@TheGameTechnician

Jason Evangelho

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Hello Jason. What's the best GPU for 1080p/60fps that won't break the bank and doesn't skimp on VRAM? The GTX 950 seems like it'll need a replacement in two years with 2 GB GDDR5 IIRC.

I think your absolute best bet/bang-for-buck for 1080p/60fps gaming is going to be an @AMD R9 380 or the 4GB version of the @Nvidia 960.
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Liked by: Madness. Sharlin Espinal

What is the difference between a 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm? What are the boot times?

efioje’s Profile PhotoEric (y) Wang
7200RPM drives are SUBSTANTIALLY faster. I don't have boot times in front of me and it would depend on a few factors, but believe me you don't want anything slower than a 7200RPM drive in your PC or laptop if you can help it. Differences in boot times may not be as dramatic, but applications and game levels? Eternity by comparison.
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Liked by: Madness. Eric (y) Wang

I'm putting the finishing touches on your $800 mini-itx gaming build. Is 430W really enough. I got the GTX 970 STRIX and the box says I need 500W. Is the Corsair 430 you recommended really enough? I used the 4790k but that should not make a difference, but 2 added an additional 7200 RPM drive.

I promise you it's enough. I've tested total system power consumption at the wall, and companies like Falcon Northwest put overclocked GTX Titans and Devil's Canyon CPUs into systems with a 450W PSU. Alienware runs an overclocked and liquid cooled Skylake CPU with a GTX 960 on a 330W power supply in their X51. You have my absolute assurance that it's more than adequate.

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With DirectX 12 around the corner and looking at the benchmarks being so negative for nvidia, do you think nvidia will try to stop by all means the release of any game that supports it? There's some people saying nvidia is stopping the release of it on the game ARK: Survival Evolved. What do you thi

That sounds like a pretty crazy theory, to be honest. Consider that Nvidia has a strong relationship with Microsoft in promoting DirectX 12. For the company to spend so much time promoting it and then actively prevent its usage in games? That makes a mighty big enemy in Microsoft, don't ya think?
Furthermore, less PC games to play means less work that needs to be done on drivers, which means workforce downsizing at Nvidia. It also means less reasons to buy Nvidia hardware.
I could continue for pages, but hopefully you understand that this is pretty far from being a realistic course of action for them.
1
Liked by: Xavi Mundó

I've been wanting to do some upgrading to my pc. I used a build you posted on Forbes a while back (2013). AMD Radeon R9 270X AMD FX-6300 6-Core Processor Black Edition MSI 970A-G43 Motherboard Corsair CX500M 500W Modular PSU I'm just not sure where to start with upgrades. Any tips or leads?

Tyler Jackson
The most meaningful upgrade you can make in terms of improving gaming performance is always your GPU. If you want to stay on the Radeon path, the Radeon 390 offers tremendous bang for your buck, and you shouldn't need to upgrade your power supply. I think the FX-6300 should still serve you pretty well. Do you have an SSD? They're really affordable now and popping your OS on one can make a dramatic difference in overall speed for basic, everyday tasks.
1
Liked by: Tyler Jackson

Read your April 9 column about building a unit for $750. Gonna build it with my kids, thanks. Will keep you posted. Any updates to the plan since then?

Congrats, I'm hearing from lot of people building this very system with their kids and that flat out rocks. Thank you for passing down the glory of PC gaming ;-)
Honestly, I wouldn't change a thing. I would ENTERTAIN replacing the GTX 960 with a Radeon 380 as it slightly outperforms Nvidia's card, but not my such a margin that you'd regret it. If you're already pleased with Nvidia's ecosystem, there's no reason to change course.
Holler if you have any questions along the way!

Would you recommend R9 390 over gtx 970?

In terms of pure performance results, absolutely. Specifically the MSI Gaming 970.

I have a i5 4690k, asus z97 pro gamer, asus strix 970. What will be my best bet to switch to a itx form factor pc? In term of motherboard choice and case choice to fit all. atx psu going to be a problem?

zhesiong☆
Well, the Z97 Pro Gamer is a full ATX motherboard isn't it? I'm not sure I'm grasping the extend of your question. Are you asking for a comparable mini-ITX board?

What is the latest,fastest and the most efficient APU available right now?

That would be the 7870K if I'm not mistaken.

have you heard of any issues with msi's a78m-e35 motherboard? i have all of my drivers updated and replaced my ram, but my system still is crashing. any suggestions?

I would need specific details on the crashing behavior, but no I haven't personally heard of any issues with that board. Have you tried MSI forums, etc?

I recently built your 750 build, and I started it up downloaded all of the drivers ( I think) updated windows and when I start to play league of Legends it was extremely slow unless I turned the resolution down and then it was ridiculously fuzzy. Any idea what could cause this?

Hey there! Are you sure you have the most recent Nvidia driver? Can you describe what you mean my "fuzzy?" Do other games work as they should?

I have built the entire computer and attached everything. However, it will not make the beep, when I power it on and only the CPU Cooler will spin. The GPU will spin for a second then stop. Do you know what the issue is?

A majority of newer video card fans don't spin unless the card is under load. And almost no motherboards have a BIOS beep anymore.

I have a a10 7870k, 2x4 patriot 1600mhz ram, and msi a78m-e35 mobo. ive gotten the following errors over the past three days: PFN_LIST_CORRUPT, KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE, DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR _EQUAL (amd_sata.sys). how should I remedy this? i uploaded windows 8.1 off of a uefi usb

You might have to consult Google on those.

Which R9 380 would you recommend ? I mean Sapphire,MSI,XFX e.t.c.

Sapphire, in my opinion, makes the best Fury and 390x, but I haven't tested their R9 380. I *do* have the MSI Gaming edition and I'm a big fan. But given Sapphire's track record, I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger on any of their cards. Typically great thermals, too.

(http://pcpartpicker.com/p/N8Z8Bm Is this good enough for playing Grand Theft Auto 5 on high settings 30+ FPS.) Could I replace Pentium with i5 760 ? I am asking because I can buy a used one for 65 bucks.

Yep, it is, provided you're talking about 1080p gaming. Although you may have to turn down things like Tessellation and Ambient Occlusion a bit.

i have just built a system and i want to check to make sure everything is running correctly and at the correct speeds. what software can I use to do some benchmark tests? how can i fix it if it isnt

Well, I can't answer how to fix a problem that doesn't exist yet, especially if I don't know the root cause :D
But as for benchmarking software, you can pick up some great apps like Heaven Valley (free) and 3DMark (affordable, on Steam). Also free are Furmark, Cinebench, and Geekbench.

I just recently read your piece on how to build 6 different gaming PCs. The AMD entry choice PC concept really caught my attention. However I was wondering if the gaming PC would accept/function if I opted for Intel CPU that you suggested in the first gaming PC idea..?

Nope, you would absolutely need to choose a motherboard that supported your Intel chipset choice.

Reviews are always comparing Nvidia vs AMD. I would like to see more comparisons between AIB partners (temperature, noise, pricing). What are your thoughts on this?

I think about this frequently, and you're absolutely right. I'd say the majority of reviews (there are plenty of exceptions though) focus on either reference versions, or the AIB cards we're sampled with. It goes down this way for a variety of reasons. Nvidia almost always samples press with reference versions of their cards, but AMD has started taking a more AIB-focused approach, and I suspect that's due to dwindling resources or a shift in their reviews program.
I personally appreciate evaluating reference versions on both sides for the INITIAL review, because it allows a very apples-to-apples comparison of overclocking, cooling, performance. Then, you're right, it would be nice to keep a steady stream of AIB reviews coming: "Sapphire Tri-X 390x versus MSI R9 390x Gaming versus ASUS Strix 390x." How does each card perform in cooling, overclocking. How are their software suites, power efficiency, etc? The problem is that's just a serious time investment, and I think the majority of us get overwhelmed with other launches, making it difficult to revisit those potential extended reviews.
I think it's worth at least TRYING to crank out more of these. At least something along the lines of "Which GTX 960 should you buy?"
Great question!

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Hey Jason, a question for you on Win 10. Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Click on memory, with Edge open, with multiple tabs--say 4 or 5. I'm getting insane memory usage from it--up to 2 gigs or more. Would you think this is memory leakage?

That's VERY suspect. Right now I have 4 tabs open in Edge (all loaded up with websites), and I'm only seeing about 20MB memory usage. Have you tried closing each tab down to see if it's being caused by a particular site or script?

Not a question- Just wanna say you're awesome! Thanks for all your help on my build. I'm sure I'll be consulting you before I make any big changes in the future :)

Kelsey S.
You're awesome for taking the time to say this :D

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