Computer General Discussion Thread

[Valentine Z]

Is there actually any point in spending more on "Fancy" ram vs normal ram? My dad's basically said that there's been mixed feelings on that.

I am not that familiar with hardware aspects, but so far... it has been working great for me even with brand other than Crucial. I got 8 GB of RAM with my laptop, then I bought another 8 GB from another brand. Mixing together two, or using the normal RAM seems fine with me and performance is usual.

I could find something regarding "gaming" RAMs though, those that has better heat dissipation. https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/60 ... aming-ram/

[Salandriagado]

Is there actually any point in spending more on "Fancy" ram vs normal ram? My dad's basically said that there's been mixed feelings on that.

It depends what you're doing, and what CPU you use. Broadly, anything that's reliant on doing lots of stuff with data in the memory benefits from faster RAM (NB: ignore the headline speed: the actual speed that you want for most purposes is that, divided by the CAS latency). Also, the inter-core speed of Ryzen CPUs is tied to RAM speed (the actual headline speed), so if you're doing something CPU heavy and have a Ryzen CPU, you want faster RAM (by headline speed).

[Valentine Z]

Is there actually any point in spending more on "Fancy" ram vs normal ram? My dad's basically said that there's been mixed feelings on that.

It depends what you're doing, and what CPU you use. Broadly, anything that's reliant on doing lots of stuff with data in the memory benefits from faster RAM (NB: ignore the headline speed: the actual speed that you want for most purposes is that, divided by the CAS latency). Also, the inter-core speed of Ryzen CPUs is tied to RAM speed (the actual headline speed), so if you're doing something CPU heavy and have a Ryzen CPU, you want faster RAM (by headline speed).

Ahh, good to know. Cheers, and thanks!

[Minoa]

Source: https://www.positive.news/society/thous ... -for-good/

This thread, because it relates to the internet.

While an honourable project, I feel that the damage to the reputation of social media is so deep that a total transformation of the social media landscape may be necessary.

Last time I had a social media account, the community was really toxic with so many conspiracy theories, rumours, fake news and really divisive opinions.

I haven't forgotten those who have been testing the concept of free speech to the limits, often neglecting the fact that for free speech to work, there have to be reasonable limitations to protect the safety and freedoms of others in a democratic society.

[Imperializt Russia]

Is there actually any point in spending more on "Fancy" ram vs normal ram? My dad's basically said that there's been mixed feelings on that.

I'm sure there are diminishing returns like all things, but benefits nonetheless.

What is "fancy ram"?

Also I'm still apoplectic about my "up to 4GHz CPU" laptop, fucks sake.

[Cekoviu]

So err... dual-booting failed on my new laptop, and I've been trying to use it for my school stuff.

Now I got two laptops - my newer Dell running Windows 10, and my laptop from 2012 (Sony VAIO S Series, 15.5") running Ubuntu. And ironically, Ubuntu is doing some things way faster than a newer laptop with Windows 10 inside.

I also did the "nuke Windows 8 and install" thing a little too quickly, so now my Sony laptop won't charge beyond 80%... because I activated some Battery Care function on W8, and W8 just got nuked.

I think there should probably be some way to change that in the BIOS, or simply resetting the BIOS could work.

[Salandriagado]

Is there actually any point in spending more on "Fancy" ram vs normal ram? My dad's basically said that there's been mixed feelings on that.

I'm sure there are diminishing returns like all things, but benefits nonetheless.

What is "fancy ram"?

Also I'm still apoplectic about my "up to 4GHz CPU" laptop, fucks sake.

OK, so there are five relevant numbers (beyond the capacity) for how fast your RAM is:

The first is the clock speed: quoted in either MT/s or MHz (the latter wrongly), usually in the name of the RAM, as something like "DDR4-2400", this is just the same as every other clock speed ever. More is betterer. For technical reasons, the number usually quoted as the speed of the RAM is actually twice the clock speed (the "DDR" part of the RAM names stands for "Double Data Rate": this means that the data is transferred twice per clock cycle, so the number quoted is the actual effective speed - somewhat confusingly, CPUs use the opposite convention: modern CPUs operate at much higher IPC (Instructions Per Cycle) rates than old CPUs, so are far more powerful, even at identical clock speeds).
Timings: Usually quoted as a set of four numbers (eg 7-8-8-24).
The first number is the most important: it's the CAS Latency: This is the number of cycles that pass between the memory controller saying "hey, get me data from this column on the RAM" (NB: RAM is laid out in grids: we go row first, then column, so this is the best-case scenario for how long it takes to access data, when we're already in the right row), and that actually being available. It's measured in cycles, rather than in real time, so to get the actual latency, you need to divide it by the (doubled) clock speed. Note that this has no impact on actual bandwidth in most cases, but memory latency can also sometimes be a slowdown, so this is still important, even if you aren't doing anything that makes this mess up the bandwidth.
Row-Column Delay: How many cycles it takes to get access to the columns within a row after sending the "open row" command. Identical to the above, but only applies when opening a new row, so is less important.
Row Precharge Time: How many cycles it takes to close a row, roughly (NB: not actually this at all on an electrical level, but that's the effect). Identical to the above, but only applies when you need to close a wrong row first, so is even less important.
Row Active Time: In theory, this should be literally just the CAS Latency, plus the Row-Column Delay. In practice, it usually comes set slower for stability reasons. Note that the last three are all minimums: you can set things manually however you like.

There's a bunch of other numbers, but they're all pretty minor in terms of what they do. All of these can be fucked with through the BIOS, if you feel like it: pushing your RAM to higher frequencies than it was designed for generally requires loosening up the timings to maintain stability, so there's something of a balancing act to be done.

[Tekania]

Is there actually any point in spending more on "Fancy" ram vs normal ram? My dad's basically said that there's been mixed feelings on that.

depends on what you mean by "fancy ram". If you mean better CAS latency or speed, then there are application where that would give better performance (say on a Ryzen system, inifinity fabric is tied to RAM speed and as such effects speed of communication between CCXs)

If you mean stuff like RGB, then it would depends on your personal aesthetics and has no practical benefit.

[Imperializt Russia]

Okay, I just want to lay out my computer woes to see if something can be done.

So my old laptop was an Acer Aspire 5742. It had an Intel 1st-Gen i3 processor (i3-380M) with basic integrated graphics chipset, dual core at 2.53GHz. It had 4GB (3.7 effective) of 1400Mb/s RAM.

This would run games very poorly. So World of Warships would run, with all settings turned down or off, at a peak of 15fps and 8 if it got lairy on-screen.

---

I replaced it at Christmas with an ASUS Vivobook with a Ryzen chip. It was a Ryzen 2500U, which is advertised, even in this laptop, as "2Ghz to 4GHz boost", with a quad-core setup. It has the Vega 8 chipset of AMD integrated graphics, and 4GB (only 3.4 effective for some reason) of 2400Mb/s RAM.

It only runs at 2GHz (it runs over, of course, but I think I've seen it peak at 2.5, and not sustained), and is not supported by either of AMD's in-house overclocking programmes. Because it runs so slow by comparison (my first laptop had a 1.8GHz dual-core processor, that machine is just pure pain) but is powerful, World of Warships now graphically displays at 60fps, but is just as hard to play as before because it physically runs so slowly and is unresponsive to controls.
It even struggles like my old laptop did, to handle browsing while playing Youtube.

---

Is there anything that can really be done to get more performance out of this CPU? Or might the low effective RAM be a major limitation that I should look into first? If I do try to overclock, am I going to have to look into manual overclocking and just being careful?

I do fundamentally feel like I've been conned here.

[Cekoviu]

Okay, I just want to lay out my computer woes to see if something can be done.

So my old laptop was an Acer Aspire 5742. It had an Intel 1st-Gen i3 processor (i3-380M) with basic integrated graphics chipset, dual core at 2.53GHz. It had 4GB (3.7 effective) of 1400Mb/s RAM.

This would run games very poorly. So World of Warships would run, with all settings turned down or off, at a peak of 15fps and 8 if it got lairy on-screen.

---

I replaced it at Christmas with an ASUS Vivobook with a Ryzen chip. It was a Ryzen 2500U, which is advertised, even in this laptop, as "2Ghz to 4GHz boost", with a quad-core setup. It has the Vega 8 chipset of AMD integrated graphics, and 4GB (only 3.4 effective for some reason) of 2400Mb/s RAM.

It only runs at 2GHz (it runs over, of course, but I think I've seen it peak at 2.5, and not sustained), and is not supported by either of AMD's in-house overclocking programmes. Because it runs so slow by comparison (my first laptop had a 1.8GHz dual-core processor, that machine is just pure pain) but is powerful, World of Warships now graphically displays at 60fps, but is just as hard to play as before because it physically runs so slowly and is unresponsive to controls.
It even struggles like my old laptop did, to handle browsing while playing Youtube.

---

Is there anything that can really be done to get more performance out of this CPU? Or might the low effective RAM be a major limitation that I should look into first? If I do try to overclock, am I going to have to look into manual overclocking and just being careful?

I do fundamentally feel like I've been conned here.

I think it's just because it's a slow CPU, and having only 4 GB of RAM doesn't help either (particularly with Windows 10 being so bloated and browsers taking up an insane amount of RAM). I have the same problem of extremely slow basic operations with my laptop, and I've tried a lot of things to fix that. Ultimately you have to improve your hardware via overclocking/replacement or get a better system.

[Tekania]

Okay, I just want to lay out my computer woes to see if something can be done.

So my old laptop was an Acer Aspire 5742. It had an Intel 1st-Gen i3 processor (i3-380M) with basic integrated graphics chipset, dual core at 2.53GHz. It had 4GB (3.7 effective) of 1400Mb/s RAM.

This would run games very poorly. So World of Warships would run, with all settings turned down or off, at a peak of 15fps and 8 if it got lairy on-screen.

---

I replaced it at Christmas with an ASUS Vivobook with a Ryzen chip. It was a Ryzen 2500U, which is advertised, even in this laptop, as "2Ghz to 4GHz boost", with a quad-core setup. It has the Vega 8 chipset of AMD integrated graphics, and 4GB (only 3.4 effective for some reason) of 2400Mb/s RAM.

It only runs at 2GHz (it runs over, of course, but I think I've seen it peak at 2.5, and not sustained), and is not supported by either of AMD's in-house overclocking programmes. Because it runs so slow by comparison (my first laptop had a 1.8GHz dual-core processor, that machine is just pure pain) but is powerful, World of Warships now graphically displays at 60fps, but is just as hard to play as before because it physically runs so slowly and is unresponsive to controls.
It even struggles like my old laptop did, to handle browsing while playing Youtube.

---

Is there anything that can really be done to get more performance out of this CPU? Or might the low effective RAM be a major limitation that I should look into first? If I do try to overclock, am I going to have to look into manual overclocking and just being careful?

I do fundamentally feel like I've been conned here.

The 3.4/4GB is due to some system RAM being relegated to VRAM for the integrated graphics.

Boost on a 2500U is 3.6GB, you'll never see 4. base is 2GHz. What you'll actually get is going to be effected by thermal load on the APU as well as laptops can have limited heat dissipation. I'd be curious what thermals you are seeing when playing. If the TDP of the thermal solution the manufacturer used is too low it could result in thermal throttling of the cores resulting in stuttering and unplayability. Also environmental conditions may be a concern if vents are blocked on the laptop where it is positioned when being played.

Also with the lower RAM may want to check memory usage in game to make sure things are not being shuffled to virtual memory, as you will take a massive performance hit with that.

Really that Ryzen 5 2500U should be decimating the i3-380M in pretty much everything. It has more cores, and higher single core performance. So something is not right there. Stuttering doing something as light as Youtube also isn't right.

If thermals look good but system RAM isn't enough a simple RAM upgrade will likely show a big improvement. Preferably match sticks to double RAM and go dual channel.

[Imperializt Russia]

With Windows 10 64-bit and a full load, I'd expect my old laptop to be using 3.2-3.5GB of its 3.7GB effective.

I can only assume that now being limited to 3.4GB effective, it's basically throttled itself?
Thermal load isn't too bad, only 70 degrees peak during gaming.

[Cekoviu]

With Windows 10 64-bit and a full load, I'd expect my old laptop to be using 3.2-3.5GB of its 3.7GB effective.

I can only assume that now being limited to 3.4GB effective, it's basically throttled itself?
Thermal load isn't too bad, only 70 degrees peak during gaming.

Try going to msconfig -> Boot -> Advanced and see if "maximum memory" is checked. Uncheck it and enable persistence if so. Also try entering this command in elevated cmd:

Code: Select all

bcdedit /deletevalue {current} truncatememory

[Imperializt Russia]

With Windows 10 64-bit and a full load, I'd expect my old laptop to be using 3.2-3.5GB of its 3.7GB effective.

I can only assume that now being limited to 3.4GB effective, it's basically throttled itself?
Thermal load isn't too bad, only 70 degrees peak during gaming.

Try going to msconfig -> Boot -> Advanced and see if "maximum memory" is checked. Uncheck it and enable persistence if so. Also try entering this command in elevated cmd:

Code: Select all

bcdedit /deletevalue {current} truncatememory

So, the computer may have a setting somewhere saying "stop using RAM at this level" and I can literally adjust that level?

[Cekoviu]

Try going to msconfig -> Boot -> Advanced and see if "maximum memory" is checked. Uncheck it and enable persistence if so. Also try entering this command in elevated cmd:

Code: Select all

bcdedit /deletevalue {current} truncatememory

So, the computer may have a setting somewhere saying "stop using RAM at this level" and I can literally adjust that level?

Yes, that's correct. Your best bet is probably to disable that option rather than changing the value though, hence /deletevalue.

[The Knockout Gun Gals]

Since I can't find the legitimate answer on Internet, I'll ask here.

Are there any reasons/causes of why Drive C can be corrupted/broken? Does installing too many games can be a factor?

[Space Captain Brian Surgeon]

Since I can't find the legitimate answer on Internet, I'll ask here.

Are there any reasons/causes of why Drive C can be corrupted/broken? Does installing too many games can be a factor?

I doubt that installing too many things is a factor (you can only install what there is enough free space for).

[The Knockout Gun Gals]

Since I can't find the legitimate answer on Internet, I'll ask here.

Are there any reasons/causes of why Drive C can be corrupted/broken? Does installing too many games can be a factor?

I doubt that installing too many things is a factor (you can only install what there is enough free space for).

I'm just curious. I've been installing/reinstalling/uninstalling more common lately.

[Space Captain Brian Surgeon]

I doubt that installing too many things is a factor (you can only install what there is enough free space for).

I'm just curious. I've been installing/reinstalling/uninstalling more common lately.

I guess more use does lead to more wear and tear. I've always found that even when my hard drive fails, I can buy a hard drive caddy and still read stuff from it using the next computer I buy. Not quite sure why that is.

[Corrian]

I hate how the Xbox 360 controllers, if disconnected (And mine decided to do so randomly last night), jumps to player 2 and then you CAN'T fix it without freaking restarting your computer. This seems to be a known issue at my dads work, too, as that's what they have to do there too. Like Jesus Christ.

[Space Captain Brian Surgeon]

I hate how the Xbox 360 controllers, if disconnected (And mine decided to do so randomly last night), jumps to player 2 and then you CAN'T fix it without freaking restarting your computer. This seems to be a known issue at my dads work, too, as that's what they have to do there too. Like Jesus Christ.

I may just be getting old and grumpy, but I think there has been a real decline in the standard of programming and basic HCI stuff seems to have been forgotten. I have been watching a long series of lectures on Youtube and the programming of the Youtube interface is terrible. It can't even play the bloody adverts properly. And it doesn't help that Google's shitty scripts are slowing things down to dial up speeds.

[Lechites]

I hate how the Xbox 360 controllers, if disconnected (And mine decided to do so randomly last night), jumps to player 2 and then you CAN'T fix it without freaking restarting your computer. This seems to be a known issue at my dads work, too, as that's what they have to do there too. Like Jesus Christ.

The solution to that is getting an Xbox One controller (/s but not really).

[Tekania]

I doubt that installing too many things is a factor (you can only install what there is enough free space for).

I'm just curious. I've been installing/reinstalling/uninstalling more common lately.

installing/reinstalling itself isn't going to cause corruption. Hard Drive failures tend to come with physical issues, dust that made it into the unit in operation, minor manufacturer defects that escalate over time. drive shock, etc. All in all if you're concerned about longevity you want to look for drives slated for enterprise use. They tend to have slightly more stringent manudacturing expectations are rated for longer total operating hours than ones slated for desktop use. This also goes for drives rated for NAS and surveillance use.

[Minoa]

I hate how the Xbox 360 controllers, if disconnected (And mine decided to do so randomly last night), jumps to player 2 and then you CAN'T fix it without freaking restarting your computer. This seems to be a known issue at my dads work, too, as that's what they have to do there too. Like Jesus Christ.

I may just be getting old and grumpy, but I think there has been a real decline in the standard of programming and basic HCI stuff seems to have been forgotten. I have been watching a long series of lectures on Youtube and the programming of the Youtube interface is terrible. It can't even play the bloody adverts properly. And it doesn't help that Google's shitty scripts are slowing things down to dial up speeds.

You should also add the asset flips, the practice of building a game almost entirely out of pre-made assets with little original work.

[Corrian]

I may just be getting old and grumpy, but I think there has been a real decline in the standard of programming and basic HCI stuff seems to have been forgotten. I have been watching a long series of lectures on Youtube and the programming of the Youtube interface is terrible. It can't even play the bloody adverts properly. And it doesn't help that Google's shitty scripts are slowing things down to dial up speeds.

You should also add the asset flips, the practice of building a game almost entirely out of pre-made assets with little original work.

*Cough* Atlas *Cough*

I hate how the Xbox 360 controllers, if disconnected (And mine decided to do so randomly last night), jumps to player 2 and then you CAN'T fix it without freaking restarting your computer. This seems to be a known issue at my dads work, too, as that's what they have to do there too. Like Jesus Christ.

The solution to that is getting an Xbox One controller (/s but not really).

I guess I might have to.