NVIDIA 4090 $1599 Oct 12 4080 16gb $1199 4080 12gb (basically 4070ti) $899 Nov - stay warm this winter

[layten]

Just now, Jamie John said:

 

Ah well - I'm sure I'll get over it. The GPU also came with an anti-sag bracket, but one of the places on my mobo where I can attach it is covered by my M.2. SSD. It doesn't look very...saggy, though, and is secured by three screws on the I/O panel, so I think I'll be ok.

Just stick something under it at the back. I recommend a roll of parcel tape.

[Jamie John]

Just now, layten said:

Just stick something under it at the back. I recommend a roll of parcel tape.

 

Squidged down, you mean? There's only about 1cm between the base of the GPU and the base of my case. It's a squarer case than most others, so there's not much room under the motherboard.

[JoeK]

Well, my nice case hides all the sins of the cables very nicely within its black meshy goodness, with only the lovely solid walnut fascia on display. 

 

I love my case

[Jamie John]

11 minutes ago, JoeK said:

Well, my nice case hides all the sins of the cables very nicely within its black meshy goodness, with only the lovely solid walnut fascia on display. 

 

I love my case

 

You tease. What case do you have? 'Solid walnut'?! Is it homemade?

[layten]

11 minutes ago, Jamie John said:

 

Squidged down, you mean? There's only about 1cm between the base of the GPU and the base of my case. It's a squarer case than most others, so there's not much room under the motherboard.

It was a call back to a particularly janky watercooling setup I once had.

Spoiler

 

Ah, the molex centipede. How I miss you.

 A lego block or anything really would suffice. It would be best to have something so all the weight is not on the bracket and PCIE slot.

[JoeK]

1 minute ago, Jamie John said:

 

You tease. What case do you have? 'Solid walnut'?! Is it homemade?

 

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/north/north/charcoal-black/

 

Best case I've ever had (and god knows I've had a lot). Soon as I saw it, I had to buy it

[Jamie John]

17 minutes ago, JoeK said:

 

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/north/north/charcoal-black/

 

Best case I've ever had (and god knows I've had a lot). Soon as I saw it, I had to buy it

 

Noice.

[Uzi]

10 hours ago, Jamie John said:

 

Right, it's in, I've installed the latest drivers from Nvidia, Red Dead Redemption 2 is downloading as we speak as I've been meaning to replay it and want to do so at 60FPS or more, and I'm considering subbing to a month of EA Play Pro so that I can have a go on that thar new Dead Space remake with all the bells and whistles.

 

Is there anything else I need to do in terms of setup, or should I just get stuck in? I've got MSI Afterburner installed but don't really know a great deal about overclocking, and would rather not bother with anything faffy, to be honest. 

 

Ta-dah!

 

 

(Also, is there anything I can do about the ugly power cables? On my last GPU the 2 connectors was on the far right of the unit and were easier to tuck around to the side, but on this one the plug is slap bang in the middle, and with the 2-cables-into-1-adapter thing they're not very easy to hide. It's messing with my aesthetics, man.)

You can order custom cables from cablemod that will use the nvidia connection if you want something more aesthetically pleasing. But its prob 40-50 quid you could spend on games so I'd ignore it or find a way to route it underneath your gpu although space is tight

 

You don't need to overclock anything. Just play and enjoy.

[HarryBizzle]

On 27/01/2023 at 20:59, Kryptonian said:

 

As trampy as me?

 

i5 3570 (non-K) and RX 480 4GB. Get. On. My. Level. 

[Benny]

21 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

i5 3570 (non-K) and RX 480 4GB. Get. On. My. Level. 

 

That's honestly still enough to run most of the best games released in the last few years perfectly fine.

[HarryBizzle]

1 hour ago, Benny said:

 

That's honestly still enough to run most of the best games released in the last few years perfectly fine.

Yeah, I do most of my whizz bang gaming on Series X or PS5. The only things I’ve played on PC in the past few years are things like Prodeus, Hades, and I want to play Neon White. All do fine and I can usually run them at 144fps. 

[Jamie John]

@Uzi - am I right in thinking that you use an LG TV as your gaming monitor? I've got the GPU linked to my monitor via Display Port and can get it to run at 165hz (my monitor's maximum refresh rate) without any problems. However, I've also got it connected to my Denon AVR via a high-speed HDMI cable, which, in turn, is connected to my LG OLED via another HDMI cable. I should be able to get 120hz on the OLED, but 60 is the maximum it will go in Windows settings:

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the HDMI cable going from the PC to the AVR isn't long enough for me to plug it directly in the TV. I use the AVR as an HDMI switch between all my different devices.

 

Anyone have a similar setup?

 

EDIT: I can get it to 120hz, but only if I drop to 1080p:

 

 

I'm assuming this must be something to do with the cable not being powerful enough...

[Uzi]

36 minutes ago, Jamie John said:

@Uzi - am I right in thinking that you use an LG TV as your gaming monitor? I've got the GPU linked to my monitor via Display Port and can get it to run at 165hz (my monitor's maximum refresh rate) without any problems. However, I've also got it connected to my Denon AVR via a high-speed HDMI cable, which, in turn, is connected to my LG OLED via another HDMI cable. I should be able to get 120hz on the OLED, but 60 is the maximum it will go in Windows settings:

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the HDMI cable going from the PC to the AVR isn't long enough for me to plug it directly in the TV. I use the AVR as an HDMI switch between all my different devices.

 

Anyone have a similar setup?

 

EDIT: I can get it to 120hz, but only if I drop to 1080p:

 

 

I'm assuming this must be something to do with the cable not being powerful enough...

You need a hdmi 2.1 cable going into to a hdmi 2.1 port for 4k  120hz

[Jamie John]

9 minutes ago, Uzi said:

You need a hdmi 2.1 cable going into to a hdmi 2.1 port for 4k  120hz

 

Yeah, that's what I thought I had. I could have sworn my previous card got 120hz on that same TV, with the same cables, but I must be mistaken.

[Jamie John]

This will work, won't it? I need it to be 10m as the PC is on the opposite side of the room to the telly. Sorry to keep asking inane questions.

 

£40 for a sodding cable! Honestly. It's almost worth just dropping a grand on a 42C2 and using that as my monitor instead...

[JoeK]

@Jamie John

 

The only thing I'll say is that with a 10m long cable, there is a possibility of degradation of performance. Apparently, 20ft is the preferable max.

 

Basically what I'm telling you to do is buy that 42inch OLED...

 

[Jamie John]

1 hour ago, JoeK said:

@Jamie John

 

The only thing I'll say is that with a 10m long cable, there is a possibility of degradation of performance. Apparently, 20ft is the preferable max.

 

Basically what I'm telling you to do is buy that 42inch OLED...

 

 

Ha, it would be nice. Although one 42 inch OLED and one 55 inch one in a 6m² box room is probably a bit much. Without wanting to sound like a parody of myself, however, it is definitely true that once you go OLED black, everything else pales (literally) by comparison.

 

I've been keeping on the 32inch OLED monitors that are available, but there's only a handful of them on the market and they're as expensive, if not more, than the C2. Alienware do an ultra wide which is pretty nice:

 

Dell Alienware AW3423DW 34 Inch WQHD 21:9 1800R Curved Gaming Monitor, 175Hz, QD OLED, 0.1ms, NVIDIA G-SYNC Ultimate, 99.3% DCI-P3, HDR400, DisplayPort, 2x HDMI, 5x USB, 3 Year Warranty,White https://amzn.eu/d/9vnUq6D

 

Have you got the 42C2 as a monitor as well?

[Uzi]

1 hour ago, Jamie John said:

This will work, won't it? I need it to be 10m as the PC is on the opposite side of the room to the telly. Sorry to keep asking inane questions.

 

£40 for a sodding cable! Honestly. It's almost worth just dropping a grand on a 42C2 and using that as my monitor instead...

It should in theory. You can always return it if it doesn't! 

[Jamie John]

14 minutes ago, Uzi said:

It should in theory. You can always return it if it doesn't! 

 

It turns out that my AVR doesn't even support 4k @120hz anyway, so I'm evidently speaking out my arse. I'm happy with 'only' 60FPS anyway, really - if I want any higher I can just play whatever game at 165hz on my monitor.

 

This brings me to my next noob question: if I run the benchmark test on RDR2 at 1440p with everything turned to ultra I get about 120fps, but if I run it at native 4k I average about 25fps. Is this what that DLSS thing is for? How should I set it up? Resolution set to 4k on the TV in Windows, then 1440p in the game with DLSS enabled? This is the thing that makes the picture look like it's running at a higher resolution than it actually is, while maintaining a high frame rate - right? So I can play in 1440p but get a pseudo-4K quality picture?

[JoeK]

44 minutes ago, Jamie John said:

 

Ha, it would be nice. Although one 42 inch OLED and one 55 inch one in a 6m² box room is probably a bit much. Without wanting to sound like a parody of myself, however, it is definitely true that once you go OLED black, everything else pales (literally) by comparison.

 

I've been keeping on the 32inch OLED monitors that are available, but there's only a handful of them on the market and they're as expensive, if not more, than the C2. Alienware do an ultra wide which is pretty nice:

 

Dell Alienware AW3423DW 34 Inch WQHD 21:9 1800R Curved Gaming Monitor, 175Hz, QD OLED, 0.1ms, NVIDIA G-SYNC Ultimate, 99.3% DCI-P3, HDR400, DisplayPort, 2x HDMI, 5x USB, 3 Year Warranty,White https://amzn.eu/d/9vnUq6D

 

Have you got the 42C2 as a monitor as well?

Nope! I live in a no-OLED house I’m afraid. 32inch was the maximum I wanted for a monitor really. It’s a lovely size for my needs  .

[JoeK]

24 minutes ago, Jamie John said:

 

It turns out that my AVR doesn't even support 4k @120hz anyway, so I'm evidently speaking out my arse. I'm happy with 'only' 60FPS anyway, really - if I want any higher I can just play whatever game at 165hz on my monitor.

 

This brings me to my next noob question: if I run the benchmark test on RDR2 at 1440p with everything turned to ultra I get about 120fps, but if I run it at native 4k I average about 25fps. Is this what that DLSS thing is for? How should I set it up? Resolution set to 4k on the TV in Windows, then 1440p in the game with DLSS enabled? This is the thing that makes the picture look like it's running at a higher resolution than it actually is, while maintaining a high frame rate - right? So I can play in 1440p but get a pseudo-4K quality picture?

Set the game to your native resolution. Turn on DLSS and it’ll do everything else. You don’t need to faff about

[Jamie John]

Just now, JoeK said:

Set the game to your native resolution. Turn on DLSS and it’ll do everything else. You don’t need to faff about

 

Excellent! There are different types, though - Quality, Balanced, Performance and Ultra Performance. I guess I should just set it to whatever gets me closest to 60FPS on the benchmark.

[spanx]

Start with quality and work your way down until you get a good mix of FPS and not shit graphics

[thesnwmn]

7 minutes ago, spanx said:

Start with quality and work your way down until you get a good mix of FPS and not shit graphics

 

And then remove the card, send it back and order a 4090.

[mushashi]

35 minutes ago, Jamie John said:

This brings me to my next noob question: if I run the benchmark test on RDR2 at 1440p with everything turned to ultra I get about 120fps, but if I run it at native 4k I average about 25fps. Is this what that DLSS thing is for? How should I set it up? Resolution set to 4k on the TV in Windows, then 1440p in the game with DLSS enabled? This is the thing that makes the picture look like it's running at a higher resolution than it actually is, while maintaining a high frame rate - right? So I can play in 1440p but get a pseudo-4K quality picture?

 

This sounds wrong. Performance generally scales with rendering resolution with 1080p being about ~2X 4K and 1440p being somewhere inbetween depending on various bottlenecks in any particular system.

 

DLSS is just fancier realtime upscaling so you generally want to attempt to stay at the highest quality levels if image quality is your primary aim and only go down the DLSS settings level if your GFX card can't cope at that level.

 

You also want to test in the highest stress areas if your aim is 60fps locked, not just sortof 60fps, but it turns out most people aren't nearly as sensitive as they claim to be about fluctuating performance so I suppose sortof 60fps is fine.

[stir fry]

oops

 

[spanx]

@Jamie John you’re over complicating it. Basically set the resolution in game to match your screen and then just turn DLSS on to improve perf. Quality is a good start, it usually renders in 1440p then upscales (assuming your native res is 4K) and to my eyes always looks great. 
 

When it comes to Windows settings that can be a bit more involved, especially if you’re using a TV rather than monitor. I had to fart around ensuring the TV was in PC mode, and make sure Windows was set up properly with bit depth and HDR and all that shit. YouTube is generally your friend with all this shit though, I started out similarly baffled by it all but it makes sense eventually

[Uzi]

55 minutes ago, spanx said:

@Jamie John you’re over complicating it. Basically set the resolution in game to match your screen and then just turn DLSS on to improve perf. Quality is a good start, it usually renders in 1440p then upscales (assuming your native res is 4K) and to my eyes always looks great. 
 

When it comes to Windows settings that can be a bit more involved, especially if you’re using a TV rather than monitor. I had to fart around ensuring the TV was in PC mode, and make sure Windows was set up properly with bit depth and HDR and all that shit. YouTube is generally your friend with all this shit though, I started out similarly baffled by it all but it makes sense eventually

Good point, be aware that you need to scroll down to the "PC" res options in nvidia control panel. If you stick with the Ultra HD etc options further up in the list, it'll stay at 60hz. This is what it correctly looks like:

 

[Jamie John]

1 hour ago, spanx said:

@Jamie John you’re over complicating it. Basically set the resolution in game to match your screen and then just turn DLSS on to improve perf. Quality is a good start, it usually renders in 1440p then upscales (assuming your native res is 4K) and to my eyes always looks great. 
 

When it comes to Windows settings that can be a bit more involved, especially if you’re using a TV rather than monitor. I had to fart around ensuring the TV was in PC mode, and make sure Windows was set up properly with bit depth and HDR and all that shit. YouTube is generally your friend with all this shit though, I started out similarly baffled by it all but it makes sense eventually

 

43 minutes ago, Uzi said:

Good point, be aware that you need to scroll down to the "PC" res options in nvidia control panel. If you stick with the Ultra HD etc options further up in the list, it'll stay at 60hz. This is what it correctly looks like:

 

 

Thanks, both.

 

I was playing RDR2 last night with DLSS set to auto mode and it seemed to work fine - I was getting a consistent 60fps with the resolution set to 4K. There is some dithering/ghosting around the characters which is quite noticeable at times, but apparently this is due to an anti-aliasing setting that I need to turn off, so I'll try that later 

 

What's been more irritating so far is that I can't save in RDR2 mid-mission and had to restart, losing some progress. I tried just pausing the game and putting my PC into sleep mode last night, but when I came back to it this morning for a quick go before work, the picture was completely static and I had to restart the game. Apparently, playing in borderless windowed mode helps with this, as well as alt-tabbing out of the game before suspending the PC.

 

I think that quickly picking up where you left off is something that console gaming definitely excels at compared with PC.

[spanx]

Yeah I found it all quite annoying when I first moved over from the PS4 but I find it’s just one of those things you acclimatise to and stop being bothered about. My main gripes now are just having multiple apps to kick games off from, and just general stupid Windows shit like my HDR settings resetting when I upgrade drivers, etc