Posts by Jeffrey Fisher61

I've actually decided to just go with integrated graphics—honestly, I’m currently running an HD 7770 and even that isn't hitting any bottlenecks when I'm playing both games at 1080p with medium settings. For these specific titles, what you really need is a solid processor, an SSD, and some fast RAM—mostly because the game is constantly loading a massive amount of effects all at once.

Path of Exile is notorious for being incredibly poorly optimized—honestly, the way it handles GPU utilization is just a mess. It’s one of those situations where you’ll see even relatively modern processors hitting a massive bottleneck before they even have to deal with a graphics card that's seven or eight years old. It’s just frustrating how inefficient the engine can be.

If I wasn't planning on just giving away my old rig, I’d probably be moving this GPU over to it myself—honestly, prices are getting absolutely ridiculous right now. I mean, seriously, screw the crypto mining craze for driving everything up like this.

I did a little digging online, and it looks like this Ryzen Vega integrated graphics should handle Path of Exile pretty decently—plus, I get way more stutters in Warframe than I do in PoE, so if it manages there, it should be fine. Especially since Warframe is actually better optimized when it comes to letting you toggle off those annoying, graphic-intensive effects that just clutter up my screen anyway 😵

So, I think I’m going to roll with this option. Who knows? Maybe down the road I'll be able to pick up a solid mid-range GPU for $333 and then eventually upgrade the whole thing

Thanks to both of you for the suggestions

Path of Exile and Warframe

It really depends—is there actually a significant difference? Honestly, I’ve been out of the loop on all this hardware stuff for years now, so I’m pretty much in the dark when it comes to those Ryzen builds

As for the case, I'm not sweating it too much—the PC is just going to sit in its own room, so I don't really care about noise levels or anything like that. Plus, I'm not planning on doing any major upgrades down the road, so I don't need extra space for whatever future components might come along

Just the tower—no peripherals included

An SSD is an absolute must here—you can always get away with a weaker graphics card if you invest more in a better processor, especially since the games I usually play tend to bottleneck on the CPU anyway.

That's just a one-time cash layout.

Justin Phillips15 said:So, I have a quick question... I’ve been getting pretty interested in PC components ever since I picked up my new rig—so this is a total beginner question for me...
How can you actually tell which graphics card is good for gaming? Or more generally, how do you distinguish between a piece of junk and something that actually has some value...
For instance, I could have bought a Palit Nvidia GeForce GT 630 with 1GB of DDR3 via PCIe/PCIe x16, featuring DVI and HDMI—but people told me that thing is garbage.
Instead, I ended up grabbing this one, which is supposedly better:
An AMD Radeon HD 7750 with 1GB of DDR5.
What is the actual difference if they both have 1GB? What determines whether one is actually worth anything or not?....

If you're looking to dive in as a future enthusiast, here is my take

Start with the basics—Wikipedia is actually a great starting point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_card

Get a handle on what all those acronyms mean—like understanding the difference between various types of DDR memory—and a GamersNexus article might really help clarify things for you.

http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/71...deo-card-specs

After that, you’ll need to learn how to rank modern cards. Honestly, hardly anyone in our community has the resources to bench every single card on the market, so we mostly rely on the work others have done.

You have plenty of options there—the big names are AnandTech, TechPowerUp, Tom's Hardware, and sites like those.

I personally really like one specific thread over at Tom's Hardware because it doesn't overwhelm you with a mountain of data you could easily find yourself; instead, it just lays out exactly what offers the best value on the market in plain English.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...view,3107.html

This particular thread gets updated monthly, focusing primarily on the latest cards that offer the best bang-for-your-buck within a certain price range—it’s ranked specifically so you can see which cards are actually worth your money.

Keep in mind, since it focuses on the newest releases, if you're hunting for used gear, you'll still need to go out and hunt down individual reviews manually.

One piece of advice: don't make the mistake of getting too sucked into the world of synthetic benchmarks. As an average gamer and enthusiast, what you really care about is "real-life" benchmarking—you know, the actual FPS you get while playing games.

So, don't stress over sites that bombard you with millions of virtual benchmarks; stick to the ones that test a wide variety of actual games across all different resolutions.

It wasn't really about whether an idea would actually work in the real world or what kind of degree someone holds

The real issue—and it's pretty glaring—is how the business world heavily favors certain hand-picked individuals while everyone else, especially those starting from zero without any seed money, basically gets left out in the cold

So, that whole "anyone can be an entrepreneur" myth? It just doesn't hold water—because even people with great ideas struggle to make it, let alone the majority whose business models only look profitable on a spreadsheet

The person who has capital sitting there from their father, an uncle, or whatever connection they have—plus they enjoy some political backing from the Republican Party—will get everything handed to them to ensure they turn a profit (think sweetheart lease deals, off-the-books permits, cash under the table, and things like that)

Meanwhile, the person without those connections is forced to play by the rules, which makes carving out any actual profit incredibly difficult

Can Jeffrey Fisher61 do
this?
Thanks in advance!

Yeah, Jeffrey Fisher61 can—just reach out to him in New York City.>

Ryan Nelson5 said:The constant whining about entrepreneurs on this forum is getting old... either they’re incompetent, or they’re all born with silver spoons in their mouths... nobody ever asks why more people don't just start their own businesses. Entrepreneurs aren't some exclusive club you aren't allowed to join. You take out a loan, invest in your education, and build something. If the criticism of business owners is actually true, then where is the real problem?

Here is an example

An IPA project designed to train potential entrepreneurs—written specifically so that training paired with access to microloans would be available to everyone—involved setting up a commission made of supposedly "successful" businessmen, appointed by local government officials, to oversee and judge whose ideas were actually viable enough to qualify for those microloans.

But here is how the project actually went down:

Four hand-picked individuals, chosen by three Republican Party mayors from the region, received perfectly crafted, pre-written business plans created by people with advanced degrees; naturally, they grabbed those microloans and launched their businesses.

I suppose I shouldn't even have to point out which political faction those entrepreneurs belonged to.

One of the jokes I heard at the last seminar in Canada was about how Europe is watching us now, so we can't just cut corners and do things our own way anymore—it really gave me a good laugh because I honestly can't remember a single project we've run strictly by the book in the last three years.

It’s also pretty funny to me because, much like in Canada, there are certain organizations that hold a total monopoly over "job coaching" and similar services, and that was exactly the kind of organization running our seminar.🤣

It is honestly amazing how easily these American sheep can be led astray

You might find yourself thinking that certain government maneuvers could actually dig us out of this hole we've dug for ourselves—but let’s be real—the U.S. government isn't actually capable of creating jobs. Sure, they can hand out subsidies, but those incentives just end up being pocketed by American entrepreneurs. I know a huge number of them personally, since I actually work within the very institutions designed to foster business growth

In my opinion, one should look for an exit strategy from this country as soon as possible—because our small businesses and trades have essentially been handed over to people who can barely sign their own names, yet happen to be the sons, grandsons, and spineless cronies of tycoons from both here and abroad. Consequently, they soak up every available bit of support, effectively steering the economy toward total ruin

Part of my daily routine involves providing bookkeeping and advisory services—specifically, helping navigate how to essentially hide about 300 off-the-books employees working within one of those highly celebrated "entrepreneurial" zones in America

And frankly, these types of measures haven't changed much in Canada either; they really just gave the Prime Minister an excuse to puff out his chest and shout, "I'm the boss"

I stay in regular contact with supporting institutions in Italy, Canada, and Canada, mostly because I work in a city quite close to the Canadian border and we frequently collaborate on international projects

My colleagues—who possess a true ground-level perspective and see exactly how things are moving in both directions—are not enthusiastic about these moves at all. From a global and long-term standpoint, these policies mean absolutely nothing; they lead to unpredictable consequences, rely on totally uncontrolled conditions, offer nothing but short-term growth, and most importantly, they involve taking massive risks compared to standard external business operations

The IMF was merely one of the many thorns in Viktor Orban's side, and there are plenty more to pluck—besides, the claims regarding how Canada "repaid" its debt are, quite frankly, pretty laughable

Timothy Kim60 said:Naming conventions for the new AMD / ATI GPU series

In my opinion—just a thought here—they really should have stuck with the old numbering scheme for the 8 and 9 series before making a switch like this.

It would have just forced people to wait too long—another whole year is a massive ask—and honestly, it just ends up frustrating everyone🤣 especially since those 78xx cards are still going to be perfectly relevant by the time the next generation actually hits the shelves.

edit: @Brian Campbell36/">@@Brian Campbell36, a Silencer MK III 500W or a Corsair CX 500W will handle that card just fine regardless of which processor you're running—I mean, why even worry about a 1000W power supply?

Austin Wright79 said:Thanks everyone for all the help and the great suggestions—you've really reinforced my thinking that an AMD processor with integrated graphics should do the trick for me (I was also weighing up an Intel Core i3/i5/i7 setup paired with a 6670/7750 card).
@crimsonstag84/">@@crimsonstag84 I don't have a strict budget cap of $667, I've just decided that this specific amount is enough to build a machine that covers everything I need.
What I'm liking most is that configuration from fl@tron; mostly because it includes a burner—my current PC has an old PATA burner, which is pretty much useless to me now.

You might want to consider picking up a replacement cooler, just like halek suggested.

I'm running one of those AMD APUs myself, and honestly, the stock cooler is loud enough to drive you crazy—it's actually distracting when you're trying to get things done. I ended up swapping mine out after only a month.

Thanks for being so patient with me—I've decided to pull the trigger and order the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650! 😉

Oh, I totally forgot to mention—I’m actually using a D-sub monitor. Does that change anything significantly, or should I just plan on picking up some adapters? I noticed this NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 doesn't seem to have a D-sub output built-in.

Hey everyone! So, I picked up a budget build last winter based on some advice here on the forum, and honestly, it’s been serving me pretty well so far. Now that I’ve managed to scrape together some extra cash, I’m thinking about upgrading
.
For context, here is my current setup:

ASUS M5A78, LGA 1156, DDR3, DVI, GLAN, mATX
DDR3 1600MHz 4GB (1X4GB)
AMD A8-Series X4 3870K(Radeon HD 6550D)
480W Chicony CHI-HPD4802RWR2, ATX 2.2,
12cm fan, (peak Power 480 w), Black color

This configuration has actually held its own quite nicely—I've been able to run most games I wanted at Full HD resolution, just keeping things on low to medium settings—titles like Skyrim, Fallout New Vegas, Far Cry 3, Borderlands, and so on.

But lately, the newer titles have started to stutter a bit—and frankly, I’d love to be able to play without constantly having to turn off shadows, reflections, and all those other nice little details 🤣 down to the absolute minimum.

So, which GPU would you recommend pairing with this CPU?

Also, does it make any sense to grab something from the 6000 series so I can try running it in Crossfire with my integrated graphics?

And one more thing—do I really need to pick up another 4GB stick of RAM to keep things smooth?

Chris Fox6 said:So, I dug up an old bucket of a machine—my ancient PC from back in the day xD—and I’m wondering what kind of ridiculous amount I could try to flip it for without being totally delusional: It’s running an Intel Xeon 2.666, an IBM eServer motherboard (with two CPU slots), 1.5GB of RAM (six 256MB sticks), a 20GB hard drive, and an old ATI RAGE XL 8MB graphics card.

Honestly, if someone actually offers you anything for it, $33just grab it and run, because it really isn't worth even that much.

That rig is pretty much useless for anything nowadays besides maybe some very basic web browsing—though even that might be a struggle. You could try to list it for sale, but I honestly doubt anyone would bite; at this point, whatever someone offers you will likely be way more than the hardware is actually worth.

shadowseal12 said:Maybe it’s finally time for the forum to roll out some spoiler tags—you know, where the content stays hidden until a user actually decides to click and reveal it.

That is exactly what I was going to suggest!

In my opinion, it would be perfect—especially since this white background is kind of a pain when I'm browsing on my phone. xD

Plus, just typing out SPOILER doesn't really do much if the actual spoiler is just one quick sentence—our brains and eyes don't quite work that way, so you can easily catch that one word and still accidentally scan everything right after it.

If someone writes: SPOILER the main character dies at the end

you might walk away thinking they didn't ruin anything for you.

A proper spoiler tag would be fantastic—if you want to see it, click to open; if you don't, you don't have to.😉

dustycrane5 said:IMDb...🙄

From what I can recall, the movie never explicitly states that Eli isn't a girl. Then again—if you actually sat through the original—it’s pretty easy to deduce that Eli isn't a girl based on certain lines of dialogue. So, it feels logical to conclude that Eli isn't really an "he" or a "she," but rather just an "it."
Essentially, just a vampire, just like you mentioned.

Okay, let's just agree that it is 😉

ruggedheron35 said:The book explicitly mentions he's a castrated boy.

In the film, it’s actually played by a girl—though they did use a boy's voice for the dubbing.

Plus, there's this one quick shot where you catch a glimpse of a scar, but the movie doesn't really elaborate on it.

And in both movies, the character clarifies they aren't a girl.

I think you're misinterpreting things—she says she isn't a girl because she's actually a vampire, in the sense of "I'm not a girl, I'm not even human."

Besides, IMDb lists the character as female.

ruggedheron35 said:In the Swedish version, it’s actually a boy rather than a girl—though he's played by a girl, they just dubbed a boy's voice over him later.

In the book, it's also a boy

Wait, what exactly do you mean by that? Could you clarify a bit?

From what I understand, in the Swedish version, it’s still a boy and a girl—Kare and Lina—and their roles match their respective genders, so I'm not quite following your logic here.