Random Technology Questions

[sivispacem]

On 9/28/2022 at 8:47 PM, StreetLife102 said:

Does the SysMain service really helps my computer improve performance or no? Should I turn it off?

I would leave it unless it's actually causing problems. 

[bevlian89]

Not sure if I’m in the right place to ask this but it is quite general.

 

PC player. I have a nvidia gtx 10 series gpu (4gb) since 2019. Never any problems, has been great thus far.

 

My issue. WTF is up with the new driver updates circa 2022 onwards? I’ve had to rollback a few times now due to TDR video failure (before the obvious query, all hardware is new). Reading the Reddit page seems to have a dedicated listing for this error, and as you’d expect I’ve been getting TDR sporadically after one or two recent driver updates so decided to rollback to 461.72. Kalm.
 

YouTube guides also suggest adjusting the power saver options which I’ve done, but still receive in-game stuttering across the board. When I was on the updated drivers, GTA V’s FMV’s and transitions freeze until they stop (but I can still hear them!) and would also BSOD at the nightclub frequently. nvlddmkm.sys was the cause according to whocrashed, and again the changes made to remedy the problem were a dud until rollback.

 

Another major bugbear of mine is the temps. What the hell. The recent drivers for nvidia (500+) seems for me to not only be drawing more voltage, but upping my god damn temps by 30°. Yes, 30 degrees. I keep a clean system and my case has so much ventilation it’s untrue. On older drivers I idle at 27° to 33° which is peachy. In games as expected they raise to 60° to 64°. These new drivers? 58° to 61° idle at desktop and 49° to 51° while gaming. I don’t even know where to begin. Never have I seen temps rise this bad before and so erratically.

 

Am I stumped until I upgrade to a 30 series or is there a more recent stable driver for a 10 series I can install without this game stutter on newer drivers?

 

Thank you to whoever replies!

[sivispacem]

So I would guess, based on your description of symptoms and temps, that the issue here is actually cooling related. Either you've had enough thermal paste degredation to result in localised component overheating or something else is going wrong in your cooling solution. And stuttering could well be caused by periodical downclocking due to components hitting their temperature limits. 

 

None of what's mentioned here should be attributable to driver changes. 

[bevlian89]

17 hours ago, sivispacem said:

So I would guess, based on your description of symptoms and temps, that the issue here is actually cooling related. Either you've had enough thermal paste degredation to result in localised component overheating or something else is going wrong in your cooling solution. And stuttering could well be caused by periodical downclocking due to components hitting their temperature limits. 

 

None of what's mentioned here should be attributable to driver changes. 

Appreciated sivi, thank you for your insight.

 

I can understand how a driver update can alter the hardware mechanics of a gpu on the whole, especially as these new cards are released. What I don’t get is how rollback can affect temps. Nothing is changing to warrant more thermal paste. This is fairly new gear (the 10 series was bought sealed in 2019 from legit distributor). 

 

Are temps being monitored elsewhere on the gpu? I did read newer drivers do this. I also read that the change in driver can ask more of the gpu when it can’t perform it. Not every driver is 100% flawless and why people ask for the most stable version. I rollback when I run into errors like these or BSOD’s due to this recent phenomenon of TDR being swept aside, probably due to “support reasons”, that they can’t maintain older versions. I wish they’d just come out and say that rather than leaving plebs like me in the dark. 

 

I also read some 30 series users are suffering from the same nvlddmkm.sys on their rigs with BSOD’s so I’m not the only one to have these symptoms on older cards. 

 

My cooling is fan assisted (2 extra front and rear), with the side panel off periodically for swapping out hardware. The case is ATX but there’s plenty of room for air to circulate throughout and pass through. The thermal paste was replaced just last year and within that time everything has been great… until the attempts to update drivers these past couple months. 

 

I think the new drivers are causing stuttering because I rollback and don’t witness any of this. The gpu has never exceeded 70° and I read by others that having a system idle at 60° is normal. To me, that isn’t normal. Something is interfering or clashing with the hardware to jump those temps up so excessively. Usually if I’d installed something new or got a virus then alarm bells would ring and I’d revert my system. Sfc and DISM gave clean checks, and my multiple AV’s found nada (ran these checks anyway despite no changes to my system).

 

Google results show drivers can increase temps when updated, but I fail to see the importance of boosting temps like this just to receive fractional performance increases. I don’t need them, and I certainly didn’t ask to have my card dropped in the fire pit. If it ain’t broke…! 

 

Thing is Red Dead was begging me to update my drivers due to incompatibility so I’m stumped rn. After my clean install I forgot which driver I was on last, but I did remember I was on 472 for almost a year without issue. I just can’t see another avenue of approach other than testing another card which I can’t do. I think I could try 513.46 as I did update in the summer but can’t remember if it was that exact driver. I do remember it being fairly stable, and not jumping temps up. That’s my major worry.

[Mister Pink]

Recently purchased a 4K 60hz monitor but can only get 30hz. I'm using a high speed HDMI so I'm assuming my HDMI port is 1.4. ( ie. too outdated for 60hz). However I do have a Thunderbolt (4) port. This should allow me to use USB-C to HDMI at 4K 60hz, right? Anybody confirm this and/or have any recommendations or things to look out for?  

 

EDIT: Has anyone experience with USB-C (Thunderbolt) to Displayport? 

Edited October 15, 2022 by Mister Pink

[sivispacem]

Thunderbolt should to 4K60 assuming it's 3+. DisplayPort is also likely to be workable. 

[Mister Pink]

23 hours ago, sivispacem said:

Thunderbolt should to 4K60 assuming it's 3+. DisplayPort is also likely to be workable. 

Super, thanks. Unfortunately one of the local remaining stores what would sell such items has closed. I was hoping to be 100% sure before I order online as liklihood is it will take a few days for arrival and bit of pain if I need to return it. Cheers. 

 

[LeeC22]

I have been a long time out of the tech loop so I am having to seearch for answers. I currently have 2 PCs and 1 monitor.

 

PC 1 - i7 980 + GTX 1080

PC 2 - i5 12400 + GTX 3070

 

Monitor - LG 34GN850 (21:9 - 3440x1440) which has 1 x Displayport and 2 x HDMI but only supports GSync over DP. HDMI gives me the options of 50Hz or 85Hz refresh rates.

 

Because the monitor only supports GSync over DP, only one of the PCs can have access to GSync. So my question is, is GSync more beneficial to the underpowered system running the 3440x1440 res or is it more beneficial to the higher powered PC?

 

I am moving all games to PC 2 but PC 1 will still run a couple of games that have a multiplayer/co-op option so that I don't have to play with other people. It will also continue to play single-player accounts on those games. PC 1 is running those games fine right now but I suspect that GSync is contributing to that. A DP switcher is not an option because I will very likely have both PCs active at the same time fairly frequently.

 

I used to have no problem with this kind of thing  when I used to build PCs and write games/software but now I just don't understand the new tech enough. Coupled with a failing mental state (and old age), I feel like I have reverted to noob status, so any help is much appreciated.

[Jason]

On 11/9/2022 at 12:36 PM, LeeC22 said:

I have been a long time out of the tech loop so I am having to seearch for answers. I currently have 2 PCs and 1 monitor.

 

PC 1 - i7 980 + GTX 1080

PC 2 - i5 12400 + GTX 3070

 

Monitor - LG 34GN850 (21:9 - 3440x1440) which has 1 x Displayport and 2 x HDMI but only supports GSync over DP. HDMI gives me the options of 50Hz or 85Hz refresh rates.

 

Because the monitor only supports GSync over DP, only one of the PCs can have access to GSync. So my question is, is GSync more beneficial to the underpowered system running the 3440x1440 res or is it more beneficial to the higher powered PC?

 

I am moving all games to PC 2 but PC 1 will still run a couple of games that have a multiplayer/co-op option so that I don't have to play with other people. It will also continue to play single-player accounts on those games. PC 1 is running those games fine right now but I suspect that GSync is contributing to that. A DP switcher is not an option because I will very likely have both PCs active at the same time fairly frequently.

 

I used to have no problem with this kind of thing  when I used to build PCs and write games/software but now I just don't understand the new tech enough. Coupled with a failing mental state (and old age), I feel like I have reverted to noob status, so any help is much appreciated.

 

PC 1 is underpowered so it will struggle to maintain consistent frame rates in newer titles so GSync can help there, but while PC2 is high-spec iand can run games at max or close to max settings, it can still potentially have moments where the FPS dips below your monitors refresh rate and thus would benefit from GSync.

 

If I were in your shoes I'd have the PC I predominately game on and want the best experience on use GSync.

[LeeC22]

8 hours ago, Jason said:

 

PC 1 is underpowered so it will struggle to maintain consistent frame rates in newer titles so GSync can help there, but while PC2 is high-spec iand can run games at max or close to max settings, it can still potentially have moments where the FPS dips below your monitors refresh rate and thus would benefit from GSync.

 

If I were in your shoes I'd have the PC I predominately game on and want the best experience on use GSync.

Yeah, I went with PC 2 which proved to be the right choice but it left me with an issue on PC 1. Using HDMI exposed a display mode on the LG monitor that was 3840x2160 and because one of the games I play only allows Full Screen on the highest setting it finds, it caused a problem with that being such a high res. It was a TV supported resolution which I eventually removed with CRU.

 

On the positive side, support for FRS 2 has allowed me to still play games on PC 1 using reduced resolution scaling, which means they are still playable and don't look too bad. I only play 2 games on there so it's fine and if one of them gets their sh*t together, I will move it to PC 2 but I don't trust it yet.

 

Thanks for the confirmation though.

[Craigsters]

My McAfee antivirus expires in 29, I went to use renew button in the spam email they sent me, the where trying to get me to renew at $74 CAD a year, found out that's the amount if you have multi device's  in your home, I have one PC and a tablet not synchened  to it, the  yearly fee for one device is under $30 a year, McAfee are sneaky with there subscription fees

[sivispacem]

If you're not an enterprise customer you shouldn't be paying for antivirus applications. It's literally pissing money away. Just use Microsoft Defender. 

[Cloudee]

I know very little on the latest TV tech.  But I'm in the market for something in the 60" + range just now (well in the next few months).

 

I don't need anything costing thousands, just suggestions of what my best options would be.  I would say keeping it sup $1000 would be beneficial to me.

 

Along with a singular soundbar (I know people talk soundbars and subs but I don't have the room nor the requirement for punchy bass notes all the time) too if that helps since I've been told the speakers now are quite tinny, not anything with mega joules of bass though I've neighbours to consider if it was going to be used for everything from movies/sitcoms/sports.  Don't need the whole place shaking apart.

 

Just looking for some recommendations essentially.

[sivispacem]

Would you rather go a little under (55") or a little over (65") in sizing? 

 

At circa $1k you're looking at the lower middle end of OLED really. I personally tend to lean towards Panasonic, Phillips and Sony for TVs- nothing wrong with Samsung or LG but I find their UIs less intuitive and I still haven't forgiven Samsung for displaying f*cking adverts on the TV home page a few years back. 

 

You might be able to get a TX-55JZ1500B in budget; it's last year's upper-middle spec Panasonic OLED in 55" format and it's absolutely incredible. It's just been replaced so likely to be some offers about, they're about £1,099 here in the UK currently. 

 

For sound bars, I've been really impressed by the performance of my Sonos. The Beam Gen2 would probably do you well, but it'll give you finesse rather than all out powaaah. How much are you looking to spend on the sound bar? There's a massive range in prices. 

[Cloudee]

On 1/20/2023 at 7:27 PM, sivispacem said:

Would you rather go a little under (55") or a little over (65") in sizing? 

 

At circa $1k you're looking at the lower middle end of OLED really. I personally tend to lean towards Panasonic, Phillips and Sony for TVs- nothing wrong with Samsung or LG but I find their UIs less intuitive and I still haven't forgiven Samsung for displaying f*cking adverts on the TV home page a few years back. 

 

You might be able to get a TX-55JZ1500B in budget; it's last year's upper-middle spec Panasonic OLED in 55" format and it's absolutely incredible. It's just been replaced so likely to be some offers about, they're about £1,099 here in the UK currently. 

 

For sound bars, I've been really impressed by the performance of my Sonos. The Beam Gen2 would probably do you well, but it'll give you finesse rather than all out powaaah. How much are you looking to spend on the sound bar? There's a massive range in prices. 

Thanks for the info.  I'll be honest I've got a Sony 49" Android TV and it drives me crazy, it reboots randomly?  Like, for no reason at all, it's super frustrating.  Although I've been using a friends 65" Samsung just now, and yes, the Adverts and that Samsung TV Plus thing is just, no no no!

 

Okay so something like a year old model Panasonic OLED then would be a good idea.

 

For the soundbar I don't know, for me I'd say it's worth no more than $150 for me, if it's anymore than that I'll just stick to the TV audio, it's not a deal breaker for me in the slightest.

[Giga Chad]

Do apps/games run better on Linux than Microsoft Windows?

[DEALUX]

I am interested in potentially purchasing the new LG 1440p OLED monitor but a note in rtings review has me wondering about a particular specification for my GPU: https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/lg/27gr95qe-b

 

Apparently I need a GPU that supports Display Stream Compression to get 1440p 240 Hz with 10-bit color. My GTX 1080 Ti supports DisplayPort 1.4 but not DSC apparently. Would that mean that it can do 10-bit at lower refresh rates or is 10-bit color not supported at all (which would be odd)?

[sivispacem]

21 hours ago, DEALUX said:

I am interested in potentially purchasing the new LG 1440p OLED monitor but a note in rtings review has me wondering about a particular specification for my GPU: https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/lg/27gr95qe-b

 

Apparently I need a GPU that supports Display Stream Compression to get 1440p 240 Hz with 10-bit color. My GTX 1080 Ti supports DisplayPort 1.4 but not DSC apparently. Would that mean that it can do 10-bit at lower refresh rates or is 10-bit color not supported at all (which would be odd)?

Yes, you can do lower refresh rates and HDR10. 

[DEALUX]

6 hours ago, sivispacem said:

Yes, you can do lower refresh rates and HDR10. 

I wonder if 120-144 Hz is doable in 10-bit. That way it wouldn't be much of a downgrade from my 165 Hz monitor. Most of the time I don't even notice a difference between 120 Hz and 165.

[sivispacem]

10 hours ago, DEALUX said:

I wonder if 120-144 Hz is doable in 10-bit. That way it wouldn't be much of a downgrade from my 165 Hz monitor. Most of the time I don't even notice a difference between 120 Hz and 165.

On pure bandwidth terms, it should do [email protected] without trouble and may even do 165Hz. 

[Failed Again]

 

 

nvm

 

Edited April 17 by Failed Again

[kipakolonyasi]

I have this stutter problem with my new gaming laptop which is a Lenovo ideapad gaming 3. (i5 11320H, 16 RAM, RTX 3050 TI) The stutter starts after around 3 to 5 hours of running (after startup) and it depends on acivity too, if i push it harder with games it may start earlier etc. And when it starts it doesn’t go away until restart. And it’s a full system stutter not only in games, desktop stutters as well. It’s a very periodic stutter, if it’s every second it’s every second. Sound is not affected. But it doesn’t show up in my nvidia fps counter. Frame rate always looks fine. I’ve never changed anything in BIOS or don’t use anything that changes any system settings, it’s a clean installation of Windows 11. And i formatted the PC 2 times as well, don’t install anything other than the Steam and the games. Only program i use besides them is Lenovo Vantage. Tried installing drivers form Lenovo website myself once, tried leaving drivers to Windows Update in my other fresh install of Windows… Tried a lot of things but I’m at the end of my own wit at the moment. What can be causing this?

[Cloudee]

On 4/20/2023 at 3:55 PM, kipakolonyasi said:

 

I have this stutter problem with my new gaming laptop which is a Lenovo ideapad gaming 3. (i5 11320H, 16 RAM, RTX 3050 TI) The stutter starts after around 3 to 5 hours of running (after startup) and it depends on acivity too, if i push it harder with games it may start earlier etc. And when it starts it doesn’t go away until restart. And it’s a full system stutter not only in games, desktop stutters as well. It’s a very periodic stutter, if it’s every second it’s every second. Sound is not affected. But it doesn’t show up in my nvidia fps counter. Frame rate always looks fine. I’ve never changed anything in BIOS or don’t use anything that changes any system settings, it’s a clean installation of Windows 11. And i formatted the PC 2 times as well, don’t install anything other than the Steam and the games. Only program i use besides them is Lenovo Vantage. Tried installing drivers form Lenovo website myself once, tried leaving drivers to Windows Update in my other fresh install of Windows… Tried a lot of things but I’m at the end of my own wit at the moment. What can be causing this?

Sounds like thermal throttling, might be worth monitoring the internal temps if you can.

[kipakolonyasi]

19 minutes ago, Cloudee said:

Sounds like thermal throttling, might be worth monitoring the internal temps if you can.

I did that. CPU and GPU temps always look fine. I don’t know what else can heat up and cause this.