, azrael said:

The leak also shows the 3090 with a new 12-pin power connector. So yeah, for that person who’s wallet is burning a hole in their pocket, you better have the PSU to back up that purchase. 
 

 

On top off the initial cost of the card, that thing will probably be giving you a high electric bill. Not to mention all the heat it's going to put out. That card is massive and takes up 3 slots.

I was considering a 3080 or 3090 but these amperes seem like they're going to be small furnaces and the monster size of the 3090 is a no go for me. Definitely not jumping on the initial founder's edition cards and will see how Navi 2 measures up before deciding what to get. I just hope AMD has improved the quality of their drivers since the last time I had a Radeon card since it could be the best card in the world, but that means nothing if the drivers are buggy and prone to crashing or causing blue screens..

[kajnrig]

Meanwhile, I picked up an RX 580 for $100 and put that in the nephew's new computer. That thing is a frickin' truck.

[Knight26]

I just got a 2080Super (don't ask what I was running before), and in large part because of how close it emulates a Quadro.  I would gladly take the gaming performance hit for a modern Quadro if they came at a more reasonable price.  I need to work on my 3D models more.

[technoblue]

10 hours ago, azrael said:

The leak also shows the 3090 with a new 12-pin power connector. So yeah, for that person who’s wallet is burning a hole in their pocket, you better have the PSU to back up that purchase. 

<snip>

It will be interesting to see how many of the new 12-pin connectors appear on the RTX 3090 founders edition GPU. They are physically smaller than standard molex connectors, as shown in this tweaktown article:

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/74664/nvidias-new-12-pin-connector-is-super-small-on-geforce-rtx-30-series/index.html

That said, having only one on the 3070/3080 will be an improvement over the current setup, but on the 3060...not so much:

• RTX 2070/2080 Founders Edition 8+6 (14-pin) molex connection
• RTX 2060 Founders Edition 8-pin molex connection

[azrael]

RTX 3070-3090 specs leak.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 3080 specifications leaked

[azrael]

Official 30-series (Kitchen) Launch presentation:

Let's see how the 3070 stacks up in real-world. I notice the PCB on the 3080 is smaller and that 2nd front fan consumes the entire front.

[technoblue]

The 3090 was hidden in the oven.

I'm really curious about how that proprietary 12-pin connector will work, and can't wait to get a closer look at the accessories which come with the Founders Edition cards. I wonder if nVidia is including a cable that plugs in directly to their new connector and a user's PSU? Or is it some lame adapter like the 2" adapters of old? In any case, it looks like both the RTX 3080 and 3090 have the connector angled on the PCB and tucked away between the two fans, where on the 3070 it's in a more traditional upright position.

The spec list on nvidia's site lists standard PSU requirements: 2xPCIe 8-pin supplementary power for the 3080 and the 3090; 1xPCIe 8-pin supplementary power for the 3070. This could be good news for anyone who is waiting on alternative Ampere designs from Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and so on.

[TangledThorns]

I wonder if AMD has an answer to this? It seems AMD is only interested in demolishing Intel these days.

Edited September 1, 2020 by TangledThorns

[technoblue]

1 hour ago, TangledThorns said:

I wonder if AMD has an answer to this? It seems AMD is only interested in demolishing Intel these days.

A GPU that is within the ballpark performance-wise from team red and that also has a more efficient TDP rating would be nice to see.

We won't get that from team green until they dial-in Ampere with design improvements. And boy, the release boards from Asus and MSI look massive. 

• https://rog.asus.com/articles/gaming-graphics-cards/introducing-geforce-rtx-3070-rtx-3080-rtx-3090-rog-asus/
• https://www.msi.com/Landing/GeForce-RTX-30-Series

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by technoblue

[azrael]

2 hours ago, technoblue said:

A GPU that is within the ballpark performance-wise from team red and that also has a more efficient TDP rating would be nice to see.

Team Red probably won't have an answer except a price drop. Considering the new power plug and the massive cooling on the 3080 & 3090 (not to mention the extra slot the 3090 takes up), I too would like to see AMD answer back with a better performance/watt and better efficiency to Nvidia. Yes, Nvidia is going to make a beast of a GPU, but if these things belch heat and consume power, how will that be better if the GPU is turning your system into a convection oven.

[mikeszekely]

Personally, I'm good with my RTX 2080 for now.  I usually upgrade every other generation anyway.  I think competition is good so I hope AMD has something up their sleeves, but my next GPU will probably be some future RTX 40-series.

[technoblue]

28 minutes ago, azrael said:

Considering the new power plug and the massive cooling on the 3080 & 3090 (not to mention the extra slot the 3090 takes up), I too would like to see AMD answer back with a better performance/watt and better efficiency to Nvidia. Yes, Nvidia is going to make a beast of a GPU, but if these things belch heat and consume power, how will that be better if the GPU is turning your system into a convection oven.

Definitely. The rear exhaust fan concerns me a bit, especially when paired in a system with a tower CPU cooler. I wonder how having that fan dump warm/hot GPU air over the motherboard, across the chipset, ram, and cpu will change a systems thermal performance? It might not matter too much for a system that has good airflow or space for a watercooler. 

Anyway, still curious to see if the reviews that come out in the next couple of months validate any of those marketing stats.

[kajnrig]

6 minutes ago, technoblue said:

Anyway, still curious to see if the reviews that come out in the next couple of months validate any of those marketing stats.

I haven't had time to pore over the slides, but Gamers Nexus pointed out that they were doing some tricky things with the numbers, to the point that at least one comparison had a 1080Ti with RT on versus a 3000-series with RT and DLSS on. Obviously, the 1080Ti's lack of RT hardware or support for DLSS would put it at a major disadvantage against a 30xx with RT hardware and support for DLSS.

It's harder to suss out what the raw, RT-agnostic generational improvement is, though I'm sure it's decently significant even in that regard.

[azrael]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

Personally, I'm good with my RTX 2080 for now. 

Glad I didn’t upgrade on the RTX 20-series.   

‘Definitely want to see the reviews on the 3070 and I definitely want the thermals and power usage on the 3080 & 3090. 

[mikeszekely]

20 minutes ago, azrael said:

Glad I didn’t upgrade on the RTX 20-series.   

If I had a 10-series I wouldn't have, but honestly my box was getting so old I didn't just replace my GTX 970, I replaced the whole thing.

[Shadow]

Already planning to upgrade my rig to an AMD 4000 series CPU late this year or early next. Interesting stuff coming from Team Green but I'll wait for the inevitable Ti versions of the 3060/3070/3080 come out to think about upgrading from my 1070 Ti.

[TangledThorns]

13 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Personally, I'm good with my RTX 2080 for now.  I usually upgrade every other generation anyway.  I think competition is good so I hope AMD has something up their sleeves, but my next GPU will probably be some future RTX 40-series.

I'm not upgrading at all since I quit gaming, LOL. Though if I was still gaming the new cards look mighty tempting for making Cyberpunk 2077 look extra pretty.

[Sanity is Optional]

I'll probably end up dumping my 5700 XT for a 3060 or 3070. Most of the driver issues are fixed, but I still can't output sound over the HDMI without occasional hideously bad static issues that need a reboot to fix. The whole experience soured me to AMD cards, after giving them a chance this time around.

Plus my display has g-sync.

[MacrossJunkie]

6 hours ago, Sanity is Optional said:

I'll probably end up dumping my 5700 XT for a 3060 or 3070. Most of the driver issues are fixed, but I still can't output sound over the HDMI without occasional hideously bad static issues that need a reboot to fix. The whole experience soured me to AMD cards, after giving them a chance this time around.

Plus my display has g-sync.

Ugh, so they still haven't shaped up in their GPU driver division, huh? I just had one thing after another of basic features that would just not work going from driver version to driver version the last time I had a Radeon card. Either that or frequent driver crashes or both. I'm tempted to get the 3080, but I'm still going to wait to see how Big Navi measures up to the 3080. If it's a threat to it, nVidia might come out with a 3080ti since there's a huge gap in pricing between the the 3080 ($700) and 3090 ($1500), which seems like it's on purpose.

My display is g-sync as well.

[azrael]

13 minutes ago, MacrossJunkie said:

 If it's a threat to it, nVidia might come out with a 3080ti since there's a huge gap in pricing between the the 3080 ($700) and 3090 ($1500), which seems like it's on purpose.

The 3090 looks to be a replacement for the Titan-line of GPUs. Considering a Titan RTX will set you back $2000+, $1500 seems reasonable.

[MacrossJunkie]

37 minutes ago, azrael said:

The 3090 looks to be a replacement for the Titan-line of GPUs. Considering a Titan RTX will set you back $2000+, $1500 seems reasonable.

Yeah, Jensen Huang pretty much said as much in the reveal.

With the gap in between the two cards, they have plenty of room to throw in a 3080 ti or super with more memory than the paltry 10 GB the 3080 comes with along with more cuda cores or something. There's already rumours/leaks of a 3070 ti with 16 GB of onboard memory. If they make a 3080 ti or super they would probably price it at maybe somewhere between $900-1100.

[technoblue]

Lenovo just accidentally confirmed that the 3070ti is a thing, so the flood gates are open I guess.  

https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidia-ampere-geforce-rtx-3070-ti-spotted-with-16gb-gddr6-vram-confirmed-by-lenovo/

[azrael]

AMD Announces Keynote Dates for Zen 3 and RX 6000 "Big Navi" (Tom's Hardware)

We'll hear more about Zen 3 on October 8 and RX 6000 on October 28.

[David Hingtgen]

Issue just started cropping up, and Google is no help due to SO many possibilities:

Win10 frequently freezes, while "browsing folders", opening small files, for like 3-5 secs.  Just gives the little spinning blue circle.  Seems random, but NEVER did it before, now does it like every other minute.   Have changed nothing for a long time, other than Win10's own updates.    Will occasionally get an actual "explorer.exe has stopped responding" error/crash.   But usually it just recovers, for a few mins, then freezes again.   Have messed with paging/virtual memory etc, was most common thing I found mentioned, but made no difference.  

SSD is quite full, but it's been that full for like a year, no issues before, but the freezing mainly (on;y?) happens when browsing non-SSD folders.   Maybe HDD is going out? 

[Chronocidal]

If the non-SSD drive is starting to go out, that could maybe give you some issues, but the thing this reminds me of the most is the behavior I get when my work computer attempts to access files stored remotely.  It doesn't matter that I have the original files stored on my local drive, because Windows will always go straight to the online storage before checking locally, and it means I get to sit and wait while it chugs to open a file on my local hard drive.

You might want to check whether Windows has signed you up for a One Drive account without your permission, and is storing your stuff in the cloud.  

I'm becoming horribly cynical with Windows lately, and want to just say that if you've been downloading Windows updates, that's likely your main problem.  All things considered, if you haven't changed anything else, it might be the simplest explanation, as the only verifiable changing variable.

Having the full SSD probably doesn't help though, and it might actually be the direct cause of the issue.  Assuming Windows is operating on that drive, not having the extra space might possibly make Windows behave badly.

[mikeszekely]

If Windows is installed on the SSD, check the advanced power settings and see if Windows is allowing the non-SSD to sleep.