PC questions that don't really deserve their own thread.

[ss_lemonade]

So I want to use my Anker Soundcore 2 speaker for now through bluetooth. It was working fine for a few days until this morning. For some reason, without changing anything, sound has become really low quality, weak and cuts off every few seconds. It actually sounds like audio is coming from somewhere else in the speaker since I can run the left/right stereo test tones and they come out sounding just fine. I feel like Windows is treating the speaker as a handsfree device or something and outputting mono sound but why is it doing this? I remember having this problem with my headphones before where it appears as both stereo headphones and a headset and Windows would treat it as a headset randomly but I can't remember how I fixed the problem

 

[Deleted member 8861]

I don't know if this is the place for this questio, but what's the cheapest external mic I can get to play Rocksmith with?

 

[hersheyfan]

OK, tech moron question here - please bear with me.

I recently got an MSI 2070 Super, and am enjoying the ray tracing stuff. Assuming I want to keep using the RT visuals in supported games moving forward, which part should I prioritize buying first? My RAM is still the older, slow kind (16gb 2333mhz?) and the CPU is an i7 6700k; my monitor is a curved full HD Samsung.

Can I still manage ray tracing stuff at a reasonable framerate on near future games without the RAM and CPU being a problem? Getting a high end monitor (4k/gsync/high refresh) before thinking about the RAM/CPU is the more reasonable option to go with here, right? I'm thinking about getting an Aorus, but if I do that I'm definitely not getting any other PC parts within the year.

 

[Lakeside]

Can I still manage ray tracing stuff at a reasonable framerate on near future games without the RAM and CPU being a problem? Getting a high end monitor (4k/gsync/high refresh) before thinking about the RAM/CPU is the more reasonable option to go with here, right? I'm thinking about getting an Aorus, but if I do that I'm definitely not getting any other PC parts within the year.

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If you get a 4K monitor you can forget about everything but upgrading your video card. You are able to handle ray tracing on a 2070S because you're playing at 1080p.

I would sit tight until you feel things aren't performing to your expectations. When you replace the CPU you need a new motherboard as well. That would also be a good time to replace the RAM, though (for performance reasons not compatibility).

 

[Leo-Tyrant]

So I have been playing a lot of Starcraft Remastered (love it) and decided to try Starcraft II for the first time ever.

And it looks worse than SC1 to me. Mostly because of the shadows. I have everything at 4K and on Ultra and everything looks like its "blending together", units are not easy to distinguish among themselves/buildings etc...

I tried to disabled the shadow (leaving everything else at the highest settings) but the lower I can go is "medium pixelated mess".

Any suggestions?

Edit: Found this fix, it helps tremendously as it removes real time shadows and adds a simple "blob" shadow under any unit. Readability increases a great deal:

Find your variables.txt, located here / Documents / StarCraft II / ..

Copypaste the following code to the end of your original variables.txt:

GraphicsOptionShadowQuality=0
shadowmapsize=1

 

[Protoman200X]

What is the biggest benefit to obtaining a 1000 Watt power supply? Also, why do some builders have dual graphics card configurations?

 

[XR.]

What is the biggest benefit to obtaining a 1000 Watt power supply?

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It depends on the build, but in general I'd say reduced noise since powerful PSUs these days won't spin their fans under low load. So if you're constantly under 400-500W usage you'll never hear any fan spinning.

Also, why do some builders have dual graphics card configurations?

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Some people just want more performance. It isn't ideal though, since support is lacking so higher performance isn't always gauranteed.

 

[Sage Anahata]

Anyone have a good link to a text or video on building an entire PC from scratch?

Last parts come in this week, and this weekend might be when I officially start (ryzen 5/x570 if that helps).

It's my first time (although I've swapped out a graphics card here and there lol).

 

[hersheyfan]

If you get a 4K monitor you can forget about everything but upgrading your video card. You are able to handle ray tracing on a 2070S because you're playing at 1080p.

I would sit tight until you feel things aren't performing to your expectations. When you replace the CPU you need a new motherboard as well. That would also be a good time to replace the RAM, though (for performance reasons not compatibility).

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Well, shit. That settles it hahaha, I didn't know about that part! CPU+Mobo+RAM all at once is a rough bill.

I guess its just a gaming monitor for now, then. Will running stuff at 1080p look crappy on a 4k monitor's screen (i.e. I'll keep raytracing, but run it subnative for the acceptable performance)?

Also, would you recommend the Aorus, or is there a better price/performance monitor out there (that ticks all the boxes - 4k, high refresh rate, gsync) that youd recommend instead?

Thank you so much for replying, btw. I really appreciate it!

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Well, shit. That settles it hahaha, I didn't know about that part! CPU+Mobo+RAM all at once is a rough bill.

I guess its just a gaming monitor for now, then. Will running stuff at 1080p look crappy on a 4k monitor's screen (i.e. I'll keep raytracing, but run it subnative for the acceptable performance)?

Also, would you recommend the Aorus, or is there a better price/performance monitor out there (that ticks all the boxes - 4k, high refresh rate, gsync) that youd recommend instead?

Thank you so much for replying, btw. I really appreciate it!

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Since the new Nvidia 20xx cards now support Integer Scaling it should look pretty alright once you enable that. It means that, since 4k is exactly doubled 1080p to either side, each pixel in 1080p will be displayed as four pixels so the image will be a bit "blown up" but shouldn't be a blurry mess.

 

[Deleted member 33657]

So I want to use my Anker Soundcore 2 speaker for now through bluetooth. It was working fine for a few days until this morning. For some reason, without changing anything, sound has become really low quality, weak and cuts off every few seconds. It actually sounds like audio is coming from somewhere else in the speaker since I can run the left/right stereo test tones and they come out sounding just fine. I feel like Windows is treating the speaker as a handsfree device or something and outputting mono sound but why is it doing this? I remember having this problem with my headphones before where it appears as both stereo headphones and a headset and Windows would treat it as a headset randomly but I can't remember how I fixed the problem

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Probably this: https://superuser.com/questions/724018/bad-sound-through-bluetooth-headphones

 

[TheUnseenTheUnheard]

Did Palmer Luckey ever go through with his nitrogen cooled computer?

 

[hersheyfan]

Since the new Nvidia 20xx cards now support Integer Scaling it should look pretty alright once you enable that. It means that, since 4k is exactly doubled 1080p to either side, each pixel in 1080p will be displayed as four pixels so the image will be a bit "blown up" but shouldn't be a blurry mess.

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That sounds fantastic! I learned a lot today, thank you for the info!

Now to determine which monitor I should get...

 

[Skyfireblaze]

That sounds fantastic! I learned a lot today, thank you for the info!

Now to determine which monitor I should get...

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No problem, I'm happy to help! :) As for which monitor you should get, I'm sure someone else who is more in the loop could give you some recommendations, maybe head over to this thread and ask there too: https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-pc-builders-thread-i-need-a-new-pc-v2.61531/

I know we have a TV thread but I'm not sure if we have a dedicated monitor thread actually o.o

 

[Protoman200X]

Anyone have a good link to a text or video on building an entire PC from scratch?

Last parts come in this week, and this weekend might be when I officially start (ryzen 5/x570 if that helps).

It's my first time (although I've swapped out a graphics card here and there lol).

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I found this video to help me when I was building my PC for the first time. Very condense & easy to follow along. Hope it's suited to your needs.

 

[hersheyfan]

No problem, I'm happy to help! :) As for which monitor you should get, I'm sure someone else who is more in the loop could give you some recommendations, maybe head over to this thread and ask there too: https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-pc-builders-thread-i-need-a-new-pc-v2.61531/

I know we have a TV thread but I'm not sure if we have a dedicated monitor thread actually o.o

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ah, this looks perfect. I'm gonna ask around there, cheers Skyfireblaze! =D

 

[Skyfireblaze]

ah, this looks perfect. I'm gonna ask around there, cheers Skyfireblaze! =D

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You're welcome, I'm sure you'll find something that's perfect for you! :D

 

[Lakeside]

Well, shit. That settles it hahaha, I didn't know about that part! CPU+Mobo+RAM all at once is a rough bill.

I guess its just a gaming monitor for now, then. Will running stuff at 1080p look crappy on a 4k monitor's screen (i.e. I'll keep raytracing, but run it subnative for the acceptable performance)?

Also, would you recommend the Aorus, or is there a better price/performance monitor out there (that ticks all the boxes - 4k, high refresh rate, gsync) that youd recommend instead?

Thank you so much for replying, btw. I really appreciate it!

Click to shrink...

I don't have any experience scaling on a 4K display. I'd just avoid them for gaming if possible, but explore the scaling if you need 4K for productivity.

 

[RicJFNas]

I'm having a little problem, I bought an Xbox one controller, and the Z axis of the right stick is not working. I tried searching for a solution but nothing I found worked. Do I really need to buy the adapter for the controller to work without this problem?

Edit: Sorry I explained this wrong, what I mean is, the right analog stick when pushed up or down it does nothing, the pc simply doesn't detect it.

 

[hersheyfan]

I don't have any experience scaling on a 4K display. I'd just avoid them for gaming if possible, but explore the scaling if you need 4K for productivity.

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Well noted! I don't need 4K for productivity, no, as this is a purely recreational rig.

Thanks for the advice, Lakeside!

 

[Sage Anahata]

I found this video to help me when I was building my PC for the first time. Very condense & easy to follow along. Hope it's suited to your needs.

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Thank you very much :)

 

[BlakeofT]

I'm having trouble getting sound to come through my headphones when I play Deus Ex Mankind Divided. This is the only game that I've had this issue with. When I click on the speaker icon, it says that my headphones are the selected playback device. Any ideas?

Edit: So it seems the cutscenes can come through my headphones, but the rest always comes out of the speakers.

 

[Vex]

I'm having trouble getting sound to come through my headphones when I play Deus Ex Mankind Divided. This is the only game that I've had this issue with. When I click on the speaker icon, it says that my headphones are the selected playback device. Any ideas?

Edit: So it seems the cutscenes can come through my headphones, but the rest always comes out of the speakers.

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What type of headphones are using? (Brand)
How are you plugging them in (USB/jack)?

First thing I would do is make sure I have the latest drivers for those headphones. That does sound odd tho...

Edit: I ask the brand because I also found this

https://steamcommunity.com/app/337000/discussions/0/2549465882925134612/

 

[KimonoNoNo]

For stupid reasons I've had to give up my wired connection to the router and had to go wifi.

So a quick question; How do I know whether I'm connected on the 5Ghz band or doesn't it matter?

 

[Uhyve]

I really want to get myself a new monitor, is there any out right now that support HDMI 2.1 for adaptive refresh rate (so that I can also use it for next gen consoles).

Or is that something that'll be available later this year?

For stupid reasons I've had to give up my wired connection to the router and had to go wifi.

So a quick question; How do I know whether I'm connected on the 5Ghz band or doesn't it matter?

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Click on the network icon on the bottom right of your startbar, click properties for the network you're connected to. At the bottom of the window that opens, it should have the network band.

 

[KimonoNoNo]

Click on the network icon on the bottom right of your startbar, click properties for the network you're connected to. At the bottom of the windows that opens, it should have the network band.

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Sweet as.

 

[BlakeofT]

What type of headphones are using? (Brand)
How are you plugging them in (USB/jack)?

First thing I would do is make sure I have the latest drivers for those headphones. That does sound odd tho...

Edit: I ask the brand because I also found this

https://steamcommunity.com/app/337000/discussions/0/2549465882925134612/

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I'm using Turtle Beach Earforce X12, which plugs into the mic, headphone and usb, and my computer says I already have the latest drivers. I'm using an app called EarTrumpet so that I can easily change the volume levels of things separately, but closing it doesn't seem to change anything. The game itself doesn't seem to have any sound options other than volume levels and subtitles.

Been sitting on a draft of this reply since this AM... I just found out that I can go into my computer's sound settings and I can disable the speakers. Doing this makes sound come out of the headphones. Oh well, I guess it will have to do. Thank you for your interest in my problem.

Edit: Re-enabling the speakers makes it so that the sound only comes out of the headphones. Haha, just thought I'd share.

 

[Miller]

I have an ASUS z270 WS, with a Zotac 8GB 2080. I have an m.2 ssd, and 6 SATA ports used by 5 HDDs and an optical drive. When I first built this rig, I was only using 5 SATA ports. Installing a new hard drive now, I'm having trouble with 2 of my SATA ports, and it has come to my attention that the PCI port occupied by my GPU "shares bandwidth" with these SATA ports. I've never encountered this issue before and I'm wondering what my options are. Any thoughts? Would a SATA expansion PCI card be what I'm looking for?

 

[Skyfireblaze]

I have an ASUS z270 WS, with a Zotac 8GB 2080. I have an m.2 ssd, and 6 SATA ports used by 5 HDDs and an optical drive. When I first built this rig, I was only using 5 SATA ports. Installing a new hard drive now, I'm having trouble with 2 of my SATA ports, and it has come to my attention that the PCI port occupied by my GPU "shares bandwidth" with these SATA ports. I've never encountered this issue before and I'm wondering what my options are. Any thoughts? Would a SATA expansion PCI card be what I'm looking for?

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I'm not too knowledgeable on that topic but from my understanding the amount of PCI bandwidth and lanes is controlled by the CPU and mainboard so no amount of expansion hardware will help you here since even if you get a SATA Expansion PCI card your mainboard will still run into a PCI-related bottleneck with the CPU :/

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but I think your only options are either, consolidate some of your HDDs to a single, bigger HDD or get a new CPU and board with more bandwidth and lanes :/

 

[Lakeside]

I have an ASUS z270 WS, with a Zotac 8GB 2080. I have an m.2 ssd, and 6 SATA ports used by 5 HDDs and an optical drive. When I first built this rig, I was only using 5 SATA ports. Installing a new hard drive now, I'm having trouble with 2 of my SATA ports, and it has come to my attention that the PCI port occupied by my GPU "shares bandwidth" with these SATA ports. I've never encountered this issue before and I'm wondering what my options are. Any thoughts? Would a SATA expansion PCI card be what I'm looking for?

Click to shrink...

You could likely cut the GPU from 16 lanes to 8 lanes to free up for an add-in card. It would probably just cost a couple percent performance. Beyond that you would need to read your motherboard manual. It will detail what is available and what is shared. It is possible you could add in without doing this.

There are rarely needs for the many hard drives so you are an edge case.

 

[Stalwart]

My PC is starting up slow lately. I have to wait about 5 min for it to load, anyone know what the issue could be? I scanned for viruses and it didn't find any. My PC is loud when I first turn it on for about 5 min before it gets quiet.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

My PC is starting up slow lately. I have to wait about 5 min for it to load, anyone know what the issue could be? I scanned for viruses and it didn't find any. My PC is loud when I first turn it on for about 5 min before it gets quiet.

Click to shrink...

Monitor what happens at startup with Task Manager or Process Explorer and use Microsoft Autoruns to see if there are any weird start-up items: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

 

[Shiz Padoo]

I have an Alienware Alpha R1, base model, with only an SSD upgrade because the standard HDD was incredibly slow. I use it for recording television from a USB TV card, watching my DVD rips and some gaming. Fortunately, my plasma TV is still going strong, which means I can game at 720p to make it easier on the Alpha.

With the rise of AMD's APUs I've been thinking about building another HTPC with an AMD APU which surpasses the Alpha for gaming. Are we there yet?

 

[PhantomFFR]

I have an Alienware Alpha R1, base model, [...]
With the rise of AMD's APUs I've been thinking about building another HTPC with an AMD APU which surpasses the Alpha for gaming. Are we there yet?

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I can only assume after googling for it, that you alpha has a Geforce GTX860 and acore i3-4xxxT. It would be helpful for other people to actually post the specs instead of just the model.

In terms of graphics performance: an APU would probably be a downgrade. In terms of CPU performance a Ryzen APU would be an upgrade.

 

[Kromeo]

My PC is starting up slow lately. I have to wait about 5 min for it to load, anyone know what the issue could be? I scanned for viruses and it didn't find any. My PC is loud when I first turn it on for about 5 min before it gets quiet.

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It's a pain but a reinstall of windows is probably your best bet if it's not apparant what's causing it

 

[flyinj]

I've been having a weird problem recently:

Starting about a month ago, randomly my controller stops working in various games. Like, it will work fine in a game, I'll play another game and it will work fine, then go back to play the first game and the controller doesn't work at all. Restarting the game doesn't help, but it will work fine in other games but not in others that it worked fine in before. The only way to fix this is to reboot my system, then the controller works in all games again but eventually just stops working in some games.

Also, the games it stops working in are totally random. Like, some times it will work fine in one game, I quit it, play another, and come back and it won't work in the first game. Other times it will always work in the game it wasn't working in before, but not work no matter what in some other games until a reboot.

I'm pretty sure these are all Steam games. I bet it has something to do with Steams absolute shit controller code that they try to interject on top of games. However, I have set all games this occurs in to "force off" controller code in their Steam preferences, yet these games will still randomly stop working with a controller.

Any idea what might be causing this?

 

[XR.]

I've been having a weird problem recently:

Starting about a month ago, randomly my controller stops working in various games. Like, it will work fine in a game, I'll play another game and it will work fine, then go back to play the first game and the controller doesn't work at all. Restarting the game doesn't help, but it will work fine in other games but not in others that it worked fine in before. The only way to fix this is to reboot my system, then the controller works in all games again but eventually just stops working in some games.

Also, the games it stops working in are totally random. Like, some times it will work fine in one game, I quit it, play another, and come back and it won't work in the first game. Other times it will always work in the game it wasn't working in before, but not work no matter what in some other games until a reboot.

I'm pretty sure these are all Steam games. I bet it has something to do with Steams absolute shit controller code that they try to interject on top of games. However, I have set all games this occurs in to "force off" controller code in their Steam preferences, yet these games will still randomly stop working with a controller.

Any idea what might be causing this?

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What controller, wireless/wired, OS?

 

[flyinj]

What controller, wireless/wired, OS?

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Sorry, windows 10. Also, I have both a 360 wired and a xbox one wired. If a game stops working with a controller, plugging either of them in doesn't work with the game. Rebooting the system, the game will work with both.

 

[XR.]

Sorry, windows 10. Also, I have both a 360 wired and a xbox one wired. If a game stops working with a controller, plugging either of them in doesn't work with the game. Rebooting the system, the game will work with both.

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Sounds odd indeed. Have you tried different USB-ports?

 

[flyinj]

Sounds odd indeed. Have you tried different USB-ports?

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Yeah, I tried several ports.

One of the things to keep in mind is that no matter what game I try, it will work after a reboot. It seems like I can play at least 2 games before games stop working with either controller. It is also not consistent. Sometimes I'll be able to play like 8 different games then the controller will stop working in random games, sometimes it happens after just playing 2.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Yeah, I tried several ports.

One of the things to keep in mind is that no matter what game I try, it will work after a reboot. It seems like I can play at least 2 games before games stop working with either controller. It is also not consistent. Sometimes I'll be able to play like 8 different games then the controller will stop working in random games, sometimes it happens after just playing 2.

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Out of curiosity, what does the Windows Controller Test Utility say when the controllers stop working?

 

[sredgrin]

Yeah, I tried several ports.

One of the things to keep in mind is that no matter what game I try, it will work after a reboot. It seems like I can play at least 2 games before games stop working with either controller. It is also not consistent. Sometimes I'll be able to play like 8 different games then the controller will stop working in random games, sometimes it happens after just playing 2.

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In controller panel/ device manager, how many show up? I've experienced some weird issues when owning multiple controllers where, even though only one is on, it thinks it's the Player 2 controller, which some games don't recognize (either at all, or only as a Player 2 that doesn't have full control over a game).

 

[flyinj]

In controller panel/ device manager, how many show up? I've experienced some weird issues when owning multiple controllers where, even though only one is on, it thinks it's the Player 2 controller, which some games don't recognize (either at all, or only as a Player 2 that doesn't have full control over a game).

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I never actually looked at the game device control panel when it stopped working. Definitely going to look at that next time it happens.

 

[Wraith]

Anyone ever had a problem with USB headsets (with separate Game and Voice devices) not playing any voice audio?

My Steelseries USB headset stopped playing voice chat audio in Overwatch. If I plug in a pair of headphones via 3.5mm jack (and unplug the Steelseries), I hear both game and voice chat audio fine.

I think it happened after the last time I hooked up the Oculus Quest over USB. Even after I went in and disabled all the Oculus audio devices in Windows, and made sure Steelseries' "Game" and "Chat" were set up for Audio and Comms devices, still didn't work.

 

[Shiz Padoo]

I can only assume after googling for it, that you alpha has a Geforce GTX860 and acore i3-4xxxT. It would be helpful for other people to actually post the specs instead of just the model.

In terms of graphics performance: an APU would probably be a downgrade. In terms of CPU performance a Ryzen APU would be an upgrade.

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Yes, an oversight on my part. Thank you for taking the time to reply.

 

[TheUnseenTheUnheard]

So about the next-gen consoles having gpus that have SSDs as virtual memory, what will this mean for PC? Will AMD and NVIDIA GPUs eventually release with an integrated SSD of sorts?

 

[Tovarisc]

So about the next-gen consoles having gpus that have SSDs as virtual memory, what will this mean for PC? Will AMD and NVIDIA GPUs eventually release with an integrated SSD of sorts?

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It still isn't optimal solution as using mass storage like that as VM will increase latency for read / write from memory, even with SSD. So using SSD as VM for e.g. GPU would be under limited circumstances I would imagine because it will slow down GPU processes some.

Also PCI-E 4.0 has 64 GB/s where GDDR6 has 72 GB/s bandwidth so it just isn't optimal if you have to dip into PS5's SSD for VM.

TL:DR: I don't see NV or AMD doing any weird "SSD as VRAM" integrations as bandwidth isn't there, more traditional solutions are faster.

 

[TheUnseenTheUnheard]

It still isn't optimal solution as using mass storage like that as VM will increase latency for read / write from memory, even with SSD. So using SSD as VM for e.g. GPU would be under limited circumstances I would imagine because it will slow down GPU processes some.

Also PCI-E 4.0 has 64 GB/s where GDDR6 has 72 GB/s bandwidth to it just isn't optimal if you have to dip into PS5's SSD for VM.

TL:DR: I don't see NV or AMD doing any weird "SSD as VRAM" integrations as bandwidth isn't there, more traditional solutions are faster.

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Okay then thanks for the explanation.

 

[dgrdsv]

So about the next-gen consoles having gpus that have SSDs as virtual memory, what will this mean for PC?

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Likely nothing. PC GPUs have virtual memory support for several years now. It's also mostly useful for tasks where you don't need real time results (HPC/AI/research/etc) as spilling the workset data out of VRAM always mean an X times slowdown - SSDs help here in a way that spilling into them is orders of magnitude faster than spilling over into system HDDs but they are still too slow to be a real substitute for local GDDR memory.

The fact that future console games will target SSD I/O speeds will mean a lot more for PCs.

 

[Soy Bob]

My audio keeps cutting out when I'm playing games. It seems to only while playing games, and doesn't matter what I'm playing (Has happened with at least Destiny and Division 2). It doesn't matter what audio device I'm outputting to as it happens on both my USB headphones and HDMI to a TV.

Any clues as to what could be happening / ways to troubleshoot it? Thanks.