Why do you want a high performance computer?

ShamrockRig · Mar 31, 2022

I think if someone gave me a laptop of any form, Top spec, Low spec, Better than my own PC spec, I Wouldn't pee on it if it was on fire lol, Couldn't imagine anything worse

CountMike · Mar 31, 2022

Laptops have own role of which mobility may be largest one. I resisted buying one for long time just borrowing company owned ones from time to time so I can do some work at home or on a trip. I had one very old one I was gifted, so old that only XP would work on it. Still good enough for occasional use for elementary stuff. Few month ago I got a nice but oldish one which runs W10 fine and replaced HDD with an SSD which made it quite usable.. Battery lasts about 3-4 hours and I plan to take it out in the garden with me. Got rid of older desktops and this one is now handy as a reserve system. Have battery backed up internet MiFi router so even power cut still keeps me connected.

jbcarreon123 · Mar 31, 2022

I do not have a new high performance PC or laptop, but I wanted one since my PC's hard drive went down, and this reasons why:

1. High performance PCs can run resource-hog tasks like Video editing, 100 chrome tabs, and even playing games smoothly.
2. Newer processors supports TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and even DX 12 (if it has iGPU) so it can run Windows 11 without any tweaks.

It has drawbacks too:

1. Cost. You can not find a Ryzen 7 PC below $500, and if it has a high performance GPU like RTX 30 or 20 series or GTX 16 series, it can cost $750 upwards.
2. Heat. More powerful the PC, it costs a significant heat output, right?

Any hardware has limits, even if it is a top-of-the-line Core i9 12900k or even the RTX 3090 Ti. And 5-10 years later, it can be replaced.

CountMike · Mar 31, 2022

jbcarreon123 said:
I do not have a new high performance PC or laptop, but I wanted one since my PC's hard drive went down, and this reasons why:

1. High performance PCs can run resource-hog tasks like Video editing, 100 chrome tabs, and even playing games smoothly.
2. Newer processors supports TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and even DX 12 (if it has iGPU) so it can run Windows 11 without any tweaks.

It has drawbacks too:

1. Cost. You can not find a Ryzen 7 PC below $500, and if it has a high performance GPU like RTX 30 or 20 series or GTX 16 series, it can cost $750 upwards.
2. Heat. More powerful the PC, it costs a significant heat output, right?

Any hardware has limits, even if it is a top-of-the-line Core i9 12900k or even the RTX 3090 Ti. And 5-10 years later, it can be replaced.

DirectX is not only for GPUs or even just graphics, it's involved in most facets of operation. You can think of it as a bridge between software and drivers. It's standard and allows SW developers not to have to include that part in their SW.

FrancoDT · Mar 31, 2022

Wynona said:
I cannot stand laptops, but have a need for one when I travel.

TraderGary said:
And I cannot stand desktops. I hate being tied down to one single place in one single room.
Isn't it great that we're not all alike? :)

Thought this exchange and the others were kind of funny. I used to prefer desktops but after owning big 17" laptops I realized they were my desktop replacement. They're to big and heavy for me to carry around on the go but are a more compact space saving alternative on the desk so now my preferred desktop PC lol. For mobility my little 13.5" Surface laptop is great for that. Everyone has differant needs and perferances and with mine I don't really see me going back to a regular desktop again.

Haydon · Mar 31, 2022

Don't want to start a new thread, but what do you use your cheap/old computers for?

pparks1 · Mar 31, 2022

My higher performance desktop is pretty much for gaming and running a bunch of VM's for lab sutations. When I am not in need of those things I'm actually using a small Beelink mini PC as it takes only a fraction of the power of my desktop.

TairikuOkami · Mar 31, 2022

Short: I do not have time to spare. Just slow loading webpages can take years from your lifetime.

Long: I bought my first dream computer for about $4000, just to play Crysis game. What a waste, the price dropped by half in a few months, like any new hardware does and I did not even enjoy the game. Afterwards I turned to laptops for a few years, but they were so slow. To have a laptop comparable to PC, you have to spend like 3-5 times more and it still overheats and produces noise and you can not easily replace components, if they break. So I went back to PC, but more carefully this time. Quality components like PSU or CPU can last a decade and still perform well (my $200 headphones are 12 years old), RAM is eternal, you could even use DDR2 these days and it would not cause any serious performance hit, RAM size matters not the speed, unless you have a high-end GPU. For currently 3 years PC, I can not complain, it performs pretty well, it is quiet and it seems it could last another 3 years before I will need an upgrade most likely only GPU, CPU hardly ever gets over 30% during heavy load.

jimbo45 · Mar 31, 2022

If somebody gave me a Ferrari -- would I refuse !!
Cheers
jimbo

Haydon · Mar 31, 2022

Sometimes you use a screwdriver, not a sledgehammer

Dch48 · Mar 31, 2022

Devlin1888 said:
Personally i like to upgrade to what i can afford at the time, But if i can't afford what i need then i dont pull the trigger til i can.
For example if i was building a new PC today without being too specific, Id probably go with whatever top level i7/i9 was to be had, I'd also look at AMD ofc and compare between what they had similar vs intel, price vs performance and so on. 32gb RAM is pretty much the MIN id go with in a new system, A couple of times my 16gb has been seen short. Especially with new games taking a lil bit more. GPU wise, My 8GB card is sadly out of date, It was a mid to high end bridge card upon release and to be fair still holds well today, But still its bang average nowadays in terms of gaming, Which is mainly what i use my pc for, So MIN gpu ram for me going forward would be 10gb ideally 12+.
Mobo doesn't need to be top spec, But it does need to be a Z*** board if its Intel and then the equivalent for AMD, I do OC cpu/ram and without going to the crazy priced mobo's, you can get most features for a couple hundred quid(Not Dollars ).
Cooling, As i said i liked to OC, it isn't anything crazy or pushing mental numbers just because i like to do it. I run my 10700k at 5ghz since day one and i've not touched it since. Knowing that my series of i7 runs a bit hot id have went with a better air cooler, Something Noctua probably but i don't need liquid cooling personally and i don't need the faff, Albeit they're very nice looking and perform great, Just isn't what i need as id rather spend the budget else where.
M2 Drive and an SSD is essential.
Case wise, Whatever takes my fancy on the way it looks but also has to have the features i'd need/sufficient space for upgrades down the line etc.
PSU. With todays GPU wattages whatever the biggest/best was i could afford. Never cheap out on the backbone of you're system.

Albeit mostly rambling but my two cents

I am a gamer and I feel that 16GB of RAM and 8GB of VRAM are more than sufficient. I've never come close to maxing out either one. I never overclock anything. I could go with an Nvme SSD and probably will eventually but for now SATA is fast enough.

ShamrockRig · Mar 31, 2022

Dch48 said:
I am a gamer and I feel that 16GB of RAM and 8GB of VRAM are more than sufficient. I've never come close to maxing out either one. I never overclock anything. I could go with an Nvme SSD and probably will eventually but for now SATA is fast enough.

What res you playing at? Ive maxed out both no problem in a couple of triple A titles. I can think of loads of games that would crush both our systems.

Edit : Ahh 1080p, Yeah thats why lol. 1080p isn't really high end anymore in terms of gaming. I refuse to run less than 1440p, Usually something between that and 1600p. The odd thing here and there i can crank to 4k but not much.

Dch48 · Mar 31, 2022

Haydon said:
Don't want to start a new thread, but what do you use your cheap/old computers for?

For me it's as guinea pigs and projects.

As to the laptop / desktop debate, I like both. Desktops are fun to tinker with and upgrade. Laptops are great for those times when I just want to grab something fast or stay in bed for a while. I like having a laptop that can game as well or nearly as well as my desktop. The one in my second computer specs does pretty good but now that I upgraded the desktop, it doesn't keep up. I still really like it though. It also doesn't qualify for Win 11 but that's only a minor issue right now.
I do have my eye on an Asus G14 Zephyrus that has some really good specs. I have a request in at Best Buy to be notified when it is available. It has a Ryzen R9 6900HS processor with integrated Rdna 2 graphics and also a discrete Radeon RX 6800S card. It has an advanced vapor chamber 2 fan cooling system. I'm an AMD guy and stick with them almost always. You can get up to 32gb of DDR5 ram but 16 would be enough. It also comes with a 1TB Nvme SSD. Do I absolutely need it? NO. Would I love to have it? YES.
The only thing I find a little different is that it only has one DIMM slot. Half of the memory, either 8 or 16GB, is soldered on the mobo. You then can add whatever size of DIMM you want.

Dch48 · Mar 31, 2022

Devlin1888 said:
What res you playing at? Ive maxed out both no problem in a couple of triple A titles. I can think of loads of games that would crush both our systems.

For me, 1080p is all I need. I just don't see any difference in anything higher. There's not a current game that I know of that would "crush" my desktop at 1080p.

ShamrockRig · Mar 31, 2022

Dch48 said:
For me, 1080p is all I need. I just don't see any difference in anything higher. There's not a current game that I know of that would "crush" my desktop at 1080p.

Start turning on ray tracing and come back to me. You dont see the difference because you don't have the difference. Theres a bigger difference between 1080p and 1440p IMO than 1440-4k though, 1600 is nice balance, Anything higher seems to be closer to 4k performance anyway. Youtube away, Trust me you'll find them. You're Gpu seems to be a few frames infront of mine at 1440p and mine in a few, But id say yours was around 5% better than mine stock, However i do run a hefty clock. And i have 100% found games that crush below 60fps which for me, in 2022 is the min. But also the max for what i want which is sweet. If you haven't found em, Chances are you aint cranking settings cause you know it will or you aint playing the games that will do it. I play pretty much every AAA game.. So you could say i have a vast library and thats why but hey ho they're there.

jbcarreon123 · Mar 31, 2022

Haydon said:
Don't want to start a new thread, but what do you use your cheap/old computers for?

There is some options

Testing. On the incompatible thread, some of the Folks there test Windows 11 on old hardware.

Give it away. Before giving it away, it is possible to upgrade the old PC, put more RAM in, more applications (especially Chrome) can it handle.

pparks1 · Mar 31, 2022

I game at 1440p, because 2560x1440 monitors without scaling at around 27" look perfect to me for my day to day work. I don't do a 4k monitor because I would have to do scaling to see it clearly with my older eyes and I don't like the scaled look. It's also easier on my video card.

hdmi · Apr 1, 2022

Since I don't game anymore these days I only want it to be fast enough just to be able to slow it down to the point where the cooling fan doesn't spin up when playing a movie or while surfing the web, and also to be able to make things like slow Windows updates and driver updates install faster each time when I don't have the time or patience to wait, i.e. by switching it back to normal speed (turning Turbo Boost back on), but I also need it to be a laptop even though the vast majority of my time I do not, so then it serves as a desktop replacement.

I would simply build my own tower PC, make it future proof and upgrade the parts if this portability thing hadn't been a factor. I buy a new laptop every ~3 years only because advancements in hardware technology keep happening that fast. It's always a personal choice, a compromise between budget control and ongoing evolutions in those performance related areas that affect my hobby. Buying a laptop that costs doubly as much purely as a result of it lasting 6 years instead of only 3 is like buying one laptop that is too fast for my current need and then selling it on after using it for 3 years only to replace it with a different one that, long before those 6 years are over, will be already much too slow to justify how much is spent.

About cost. 15 months and 2 days ago when I got the laptop that I currently am on, most places were still selling Intel 10th Gen laptops of comparable specs─with a slightly slower CPU─at like 250 Euros more than the price I paid, which was 599 Euros. Pretty much all of the (even much more expensive, going way up and above 900 Euros in spite of using this same exact Core i5-1135G7 CPU that mine also uses) Intel 11th Gen laptops had memory soldered to the motherboard. Mine doesn't. The number of USB ports on them was always 3. Mine has only 4. So the obvious question becomes, why should we pay more for less?

ShamrockRig · Apr 1, 2022

hdmi said:
Since I don't game anymore these days I only want it to be fast enough just to be able to slow it down to the point where the cooling fan doesn't spin up when playing a movie or while surfing the web, and also to be able to make things like slow Windows updates and driver updates install faster each time when I don't have the time or patience to wait, i.e. by switching it back to normal speed (turning Turbo Boost back on), but I also need it to be a laptop even though the vast majority of my time I do not, so then it serves as a desktop replacement.

I would simply build my own tower PC, make it future proof and upgrade the parts if this portability thing hadn't been a factor. I buy a new laptop every ~3 years only because advancements in hardware technology keep happening that fast. It's always a personal choice, a compromise between budget control and ongoing evolutions in those performance related areas that affect my hobby. Buying a laptop that costs doubly as much purely as a result of it lasting 6 years instead of only 3 is like buying one laptop that is too fast for my current need and then selling it on after using it for 3 years only to replace it with a different one that, long before those 6 years are over, will be already much too slow to justify how much is spent.

About cost. 15 months and 2 days ago when I got the laptop that I currently am on, most places were still selling Intel 10th Gen laptops of comparable specs─with a slightly slower CPU─at like 250 Euros more than the price I paid, which was 599 Euros. Pretty much all of the (even much more expensive, going way up and above 900 Euros in spite of using this same exact Core i5-1135G7 CPU that mine also uses) Intel 11th Gen laptops had memory soldered to the motherboard. Mine doesn't. The number of USB ports on them was always 3. Mine has only 4. So the obvious question becomes, why should we pay more for less?

The joys of laptops/prebuilts eh

Dch48 · Apr 1, 2022

Devlin1888 said:
Start turning on ray tracing and come back to me. You dont see the difference because you don't have the difference. Theres a bigger difference between 1080p and 1440p IMO than 1440-4k though, 1600 is nice balance, Anything higher seems to be closer to 4k performance anyway. Youtube away, Trust me you'll find them. You're Gpu seems to be a few frames infront of mine at 1440p and mine in a few, But id say yours was around 5% better than mine stock, However i do run a hefty clock. And i have 100% found games that crush below 60fps which for me, in 2022 is the min. But also the max for what i want which is sweet. If you haven't found em, Chances are you aint cranking settings cause you know it will or you aint playing the games that will do it. I play pretty much every AAA game.. So you could say i have a vast library and thats why but hey ho they're there.

I have tried ray tracing and prefer how games look without it. I want shadows crisp and clear. I'm also not a big fan of HDR and leave it turned off. I have seen all of the resolutions and on a 24" screen, which is the biggest I'll use, they pretty much all look the same. Also, I do not have to have 60fps at ultra settings. 40fps at whatever settings it takes is good enough. If I can play the game smoothly, which on most games only requires 30fps, I'm good. I play the Forza Horizon games on older hardware with the framerate locked to 30 and they play excellently. I normally only up grade when the hardware I have can't play a game I want to play at a steady 40fps on low settings.

As to resolution, I don't have a 4k screen anywhere in my house. My 40" TV is just fine at 1080. My bedroom TV, a 29" Vizio is all I need at 720p. 4K is marketing hype for the most part and I only see a difference on screens larger than 55" which is already too big for me. I purposely tailored the upgrades on my gaming rig for 1080p. I even bought a new 1080p monitor because it had FreeSync, a 144 refresh rate , and HDR. I was disappointed in the HDR so that stays turned off. The new laptop I'm considering has a 16:10 1440p screen which to me is overkill on a 14" screen but it's rated as an excellent screen and the GPU is powerful enough to handle it.

Why do you want a high performance computer?

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