Search found 147 matches

by mczak
Thu Apr 09, 2015 7:00 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Can you over-clock RAM with a non K CPU on a Zxx mobo?
Replies: 3
Views: 5035

Re: Can you over-clock RAM with a non K CPU on a Zxx mobo?

I would disagree that Haswell is a lot more energy efficient. Yes somewhat but not that much. Though if you have an app making use of AVX2 that would probably help there... On the downside, you don't get the free 4 turbo bins any more with non-k cpus, so overclocking is out. (Certainly though gettin...
by mczak
Mon Mar 16, 2015 10:10 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: 30-inch monitor recommendations
Replies: 3
Views: 4300

Re: 30-inch monitor recommendations

It looks like the Radeon R3 iGP supports UHD over HDMI (4k). It's a line item in your mobo's specs . However, I haven't seen whether it's using HDMI 2.0 or 1.4. The former allows for 4k/60Hz, the latter is 4k/24Hz. No AMD chip can do HDMI 2.0 today, be it discrete gpu or integrated (soon to change ...
by mczak
Mon Mar 02, 2015 11:56 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Quiet 4K multi-monitor DisplayPort graphics card help
Replies: 8
Views: 6500

Re: Quiet 4K multi-monitor DisplayPort graphics card help

AMD FirePro, either a W5000 (DP 1.2) or a V4900 (DP 1.1), any of them fitted with an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Plus heatsink. DP 1.1 can't drive 4k displays at 60Hz (only 30Hz). That said, technically the V4900 (using Turks chips) should be DP 1.2 capable, but I'm not sure the driver for this card...
by mczak
Mon Apr 14, 2014 1:05 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: AM1
Replies: 4
Views: 5944

Re: AM1

Is anybody looking at the recently available AM1 platform? Isn't Bay Trail even better? Not really though it depends what you're looking for. Bay Trail has lower TDP and indeed their peak power consumption is lower (should definitely be easier to cool passively). At idle it seems to be more of a wa...
by mczak
Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:11 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Bay-trail motherboards
Replies: 282
Views: 417122

Re: Bay-trail motherboards

Surely this uefi implementation has a CSM like every other board out there which allows you to boot old stuff?
by mczak
Tue Mar 25, 2014 12:42 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Is there any comprehensive Haswell Pentium review around?
Replies: 7
Views: 7604

Re: Is there any comprehensive Haswell Pentium review around

I recently rebuilt a system using a Pentium G3420, which I got during the Christmas sale for about 50 euros, which is very cheap for a CPU. I coupled it with a single stick of DDR1600, the higher rate being the primary selling point of this chip over, say, the G3220. You didn't make much use of the...
by mczak
Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:17 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Is there any comprehensive Haswell Pentium review around?
Replies: 7
Views: 7604

Re: Is there any comprehensive Haswell Pentium review around

I recently rebuilt a system using a Pentium G3420, which I got during the Christmas sale for about 50 euros, which is very cheap for a CPU. I coupled it with a single stick of DDR1600, the higher rate being the primary selling point of this chip over, say, the G3220. You didn't make much use of the...
by mczak
Tue Mar 04, 2014 10:59 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Bay-trail motherboards
Replies: 282
Views: 417122

Re: Bay-trail motherboards

Let's hope you're wrong ;) I have "ASUS Transformer Book T100" which has CPU Bay Trail Z3740 and it does support AES-NI. The Z atoms support everything (also quicksync etc.). I couldn't find a cpuinfo result for pentium n, but celeron n definitely does not seem to support it (/proc/cpuinfo output a...
by mczak
Mon Mar 03, 2014 2:44 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Bay-trail motherboards
Replies: 282
Views: 417122

Re: Bay-trail motherboards

Let's hope you're wrong ;) I have "ASUS Transformer Book T100" which has CPU Bay Trail Z3740 and it does support AES-NI. The Z atoms support everything (also quicksync etc.). I couldn't find a cpuinfo result for pentium n, but celeron n definitely does not seem to support it (/proc/cpuinfo output a...
by mczak
Mon Dec 16, 2013 11:01 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Haswell motherboards that can undervolt
Replies: 2
Views: 5177

Re: Haswell motherboards that can undervolt

I've got a Asrock H87M Pro4 and it supports negative and positive offsets just fine, with a range from way too low to work to kill your cpu instantly seemingly... It also has fixed voltage which I never tried. You can forget about saving on your electricity bill at idle though, the difference isn't ...
by mczak
Tue Dec 10, 2013 12:50 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Haswell comes to NUC
Replies: 34
Views: 36558

Re: Haswell comes to NUC

It looks like that is not really a NUC system. Uses a different chip (4200U with lower speed and older graphics compared to 4250U) and only one! SO-DIMM (so no dual channel). While the case looks interesting, it guess it would underperform a true NUC system. That's not older graphics! This is again...
by mczak
Tue Dec 10, 2013 8:08 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Haswell comes to NUC
Replies: 34
Views: 36558

Re: Haswell comes to NUC

Some graphics benchmarks would have been nice. Contrary to what the text says it's not quite the same gpu as what 4770k has - the 4770k has the GT2 variant (20 EUs, HD4600), whereas this chip has GT3 (40 EUs). And besides, there's _large_ differences between chips even having seemingly the same grap...
by mczak
Wed Jun 12, 2013 10:52 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Celeron 1007u: mobile IVB alternative to the Celeron 847
Replies: 4
Views: 8091

Re: Celeron 1007u: mobile IVB alternative to the Celeron 847

Celeron 1007u http://ark.intel.com/products/72061/ 2 Cores x 2 Threads @ 1.5 GHz, 17w TDP. That makes it sound like it's 4 threads in total, but those don't support HT so it's really 1 thread per core (2 in total). The 1007u board *is* more expensive than the 847 boards, especially when the 847's a...
by mczak
Sat May 18, 2013 6:41 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Improved video over ancient Geforce2 GTS?
Replies: 9
Views: 5617

Re: Improved video over ancient Geforce2 GTS?

A A64 3000+ S939 is a 1.8Ghz K8. There's absolutely no way an atom is going to touch that single-thread performance (the fastest ones would be around ~60% as fast maybe). 1 core 2 threads models might be close in multi-thread performance, and of course multicore ones will have better multithread per...
by mczak
Fri May 17, 2013 8:27 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Improved video over ancient Geforce2 GTS?
Replies: 9
Views: 5617

Re: Improved video over ancient Geforce2 GTS?

Getting a modern CPU, motherboard and RAM with onboard graphics would cover the hardware video acceleration much better. You shouldn't have to replace anything else in your system I would not expect. I'd not be so sure. For instance a dvd drive on a 939 board might use pata, try finding a new board...
by mczak
Thu Jan 03, 2013 11:37 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: AMD HD 6870 the quietest active video card for under $300?
Replies: 13
Views: 11158

Re: AMD HD 6870 the quietest active video card for under $30

I think HD6870 are a bit pointless these days. HD7850 are faster and have slightly lower power consumption (hence they are potentially easier to cool quietly), while not costing really more. Of course, if they are actually quiet depends on the cooling solution. There's probably some threads here aro...
by mczak
Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:26 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Upgrade advice for linux HTPC...upgrade graphics or new CPU?
Replies: 4
Views: 3794

Re: Upgrade advice for linux HTPC...upgrade graphics or new

I think you should just figure out why it doesn't play smoothly. Well the high cpu load clearly is a good indication, so you'd need to figure out what causes this. The box should certainly be fast enough for dvd playback - even without vdpau mpeg2 decode needs very few cpu cycles (your k8 could prob...
by mczak
Tue Oct 02, 2012 2:52 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Help me choose a video card?
Replies: 3
Views: 3216

Re: Help me choose a video card?

Obviously gtx560ti is much faster, though the question imho doesn't make much sense. If you just need something to hook up a display with no need for gaming a gt640 is more than sufficient, much cheaper and it will use less power (just don't waste money on 2GB or 4GB cards). Though even if you'd wan...
by mczak
Wed Sep 26, 2012 5:45 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Any Thoughts about This Combo
Replies: 11
Views: 6593

Re: Any Thoughts about This Combo

FWIW at this point I wouldn't get a sandy bridge Pentium. The pentium g2120 is a Ivy bridge chip, and some benchmark shows it has quite a bit lower power consumption than "regular" sandy bridge pentiums - on paper there's a 10W TDP difference to Sandy Bridge pentiums (55W to 65W, though on paper g62...
by mczak
Tue Sep 04, 2012 7:06 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: GTX 660 Reviews
Replies: 11
Views: 11638

Re: GTX 660 Reviews

The GTX 660 is due sometime in September - rumor is next week. Pricing is expected in the mid $200's. Rumor has it to be a new die - GK106. As usual, Tweaktown defies the launch date and publishes an early review. From this one datapoint, it looks like the GTX 660 will slot in between the HD 7870 a...
by mczak
Wed Jul 25, 2012 8:11 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: GT 610 vs HD 6450
Replies: 12
Views: 23448

Re: GT 610 vs HD 6450

And even the very crappy no-bandwidth cards probably appear fast enough with a single display and modest resolution (1x1920x1200 is going to be 4 times as fast 2x2560x1600). Are you sure? :p http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=63443 Oh I was aware of that thread, but I thought...
by mczak
Wed Jul 25, 2012 4:35 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: GT 610 vs HD 6450
Replies: 12
Views: 23448

Re: GT 610 vs HD 6450

Is there any particular configuration or type of IGP or video card that get the last bit of speed out of a 2D or aero video display... at small or at large resolutions, with one or with two monitors? ie., what is way to get the absolutely fastest graphics display for non-gaming purposes? What are t...
by mczak
Mon Jul 23, 2012 10:21 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: GT 610 vs HD 6450
Replies: 12
Views: 23448

Re: GT 610 vs HD 6450

The only thing a mid-range gaming card gets you is the ability to run games, not an improvement in 2D display. Any modern card that has DisplayPort, Dual DVI, or even VGA can run your monitors. Here's the spec page from the HD 6450. That's almost true but not quite. Some low-end card ship with usel...
by mczak
Mon Jul 09, 2012 9:28 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Recommendations for a 2x Dual Link DVI upgrade from a 4850?
Replies: 2
Views: 2883

Re: Recommendations for a 2x Dual Link DVI upgrade from a 48

adapters like zoob mentioned are an option if your monitors don't support displayport. AFAIK though the DP->dual-link DVI ones are still expensive (somewhere close to 100USD). As for cards natively supporting two dual-link dvi ports, AMD dropped support for that after Evergreen. So HD5xxx cards (and...
by mczak
Thu Jun 21, 2012 4:12 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Passively cooled HD5770 vs HD7750
Replies: 3
Views: 3783

Re: Passively cooled HD5770 vs HD7750

All things told the 7750 and 5770 are pretty similar in performance, trading blows. There will definitely be a load power difference of about 40W or so, but that doesn't imho warrant an upgrade, so if you already got the 5770 I'd just keep that. That said it seems a bit silly to buy graphic cards in...
by mczak
Tue Jun 19, 2012 2:31 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Do HDMI To Component (ypbpr) converters really work?
Replies: 2
Views: 2951

Re: Do HDMI To Component (ypbpr) converters really work?

As far as I can tell the first two devices are essentially the same (and also cost about the same). I can't see a reason why they wouldn't work, provided your component output device and your htpc can agree on a resolution they both support (480p, 720p, or 1080i - well graphic cards can generate jus...
by mczak
Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:13 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Intel HD Graphics 2500/4000 - can't handle large monitors?
Replies: 3
Views: 11227

Re: Intel HD Graphics 2500/4000 - can't handle large monitor

As far as I can tell there are no Z68/Z77 motherboards which support dual-link dvi. I looked at the datasheet and this appears to be a chipset limitation. To support dual-link dvi a motherboard manufacturer thus would need either sdvo->dual-link dvi or DP->dual-link dvi converter chips on the board ...
by mczak
Mon Jan 30, 2012 6:03 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: No low-end 28nm GPUs from AMD?
Replies: 8
Views: 6034

Re: No low-end 28nm GPUs from AMD?

Even if the cards don't turn out to be more powerful, they look set to use far less power. Source: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/amd-HD-7900-XDR2-Rambus-Memory,news-36423.html You shouldn't put too much faith in these old rumors there (most of them turned out wrong, not that anyone really believed ...
by mczak
Tue Jan 24, 2012 11:01 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: No low-end 28nm GPUs from AMD?
Replies: 8
Views: 6034

Re: No low-end 28nm GPUs from AMD?

There will certainly be new lower-end cards, as we know amd will have two more 28nm GCN chips apart from Tahiti (Pitcairn/Cape Verde). Neither of them are low-end but if you're looking at upgrading from a 4770 that certainly isn't low-end neither. (Pitcairn might end up somewhere slightly above Caym...
by mczak
Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:15 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: R6450: too slow for Aero @ 1600 x 1200?
Replies: 14
Views: 8182

Re: R6450: too slow for Aero @ 1600 x 1200?

What R6450s have non-DDR3 memory? Only the review edition :-). A shame really since the performance difference is rather large. But I guess they think everybody wanting faster-than-IGP performance opts for higher end cards anyway. Anyway, I've returned it and got a R6570. Didn't try it yet though. ...