|OT| The PC Hardware Thread -- Buy/Upgrade/Ask/Answer

[Joe Spangle]

Is there any risk/downside to me under volting my cpu, other than the slight performance hit? My new build is running really hot - clocked it at 95C and the fans go mad and so after looking up some guides online i've changed the curve optimiser doodar to negative 30 and also limited the voltage. Now its running at 80c max and the fans don't sound like they are about to explode. Everything else seems fine and the performance hit seems negligible.

 

[fearthedawn]

Is there any risk/downside to me under volting my cpu, other than the slight performance hit? My new build is running really hot - clocked it at 95C and the fans go mad and so after looking up some guides online i've changed the curve optimiser doodar to negative 30 and also limited the voltage. Now its running at 80c max and the fans don't sound like they are about to explode. Everything else seems fine and the performance hit seems negligible.

No risk to the hardware, just don't forget you did it if you run into any stability problems

It took me forever to figure out but cyberpunk has random gpu driver crashes on my system unless i run my cpu at stock, years ago my system was perfectly stable with curve optimizer at -15 in various stress tests and games (and still is) so i just set it to -10 to be on the save side and forgot about it. Never had the idea it might be the problem in cyberpunk until the intel cpu disaster with nvidia blaming intel cpus for gpu errors, so i removed the undervolt and haven't had a crash since.

 

[Parsnip]

I think I recall Hitman 2 (or maybe it was 3, time is difficult) started having seemingly random gpu crashes for me with an undervolted rtx3070, while all the stress and stability testing were fine.
It's entirely possible that if I had just goosed up the voltage a little bit while still undervolting it might have been stable again, but I never bothered to test thoroughly, rather just stopped applying the undervolt.

 

[NarohDethan]

So, the new AMD GPUs are also expected to be short on supply, right?

 

[Parsnip]

So, the new AMD GPUs are also expected to be short on supply, right?

Who knows tbh. I'd say the chances for that are high for all hardware launches these days, but I haven't followed the rumor mill.
Maybe they were planning to launch earlier but delayed a few months so they could accumulate have more stock and have rock solid drivers and software stack ready for launch? Unlikely, but one can hope.

What's interesting to me is that since they decided to not compete at the ultra high end and want to go for the wider market, will they actually price their GPU's to move. They tried that a bit last time around but not nearly aggressive enough.

 

[Nebulys]

Given the RT performance probably won’t match the Nvidia equivalent, and their new AI upscaling is an unknown quantity compared to DLSS, in my view they need to price their card below the Nvidia card the 9070 is going up against.

Also, I know they’re not going for the higher end cards, but I really would like to switch to AMD for my next graphics card, but I like to have something like an 80-series.

Once I build my new PC (maybe 2 years from now) I’m hoping to run Bazzite or SteamOS on it. I know 2 years is a long time, but I’m not convinced having an Nvidia GPU will be much better in Linux than it is now, so I really hope AMD gives us an 80 series, even if they’re steering clear of the 90.

 

[kio]

with every passing day, the RTX 4080 Super is becoming more and more appealing
/rant

 

[Kvik]

You know summer is over when the CPU idle temp is back to 40C.

 

[MonthOLDpickle]

I am gonna need some guidance as I somehow walked out of a local store with a 5070ti Vanguard with a inventory mistake on their part.

1) I want to somehow backup per app settings in my NVCP - is there a way or will I have to do it manually? I am gonna be DDUing the current drivers.
2) How do I make sure GSYNC is working? I have a 240hz 21:9 3440x1440 QDLED monitor. I was planning on getting a GPU before a new monitor but monitor had a deal on it.
3) HDR seems to work with my current 1070 but I haven't dealt much with it so yea who knows

 

[TheTrain]

Getting a desktop pc next week.
My budget was limited and i got a good deal on this so im happy with it.
Ryzen 7 5700X3D. RTX 4060 Ti. 32 GB RAM. 1 TB SSD.

Its a pretty good config, enjoy your ride!

 

[TheTrain]

I am gonna need some guidance as I somehow walked out of a local store with a 5070ti Vanguard with a inventory mistake on their part.

1) I want to somehow backup per app settings in my NVCP - is there a way or will I have to do it manually? I am gonna be DDUing the current drivers.
2) How do I make sure GSYNC is working? I have a 240hz 21:9 3440x1440 QDLED monitor. I was planning on getting a GPU before a new monitor but monitor had a deal on it.
3) HDR seems to work with my current 1070 but I haven't dealt much with it so yea who knows

1) You can't as far as I know, just take a screenshot of whatever you've changed in it
2) From the NVCP

3) Enable it on Windows, download and run "Windows HDR calibration app" and call it a day, leave it always on and enjoy. These days W11 is perfectly capable of handling an always enabled HDR monitor without any issue, it will automatically switch on an SDR container to run whatever it's on top of the image if it doesn't support HDR

 

[didamangi]

1) I want to somehow backup per app settings in my NVCP - is there a way or will I have to do it manually? I am gonna be DDUing the current drivers.

Download nvidia profile inspector and export all customized profile before uninstalling your driver. After installing new driver, import your customized profile.

 

[MonthOLDpickle]

Tooo late, but I found that and used it thanks. Though I need to try to understand LLM more.

 

[Nebulys]

What’s the thinking with Nvidia and Linux?

I’m looking to make the switch from Windows but Nvidia on Linux is apparently still a shitshow.

I have a 4080 and my PC is a HTPC, so I’d prefer a HTPC OS. I’m thinking Bazzite.

Is it worth trying Linux in this config, or am I setting myself up for a world of pain?

 

[Parsnip]

What’s the thinking with Nvidia and Linux?

I’m looking to make the switch from Windows but Nvidia on Linux is apparently still a shitshow.

I have a 4080 and my PC is a HTPC, so I’d prefer a HTPC OS. I’m thinking Bazzite.

Is it worth trying Linux in this config, or am I setting myself up for a world of pain?

My understanding is that it's a lot better and generally you are probably going to be fine, but you might run into some edge cases where it's not fine. Also I think maybe some multi monitor + HDR issues remain unsolved.

To be clear though I don't daily drive anything Linux at the moment so no first hand experience and my info might also be out of date.

 

[Parsnip]

Just had a sudden system crash while playing.

I hope it's a onetime fluke, don't really want and don't really have the budget for pc hardware now. It's also one of those that completely reboots the system so very few breadcrumbs to follow.
If it happens again I guess I would probably start with the PSU, it's my oldest component by far.


It did remind me that I've been meaning to update bios and chipset drivers for like a while now, so might as well do that now.

 

[Nebulys]

New computer get!

You’ll have to keep us posted on how you get on with the 4060 on Linux.

And by us, I mean me. I’m so very tempted to switch. I’m also tempted to grab a 9070, but I’d rather keep my current card if I can get away with it.

 

[undu]

What’s the thinking with Nvidia and Linux?

There's a fully open source vulkan driver maturing that's rully featured but not fully optimized yet. There's a fully open sourced kernel driver. In the next 1 to 2 years it will mature and be as fast as the proprietary one, using nvidia cards completely painless.
I think currently the experience depends on the distribution, so YMMV.

 

[Nebulys]

There's a fully open source vulkan driver maturing that's rully featured but not fully optimized yet. There's a fully open sourced kernel driver. In the next 1 to 2 years it will mature and be as fast as the proprietary one, using nvidia cards completely painless.
I think currently the experience depends on the distribution, so YMMV.

I probably won't be using a Nvidia GPU in 1-2 years. Almost certainly switching to AMD next time I build a PC, which will likely be long before then if Nvidia support continues to suck on Linux.

 

[Stevey]

Anyone else having issues with nvidia drivers?
The last 2 I've installed (Express through the nvidia app) have installed, but turned my second monitor off, then my main monitor is a black screen so I have to do a hard reboot.

After that no problems whatsoever :/

(This is on Windows 11, RTX3080Ti)

Maybe time to use DDU if it persists.

 

[Kvik]

Anyone else having issues with nvidia drivers?

I can recommend using NVCleanInstall to repack the GPU driver so that it'll only install the bare essentials (driver, hd audio, pyhsx and nvcp). I haven't had any issues since I've started using this tool back in the 30 series.

You can always install the other components like the NV app later.

NVCleanstall v1.18.0 Download

NVCleanstall lets you customize the NVIDIA GeForce Driver package by removing components that you don't need (or want). This not only keeps things ti

www.techpowerup.com

 

[Stevey]

I can recommend using NVCleanInstall to repack the GPU driver so that it'll only install the bare essentials (driver, hd audio, pyhsx and nvcp). I haven't had any issues since I've started using this tool back in the 30 series.

You can always install the other components like the NV app later.

NVCleanstall v1.18.0 Download

NVCleanstall lets you customize the NVIDIA GeForce Driver package by removing components that you don't need (or want). This not only keeps things ti

www.techpowerup.com

Thanks, that looks great.

 

[ezodagrom]

Got a 4070 Super for myself over a month ago, and I wanted to get a new GPU for my sis that could handle MH Wilds better than her current one (she has my old 3060 Ti currently, I have a 1440p monitor and she has a 1080p one).

At first I was waiting for the 5060 Ti, but between all the problems the 50 series are having, and me having a feeling that it's not gonna be a good enough upgrade over a 3060 Ti, I was having 2nd thoughts. I also considered an AMD alternative, but the RX 9070 costs more here than I'm willing to spend, plus my sis would lose DLAA on FFXIV, the other anti-aliasing options FFXIV has are all awful.

Luckily a local store got 4070 stock today at near MSRP (MSI Ventus 3X), I went for it, and it went out of stock again right after I ordered it. xD

A 4070 is way overkill for her current CPU though, an old i7 9700K, so that's the next upgrade, I'm probably gonna get a new one for her around this summer or so.
I'm hoping AMD releases a Ryzen 9700 non-X until then, it would be cheaper than a 9700X and it would be a good enough upgrade.