Posts by silentcobra3

Alright, sounds good! I'll pass along that exact build to him and suggest he just picks up a decent graphics card to round things out, and he'll be all set.

Interesting thought, though does that processor actually come with integrated graphics?
Will that be enough to run Dota 2?

I mean, maybe if I save up a bit, I could snag a used GPU off Craigslist for about $200?

Hey everyone,

Any Dota 2 fans hanging out here?

A buddy of mine is looking to pick up a rig, but honestly, he just wants it for one thing: playing Dota 2. He basically wants to fire it up, jump into a match, and then shut the whole thing down. Simple as that.

What kind of specs should we be aiming for if he wants everything cranked up to the max settings without any lag?

Do you think $2,500 would be enough to snag a decent used PC, or am I totally off base? Any recommendations on what to look for?

Thanks

Hey everyone,

Since I haven't seen any recent threads popping up about this, I figured I'd just jump in and ask: what are the absolute best bang-for-your-buck gaming headsets out there right now if we're looking at a budget of roughly $500-$200?

Thanks!

I've got the latest drivers installed, and looking at the sensors, everything seems pretty standard—voltages are all sitting right where they should be.
The only weird thing I've noticed in MSI Afterburner is that whenever I hit an FPS drop, both my CPU and GPU usage suddenly spike straight up to 95-100%. Then, as soon as the stuttering stops, they both settle back down to around the 60-70% range.

So, I’ve been falling down an absolute rabbit hole online lately, and I stumbled upon some pretty interesting info. It looks like this specific motherboard only sports a 4+1 power phase setup, which apparently means I might run into some serious CPU throttling if I push it too hard.

I’m currently weighing my options—thinking about jumping up to something with an 8+2 power phase and a beefier cooler to handle the heat. If I make that switch, do you think that'll actually solve the problem and give me the green light to start overclocking?

Alright, I think the plan is to grab a beefier cooler so I can push the CPU up to at least 4.3GHz.

Right now, my CPU and GPU usage are sitting somewhere between 60-75% during most games. Honestly, that doesn't feel quite right, but I'm betting if I overclock the processor, things should smooth out. It feels like the CPU is likely the bottleneck here.

Thanks so much for all the help, guys!

Fortnite (even if I have everything set to low)
I'm getting these massive frame drops where it goes from a smooth 60fps straight down to 15-20fps, and then it just hangs at about 15fps for maybe 10 seconds before jumping back up to 60.

Getting Over It (all settings on low)
It’s the exact same headache. It dips from 60fps down to the 15-20 range and stays there for a few seconds—maybe 5 to 10—before fixing itself.

GTA V
This one usually runs pretty decent at around 50-60 fps, but then it suddenly tanks to 5-10fps and struggles for a bit before recovering.

What do you guys think is the catch here? What am I missing?

My CPU is running at a stock 3.5GHz right now. I'm honestly a little nervous about trying to overclock it any higher because I really need to pick up a better aftermarket cooler first.

My bad, totally blanked on mentioning my SSD.

I'm running an 850 EVO, but I am getting absolutely hammered by FPS drops while gaming.

It feels like there's some kind of bottleneck hitting me in every single game—I mean literally everything, even old-school titles from back in 2005. I just did a fresh install of Windows and it’s still stuttering like crazy. I even went ahead and swapped out the thermal paste, and the temps look perfectly fine, so I'm honestly stumped as to what's causing this headache.

Here’s my next build setup

Motherboard : Gigabyte DS3P
CPU : FX 8320 with an aftermarket cooler
Power Supply: 500W
RAM: 8GB HyperX Fury
GPU: R9 280

So, is the whole crypto and mining thing still the main issue right now?
Are prices actually going to drop anytime soon? Back when I was picking up my last card (about two years ago), you could grab some absolute beast of a GPU for like $300, but my wallet just wasn't feeling it back then.

EDIT: What’s a realistic market price for a GTX 1060 6gb if we weren't dealing with all this mining drama and Bitcoin nonsense?

Hey there,

Can anyone point me toward the absolute best bang-for-your-buck graphics card right now if my budget is around $1000?

I’ll probably just grab a beefier cooler, a monitor with Freesync, and an RX580, then bump that processor up to about 4.5-4.7 GHz, and honestly, that should do the trick.

Thanks for the help, everyone,
Best,

Honestly, that’s a killer deal for an RX580. Getting it for just $50 cash? That's a steal, especially since Freesync monitors are way more budget-friendly than those pricey G-Sync ones.

Does Freesync even make a noticeable difference on a build like this?

Awesome, thanks so much for the help!

Just had one more quick thing I wanted to run by you guys,

How high can I realistically push my AMD FX 8320 on this motherboard before things get dicey?

Also, if I'm hunting for a GTX 1060 6GB, which specific model actually lives up to the hype and performs the best?

Thanks a million!

I’ve got this nagging feeling that my PC is stuttering like crazy, even though I did a fresh install of Windows just two months ago and haven't cluttered the drive with any junk.

To give you guys an idea, I’ll take a simple game like Fortnite—it’s just not hitting that smooth 60fps at max settings, which feels wrong because, honestly, it really should be running buttery smooth at 60fps.

So, what do you think—should I dive into overclocking my CPU and GPU?

I'm also eye-balling a GTX 1060 6GB paired with a 144Hz monitor; do you think that combo would actually hold up?

EDIT: Regarding what wiredotter14 mentioned:
Basically, it seems like overclocking the FX8320 and picking up a GTX1060 along with a decent monitor (I'm leaning towards that 144Hz one I mentioned earlier) might be the way to go.

Hey everyone,

So, I've finally decided it's time to pull the trigger on a new gaming rig, but I'm stuck in a bit of a mental loop. Should I just sell the whole current setup as one big chunk, or would it be smarter to part out the CPU, motherboard, and GPU to fund an upgrade? It's like deciding whether to trade in your old sedan or just swap out the engine and hope for the best, haha.

Here’s what my current beast looks like:

Motherboard: Gigabyte 970a-ds3p
GPU: Gigabyte AMD R9 280 WindForce 3 x
CPU: AMD FX 8320 (running with an LC Power 95 cooler)
RAM: 2x4GB HyperX Fury 1866Mhz
HDD: 1TB Barracuda
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
PSU: XFX Pro 550 w
Case: Zalman Z3

I'm looking at a rough budget of about $1167 for the new parts.

Thanks a ton in advance!

Hey everyone,

Does anyone here happen to own or use the Dell UltraSharp 24?

It looks like a solid piece of kit from what I can see, but I’m hitting a bit of a wall because I can't find a single decent review or even a handful of user comments online about it. It's kind of like trying to buy a new car when there's zero feedback on the forums—you want to be sure before you pull the trigger!

https://www.amazon.com/example-monitor-link

Alright, then everything should be good to go.
I don't know, I’ve got a massive to-do list today. If this doesn't end up working, my next move is just going to be a fresh install of macOS. There isn't really any other 😁

In the NVIDIA Control Panel where you go to wipe stuff out

"Remove an app".

Do you see either the NVIDIA Control Panel or the Windows Installer listed in that menu?

Hey everyone, quick question for those of you running an Intel graphics card—does anyone happen to have the 14.12 OMEGA drivers installed?

If you do, could you do me a huge favor and check under "Apps and features" in your control panel to see exactly how many megabytes your NVIDIA Control Panel is taking up?

I noticed something a bit weird during the installation process; the installer says the NVIDIA Control Panel should be about 150MB, but once everything is finished and I check "Apps and features," it’s showing as only 26.7 MB.