[Ella Loapaga]

Other thread reached post limit so I thought I would get another going for you guys. Sorry about the title, the original title wouldn't fit for some reason...

Originally by Powerslide

LET'S MAKE THIS WORK PEOPLE!

Okay, now as anyone could see there are HUNDREDS of tech threads floating around in CD - ranging from questions about graphics hardware, to questions about pricier graphics hardware and other tech such as monitors, hard drives and Processors to announcement threads of new technology and more. (I accede - I'm not being very eloquent here)

Any questions you have, tech news or ANYTHING related to buying/selling/information/announcements of new hardware should go here.

For example, if you come to the forums to ask "What is the better graphics hardware" or "What sort of RAM should I put in my PC?" then it should go here - I'm a little hazy, I know - but please keep all those graphics card and tech questions to one thread! Please!
So here's the summary, all:

• Announcements and queries on new or unreleased tech
• Benchmarks and results of hardware/discussion
• Questions on what sort of hardware you need/want for your machine
• Questions about existing tech and/or function
• Pricing and recommendations

Should be kept to THIS THREAD.

This has been A-okayed by CCNA for all who were wondering - it's up to you to stop filling CD with the same topics again and again that ask what the most powerful card in existence is so you can (not) buy it.

If you feel you have a question or can answer one - please feel free to do so.


Thanks all.
Adding more links shortly, thank you for your patience.

(Threads 1-85 have been all pruned, may they rest in peace)

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1079401-the-community-tech-thread-%2386/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1084024-the-community-tech-thread-no-87/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1090141-the-community-tech-thread-no-88/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1094900-the-community-tech-thread-no-89/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1102258-the-community-tech-thread-no-90/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1108118-the-community-tech-thread-no-91/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1112884-the-community-tech-thread-no-92/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1118559-the-community-tech-thread-no-93/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1145193-the-community-tech-thread-no-94/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1153130-the-community-tech-thread-no-95/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1160717-the-community-tech-thread-no-96/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1167952-the-community-tech-thread-no-97/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1176772-the-community-tech-thread-no-98/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1180239-the-community-tech-thread-no-99/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1188969-the-community-tech-thread-no-100/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1199194-the-community-tech-thread-no-101/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1207079-the-community-tech-thread-no-102/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1217232-the-community-tech-thread-no-103/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1224422-the-community-tech-thread-no-104/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1227492-the-community-tech-thread-no-104/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1228926-the-community-tech-thread-no-106/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1233177-the-community-tech-thread-no-107/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1241366-the-community-tech-thread-no-108/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1247846-the-community-tech-thread-no-109/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1297566-the-community-tech-thread-no-110/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1328500-the-community-tech-thread-no-111/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1348566-the-community-tech-thread-no-112/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1358707-the-community-tech-thread-no-113/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1368710-the-community-tech-thread-no-114/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1376885-the-community-tech-thread-no-115/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1386813-the-community-tech-thread-no-116/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1397168-the-community-tech-thread-no-117/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1402863-the-community-tech-thread-no-118/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1406651-the-community-tech-thread-no-119/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1413621-the-community-tech-thread-no-120/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1415651-the-community-tech-thread-no-121/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1423359-the-community-tech-thread-no-122/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1430631-the-community-tech-thread-no-123/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1435536-the-community-tech-thread-no-124/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1440306-the-community-tech-thread-no-125-quasquicentennial-edition/

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1447730-the-community-tech-thread-no-126-all-tech-stuff-here/

Do I also have to put a big glowing neon sign to this in my signature? THERE ARE TOO MANY TECH THREADS - THIS IS NOT A FORUM FOR YOUR TECH WOES!

But we will gladly help you anyway.

Honour list:
Nottheking
Lord Athanar (SUPER-PINK!)
Insaneturbo13
Anothercanadian
Tig Ol' Bitties (Moderator)
Dogsbody
CCNA (Moderator)
Níeh?ggr
wolfpup
Wierd
Softnerd
wingus
DEFRON
Qwaxalot
iGuess
Starforce9
uncle fuzzy


Oh and PLEASE, if you want us to "Build" you a PC, please indicate the following:
1.) your budget in your country's currency
2.) what country you reside if not listed in your avatar area
3.) pre-assembled PC? ...or can you build your own?
4.) what is needed other than the PC tower? Monitor, speakers, mouse, keyboard, Windows OS disc? All these can jack up the price.
5.) product preferences, preferred seller, and intended aim

but please, no "I want teh superererest Peecee evar1!!!!11!1", because really, only Bill Gates has that much moolah.


And, speaking of building your own PC, two sets of good how-to videos from Newegg:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxaVBsXEiok&feature=related

Thanks to SpankyTheElf for finding these additional ones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CStOC0hET8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3buj5cIh2Bs&feature=related



Other useful links

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/983941-a-freeware-guide/page__p__14225246__fromsearch__1#entry14225246
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/2
http://www.overclock.net/graphics-cards-general/502403-graphics-card-ranking-5th-time-last.html
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/articles.php?articleid=132
http://www.memtest86.com/
http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/
http://entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm
http://www.irfanview.com/
http://www.knoppix.org/
http://www.jonnyguru.com/
http://www.overclock.net/power-supplies/183810-faq-recommended-power-supplies.html
http://www.overclock.net/power-supplies/715889-psu-articles.html#post9110838
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php
http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/
http://tftcentral.co.uk/
http://www.apple.com/itunes/
http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark06/
http://www.fraps.com/
http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.php?wpid=1&front_id=12

[Jacob Phillips]

Just had another crash during a multiplayer mission in Arma 3. CPU temp was 66C and GPU was 75C. I really need to get this resolved.

[Cedric Pearson]

Those temps are perfectly normal, so it definitely isn't overheating.

TDR (to answer your question from the other thread) is Timeout Detection and Recovery; when Windows Vista and later detect that graphics operations are taking too long and the system appears to "freeze", Windows attempts to make the system responsive again by reinitializing the graphics driver and resetting the GPU. Here's a Microsoft article that describes the issue - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff570087

This seems to have been a really prevalent problem with some Nvidia driver series. Unfortunately, there seem to be many things which could cause this problem, including a bad video card.

[Stace]

What GPU do you have, and which driver are you using? Have you tried removing the driver, using something like http://www.guru3d.com/content_page/guru3d_driver_sweeper.html, and downloading a new driver?

While not actually overheating, those temps seem a bit high for what you are doing. I run Folding @ Home (100% CPU and GPU load, 24/7) and normally have lower temps than you.

[Flesh Tunnel]

So, according to that, it should just recover on its own?

I have a GeForce GTX 260 and my driver version is 9.18.13.1106

[Jade Payton]

When everything's working properly, yes it should. You should get a pop-up window with an error message along the lines of "The system has recovered from a graphics driver fault", along with possible screen flicker (caused by Windows reinitializing and restarting the driver and the GPU). On Windows XP and older versions, this kind of fault would have required you to reboot your system. TDR was put in to give Windows Vista and later a chance to recover the system without requiring a reboot. On your system, something's gone wrong.

[Ronald]

Okay, that I have seen happen once or twice over the years, but this seems to be something different. I have to agree with your assessment that something has gone wrong. :/

[James Rhead]

I ran GTX 260/216's for a few years, and they did tend to run warm. Driver 9.18.13.1106 (311.06) looks like an OEM/Windows update driver, and is not even listed on the nVidia site. Try getting the 314.22 WHQL driver from http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us.

[roxxii lenaghan]

I'd say you have a bad GPU then TDR issues generally get worse over time.

Though when I had a TDR issue, I had a "Video Hardware Error" reported in Reliability Monitor for the events (perhaps look back further for a Video Hardware Error (you can switch to week view to browse the history faster)

[Sierra Ritsuka]

I'll try that now.

I looked back over a couple months and haven't had a single hardware error in the Reliability Monitor. Whatever is happening is not being reported.

[Sweets Sweets]

The system's probably locking up before it gets a chance to write any data to the minidump file.

You did say you were getting lockups outside of any games, didn't you, such as when using your internet browser? If so, and if your motherboard/CPU have integrated video, one thing you can try is to pull your graphics card and then launch your browser and see if the problem continues. If that fixes the problem, then you'll know it's a bad GPU.

[Blaine]

Well in either case, I'd suggest removing the GPU using on-board video (if you have it) to rule out the GPU/Power supply

[Wayne W]

No onboard video.

My PSU is new. The old one was cheap and died, so I replaced it with a better one. This problem predates the swap, though. It has been going on since around Christmas, but up until this week it only happened once or twice a month. Now, almost every day.

[^_^]

Do you know someone who has an extra graphics card laying around, maybe thanks to an upgrade? You could try borrowing that card, installing it and seeing if it fixes the problem. While your problem probably is a bad GPU, you want to be reasonably certain it is bad before you drop a couple of hundred bucks on a new card.

[Neil]

ARMA 3 is still in Alpha, is there a particular reason why you believe that this is the cause of your hardware and not just a game bug?

[chinadoll]

Yeah, I think I can wrangle that. Won't be able to get to it until tomorrow, though. In the meantime, those new drivers are almost done installing (on my laptop atm), so when they finish I am gonna try some more Arma 3. Keeping fingers crossed.

But just so I have all my bases covered, what would be a good deal for a new graphics card? I would like to stay with nVidia, and could probably swing up to $250-$300.

This has been happening for a while with a variety of programs, including just IE. Arma 3 is just what I have been playing lately.

EDIT: I know, I know, IE is the devil, but Firefox and Chrome bug the hell out of me for some reason. Just old and set in my ways, I guess.

[R.I.P]

I've got a couple of http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127696. Nice cool, quiet cards with pretty good performance. A big step up from a 260.

[Juan Suarez]

Check these out - the GTX 660 (not a Ti) would come in at the lower end of your price range, and would still be a significant step up from a 260. It and the 660Ti will draw less power than the 260 as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709+600030348&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICED&PageSize=20&Page=5

[Alex Vincent]

Thanks guys, I have those bookmarked. I'll swap GPUs tomorrow, and then hopefully we will know.