Posts by Angela Richardson

I am currently evaluating various graphics card brands—PowerColor seems unremarkable, so I am considering Sapphire, Gigabyte, or MSI. Or does the manufacturer simply not matter?

Best Buy:
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 box, AM4 socket, 3.4GHz, 19MB cache, HexaCore, Wraith Stealth
8 GB Kingston DDR4-2400 RAM
GIGABYTE B450 AORUS M, AMD B450M, DDR4, mATX, AM4 socket
$928
Is this worth the trip?

Found some parts in downtown Chicago.
I tracked down an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 box, a B450 motherboard, and 8GB of RAM for about $900.
Now the question is whether it’s worth stretching my budget slightly to grab the 2600x, or if the performance gap is negligible.
I can snag an AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB on Facebook Marketplace for roughly $467.
I’ll likely pull the trigger on this within the next day or two.
Just waiting for the green light.
P.s: The Ryzen 7 1700 is priced identically to the Ryzen 5 2600 1529. Which is the superior choice?

Thanks everyone, you guys are the best.

Excellent, it’s doable. I can pick up the graphics card with cash on hand and stretch the rest over a few installments.
If only I could find someone willing to let me sink this money into a solid investment.

Greetings, folks.
It’s been quite some time since I last kept an eye on the hardware market, and from what I can gather, prices are significantly higher than I anticipated. Whether that's due to the crypto mining craze or other factors is irrelevant.
As it stands, my current rig manages medium to high settings, though its longevity is clearly reaching its limit; it has already begun to struggle and stutter with the latest AC titles.
CPU: AMD A10-6800K 4.1GHz
MB: Gigabyte F2A88X-D3H
RAM: 12Gb
VGA: Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 2Gb
HDD: SSD Kingston SV300S37A240G 240Gb
Seagate BarraCuda 2 TB
Power Supply: Fortron 550W
Cooler: LC-CC-95
The question is whether it makes more sense to upgrade specific components—likely the GPU—or simply invest in an entirely new machine, provided I stay within a budget of $2000 maximum. I am not prepared to exceed that amount.
Thank you.

It’s been resolved. Thanks, mate.

I suppose I’m still living in the Stone Age since I'm trying to do this through the Command Prompt, but I'll give this a shot.
All three of my most recent laptops were just standard off-the-shelf models from Best Buy.
Thanks, man.

I have successfully set up over 200 workstations, yet I cannot get the USB boot to show up on these last three machines no matter what I do. Every BIOS setting has been toggled, and I am using the exact same boot drive with the same macOS installers that worked perfectly every other time; however, these final three computers seem to be cursed.
I realize no one here will actually solve this, but I felt the need to vent.

It still is.
I find it hard to believe that no one has come up with a solution yet; I've scoured countless international forums, and absolutely nobody has provided a remedy.

I am struggling to articulate this properly, but my PC experiences a massive frame rate drop to about 5-10 FPS after three to five minutes of inactivity on the mouse or keyboard.
Essentially, when I am playing games that require mouse and keyboard input, everything functions normally; however, once I switch to sports titles using a controller, the frame rate collapses from a steady 60 down to a dismal 5 or 10. As soon as I touch the mouse again, the performance returns to normal.
The same issue occurs while watching movies or streaming content.
All power management settings and screensavers have been set to "never."
This issue began entirely out of nowhere about two or three months ago.
I have also ensured the power plan is set to maximum performance, so there are no energy-saving features active.
Why is this computer causing me such unnecessary stress?
Any assistance would be appreciated.

Impressive diagnosis; I certainly wouldn't have thought of that. Now we have to dig for a solution, given that all sleep modes and power savers have been disabled—it is likely buried within some program or utility.

A10, 12GB of RAM, GTX 760, and a 240GB SSD.
But frankly, those specs are irrelevant if the entire system was functioning perfectly just two months ago.

As soon as I request him and switch back to the keyboard, the FPS returns to normal

I honestly can't recall when I had both plugged in; I didn't bother testing this second one because I hadn't realized the issue was actually with the controller itself.

So, I’ve been using my Xbox Wireless Controller for about four years now and it’s always been reliable. However, over the last two months, every single game I play—whether it’s NBA 2K, Madden, FIFA, Need for Speed, or 2K Proving Grounds—suffers a massive FPS drop from 60 down to a stuttering 15 or 20.
Everything worked perfectly before, so I have no idea why it’s causing this much lag.
I even installed new drivers, which were completely useless, and the issue persists.
Whenever we host a game night, I bring it along; it works fine on everyone else's PCs, but when it starts acting up on mine, the night ends early.
I don't believe the controller itself is the culprit; it feels more like a USB issue. I've already tested it in ten different ports.
What should I do? I'm losing my patience.

Take GTA V, for instance. When you're adjusting the graphics settings, the scale goes up to 2GB. Back in 2017, I set everything to Very High, and a window popped up telling me I needed at least 3GB.

Moderators, my apologies if I’ve posted this in the wrong section.
I finally managed to track down the card mentioned earlier, but there is an issue. It reports 2GB of dedicated memory and 2GB of shared memory, yet whenever a game requires 4GB, it shows as unavailable.
HELP

The question regarding the graphics card has resurfaced once again.
It wasn't as if I decided to update the BIOS on a whim without cause.
I visited two different repair shops today, and both reached the same conclusion: the motherboard is dead.
That’s that.

Look, I need to figure this out now while I'm still on vacation; once I'm back at the office, I won't have any time for gaming.