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Post by Emig5m on Dec 29, 2019 12:48:34 GMT -5
Fuck it, you only live once, right? ...lol. 
BTW, Microcenter is like dying and going to PC nerd heaven! Just the amount of crazy PC cases that they have in store would blow your mind! The entire back wall in the store is NOTHING but cases! They even have cases stacked in other aisles they have so many! Watercooled, open cases, micro, server, clear, this shape, that shape, anything that you can think of they have it right there in store! Hundreds upon hundreds of cases! And these stores aren't small, they're the size of a mid to large grocery store! They also must of had like a good fifty 2080 Ti's in store from various brands locked in a display (There was well over ten of my Asus 2080 OC Ti's alone! Crazy!) As soon as you walked through the door staring at you in front of you sat a 64" 144Hz 4k Gsync gaming display on demo! Aisles upon aisles of gaming mice, RGB keyboards, high performance CPU coolers including water cooling with multi-colored neon liquids, any CPU that you want, all the high end stuff that other stores wouldn't have that you would have to order online and wait for shipping and in insane quantities! Super ultrawide curved monitors, you want it, you got it at this store!
I was going to take a walk around video of the store but it was so jammed packed, the parking lot was completely full and I had to park at the Home Depot next to it! Crazy! The old saying, if you build it, they will come! It is a 1hr one way drive for me but well worth the 2hr round trip to have access to so much insane high end PC hardware where you can have it same day and check out everything in the flesh! To make things faster, you can order online and your order is ready at the online pickup counter but I like to walk around a check everything out, hehe.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2019 15:21:28 GMT -5
Miss Grande probably has nightmares about being stalked by obsessed fans like you.  Celebrity crushes can be dangerous because it trains your brain to continue worshiping the p-sleave. lol Nice gfx card upgrade. Congrats. Yeah, normally I hate shopping. PC, electronics, and hardware stores are the toy stores for grown men though, and it's fun to peruse those type of stores on occasion. |
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Post by Coolverine on Dec 29, 2019 18:50:07 GMT -5
I'm still using a GTX 1070 and it works just fine but I would like to upgrade to one of these RTX cards. The thing is, if I do I will also want to upgrade my motherboard, CPU and RAM.
I skipped 2 generations between my last video card so I'll probably do the same this time.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2019 0:41:56 GMT -5
I'm still using a GTX 1070 and it works just fine but I would like to upgrade to one of these RTX cards. The thing is, if I do I will also want to upgrade my motherboard, CPU and RAM. I skipped 2 generations between my last video card so I'll probably do the same this time. Don't forget the sound card! Actually, there's noticeable & annoying static/hissing noise through my two laptops' headphone jacks (don't recall this issue when I tried out the Bose wireless bluetooth headphones). Evidently, some models of laptops would still benefit from external audio cards, when you're using wired headphones. |
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Post by ForRealTho on Dec 31, 2019 9:52:19 GMT -5
Actually, there's noticeable & annoying static/hissing noise through my two laptops' headphone jacks (don't recall this issue when I tried out the Bose wireless bluetooth headphones). Evidently, some models of laptops would still benefit from external audio cards, when you're using wired headphones. You can get USB dongles for cheap. If your laptop has USB-C apple sells a headphone dongle for its phones that is $9 and it works really well. Not a ton of power but decent. Or you can just go full bore psycho like me and get into the DAC/Amp game. Not very good for your wallet and of questionable sanity at the high end lol |
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Post by ForRealTho on Dec 31, 2019 9:53:33 GMT -5
Also speaking of soundcards I miss my X-Fi Elite Pro. I paid $400 right when I graduated college. Great soundcard still to this day and has Windows 10 support.
Being laptop only I had no use for it tho. I threw it away.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2019 18:26:06 GMT -5
Actually, there's noticeable & annoying static/hissing noise through my two laptops' headphone jacks (don't recall this issue when I tried out the Bose wireless bluetooth headphones). Evidently, some models of laptops would still benefit from external audio cards, when you're using wired headphones. You can get USB dongles for cheap. If your laptop has USB-C apple sells a headphone dongle for its phones that is $9 and it works really well. Not a ton of power but decent. Or you can just go full bore psycho like me and get into the DAC/Amp game. Not very good for your wallet and of questionable sanity at the high end lol ZDoggMD says that chasing high end audio brought him nothing but anxiety. |
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Post by Coolverine on Dec 31, 2019 19:00:12 GMT -5
I'm still using a GTX 1070 and it works just fine but I would like to upgrade to one of these RTX cards. The thing is, if I do I will also want to upgrade my motherboard, CPU and RAM. I skipped 2 generations between my last video card so I'll probably do the same this time. Don't forget the sound card! Actually, there's noticeable & annoying static/hissing noise through my two laptops' headphone jacks (don't recall this issue when I tried out the Bose wireless bluetooth headphones). Evidently, some models of laptops would still benefit from external audio cards, when you're using wired headphones. I have a Sound Blaster Z along with a set of Logitech Z906's, sounds great. Was using the onboard audio from my old motherboard for a while but all that time, I could tell the difference so oneday I went and got the SBZ. I was also using Logitech Z-5500's for a long time, best speakers I ever bought. Unfortunately they started having problems after over a decade, sound cutting off suddenly and sometimes loud staticy sounds and popping before that. The Z906's sound great but they aren't nearly as good, also the receiver sucks in comparison. Z-5500's receiver had Dolby Pro Logic II which was nice, the Z906's surround mode only duplicates the front sounds in the rear channels. The virtual surround from my soundcard is great though. I think when videocards started coming with HDMI outputs, that probably lowered the demand for dedicated soundcards. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2019 20:31:50 GMT -5
I have a Sound Blaster Z along with a set of Logitech Z906's, sounds great. Was using the onboard audio from my old motherboard for a while but all that time, I could tell the difference so oneday I went and got the SBZ. I was also using Logitech Z-5500's for a long time, best speakers I ever bought. Unfortunately they started having problems after over a decade, sound cutting off suddenly and sometimes loud staticy sounds and popping before that. The Z906's sound great but they aren't nearly as good, also the receiver sucks in comparison. Z-5500's receiver had Dolby Pro Logic II which was nice, the Z906's surround mode only duplicates the front sounds in the rear channels. The virtual surround from my soundcard is great though. I think when videocards started coming with HDMI outputs, that probably lowered the demand for dedicated soundcards. Capacitors are usually the first thing to go out in old electronics. You might have been able to solder in new capacitors and get it working like new again. |
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Post by Coolverine on Dec 31, 2019 21:03:48 GMT -5
I still have the Z-5500's actually. The problem is either inside the receiver or the subwoofer where all the surround speakers connect, I'm not sure. Sometimes they sell these custom 5.1 cables for the Z-5500s on Ebay that bypass the receiver entirely and just plug the speakers directly into the analog outputs. I've heard that has worked for a lot of people. Might just take it to a repair shop, I think it would be worth it.
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Post by Emig5m on Jan 1, 2020 2:51:00 GMT -5
It was too long and girthy to get it in! I had to do a little surgery! Tried to hide the evidence....lol... They say never work on PC hardware on carpet, I say I'm a rebel....lol.... I like how I have some of the oldest video gaming hardware in history along with the newest in the same room...like a museum or something lol... That was just a temp location, I've since moved to the next room so I could have it hooked up to both, my home theater and 144Hz gaming monitor on my desk so that I can have the best of both worlds depending on what I'm playing or doing. In fact, I edited my 2019 tribute video on the 75" while sitting on the couch! The 2080 Ti OC is a super beast! Unreal Tournament Alpha maxed out at 1440p at the online 150fps frame cap (Asus 144Hz monitor) the GPU usage peaked at only 47%!!! And that was with the CPU hovering around 23%! Mega overkill for even 1440p! At 4k locked at my displays 60hz refresh (75" 4k TV) I have yet to see it drop below 60fps at 4k with anything I've played yet! It... Is.... Fantastic!!!! I did some testing with my laptop hooked up to my 1440p 144Hz monitor for shit and giggles and boy do I have some sad news for guys like who game on laptops! 150fps on the laptop isn't the same as 150fps on the desktop! Frequent frame rate dips and mega input lag even when I dropped down to 1080p!  When I hooked up the desktop even though it was basically the same with hitting the online frame caps it was so night and day difference in control input and smoothness of the game! Never once fell below the frame rate cap or felt even a hint of slowdown or lag no matter how much action was going on the screen! Now my new laptop sits unplugged and not used for anything! I should of never bought it and now I have absolutely no use for it...lol.. |
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Post by Emig5m on Jan 1, 2020 2:55:20 GMT -5
I have a Sound Blaster Z along with a set of Logitech Z906's, sounds great. Was using the onboard audio from my old motherboard for a while but all that time, I could tell the difference so oneday I went and got the SBZ. I was also using Logitech Z-5500's for a long time, best speakers I ever bought. Unfortunately they started having problems after over a decade, sound cutting off suddenly and sometimes loud staticy sounds and popping before that. The Z906's sound great but they aren't nearly as good, also the receiver sucks in comparison. Z-5500's receiver had Dolby Pro Logic II which was nice, the Z906's surround mode only duplicates the front sounds in the rear channels. The virtual surround from my soundcard is great though. I think when videocards started coming with HDMI outputs, that probably lowered the demand for dedicated soundcards.
Ask me how I know! 
Got my Asteroids Deluxe for only $150 because the monitor wasn't working...some new caps and reflow the solder joints in the high voltage cage and it was good-to-go like brand new!
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Post by Emig5m on Jan 1, 2020 2:57:46 GMT -5
Actually, there's noticeable & annoying static/hissing noise through my two laptops' headphone jacks (don't recall this issue when I tried out the Bose wireless bluetooth headphones). Evidently, some models of laptops would still benefit from external audio cards, when you're using wired headphones. You can get USB dongles for cheap. If your laptop has USB-C apple sells a headphone dongle for its phones that is $9 and it works really well. Not a ton of power but decent. Or you can just go full bore psycho like me and get into the DAC/Amp game. Not very good for your wallet and of questionable sanity at the high end lol
I'll never switch from Dac/Amp! Best move ever! So dead silent S/N with the JDS Atom and Shiit Modi3! Go DAC/AMP!!!!
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Post by Emig5m on Jan 1, 2020 3:00:44 GMT -5
I'm still using a GTX 1070 and it works just fine but I would like to upgrade to one of these RTX cards. The thing is, if I do I will also want to upgrade my motherboard, CPU and RAM. I skipped 2 generations between my last video card so I'll probably do the same this time.
My father just received at 1070 in the mail that he bought off a bit miner selling 25 of them! Water cooled and everything! Christmas eve he asked me if I was going to get the 2080 and sell him my 1080 but I wasn't 100% committed yet and he was impatient so he ordered it Christmas eve even though it wouldn't ship out right away...he should of waited a day or two then he could of had my 1080! He's coming from my old 970 GTX and he says he's very happy with the 1070 (1080p display).
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Post by Coolverine on Jan 1, 2020 8:37:45 GMT -5
1070's still a great videocard, I can play even newer games at 2560x1440 and it doesn't make a fuss. Metro Exodus now does RTX on non-RTX videocards but it absolutely kills my framerate. Still, I can otherwise run the game with everything turned up to Ultra and it stays smooth enough. I think Cyberpunk 2077 might be one game that pushes the limits though.
It seems like game graphics may have hit the ceiling, there haven't been really any big improvements in a while.
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Post by Emig5m on Jan 1, 2020 9:15:15 GMT -5
1070's still a great videocard, I can play even newer games at 2560x1440 and it doesn't make a fuss. Metro Exodus now does RTX on non-RTX videocards but it absolutely kills my framerate. Still, I can otherwise run the game with everything turned up to Ultra and it stays smooth enough. I think Cyberpunk 2077 might be one game that pushes the limits though. It seems like game graphics may have hit the ceiling, there haven't been really any big improvements in a while. I think it's a mix to kind of stick with the current level of game consoles so that releasing games on multiple platforms is easier, so that they can have more PC game sales by having more people be able to run the games and not just the top few percent, and the push on the PC for uber high refresh rates (144Hz+) or 4k resolution. I think that once the new game consoles come out we'll then see the next big bump in level of graphics together on both the console and PC. And I doubt I'll use RTX too much on my RTX card just like I didn't use antiailising when it first came out on the Voodoo 5 when it totally killed performance but it had to start somewhere. I got the RTX card for the best single card 4k performance and not the RTX tech. When it becomes pretty much performance free like anisotropic filtering then I'll start worrying about it, heh. I'd rather have ultra sharp 4k than raytracing at a lower resolution at the moment. I should turn it on in Tomb Raider on the 2080 Ti just to see how bad it loses its performance in 4k.... later when I have time but I thought normal shadows on ultra looked better than RTX on the 2060... |
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When I hooked up the desktop even though it was basically the same with hitting the online frame caps it was so night and day difference in control input and smoothness of the game! Never once fell below the frame rate cap or felt even a hint of slowdown or lag no matter how much action was going on the screen! Now my new laptop sits unplugged and not used for anything! I should of never bought it and now I have absolutely no use for it...lol..
