Brian

That's pretty sweet! Did you see an increase in overclock as a result? Also can you add some more detail of what this mod involves in your first post? 

We all love drama between technology companies and the latest deliciousness comes courtesy of AMD. They have a 4 minute video on YouTube that questions whether or not SYSmark is a reliable, objective benchmark to use when evaluating performance between different systems. 

 

AMD's video opens with John Hampton, Director Computer Client Products, talking about how it is very important in choosing the right benchmark when evaluating a purchase because if you choose the wrong one , you can end up overpaying for technology or getting a lesser performing PC. To emphasize his point, he indirectly mentions Volkswagen's diesel debacle and uses the latter case as an example of how even established organizations can be misleading. 

 

We are then introduced to Tony Salinas, an AMD Engineering Manager, who runs through a couple tests in SYSmark using two notebooks, one that has an Intel i5 CPU and the other with an AMD FX CPU. SYSmark returns a score of 987 for the Intel system and 659 for the AMD one which is a delta of 50%. AMD notes that this is misleading and not reflective of real life performance. To prove this, they run a different benchmark called PCMark 8 on both systems and the results show the Intel i5 system scoring 4199 and the AMD equipped one 3908 which is a delta of 7%. AMD says this is a far more realistic indicator of true performance as PCMark 8 tests the CPU, GPU and video subcomponents rather than emphasizing the CPU like SYSmark does.

 

And just to drive the point home some more, AMD created their own in-house test using Microsoft Office Suite where they run a custom script on both notebooks and then measure the start and end of a task with a time stamp to gauge performance. Their in-house test shows the Intel system completing the task in approximately 61 seconds while the AMD based one finished it in roughly 64 seconds which is a delta of 6-7%.

 

As AMD's results line up with those found with PCMark 8, they contend that PCMark 8 is a more fair and balanced indicator of overall performance while SYSmark is not and therefore should be discarded by any potential customers as a tool for evaluating a purchase. 

 

Intel system using AMD in-house test: Test completed in ~61 seconds.

AMD system using AMD in-house test: Test completed in ~64 seconds.

 

They also take the time to remind us that the FTC has required SYSmark published benchmarks to contain fine print that notes their benchmark may only be optimized for Intel. Of course, this may have something to do with the fact that AMD resigned from BAPco consortium. Finally, AMD notes that a transparent benchmark should meet very specific criteria which includes being realistic, unbiased, objective and transparent, all of which SYSmark is not apparently. 

 

 

While it's fun to see these types of videos from AMD, they also highlight the fact that the company is facing an uphill battle on all fronts, whether it's CPU or GPU, and 2016 may be the year that makes or breaks them.

 

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Digital Foundry re-tested Ark: Survival Evolved on an Xbox One after the developer made some performance improvements and unfortunately the results are still less than spectacular. This isn't really much of a surprise as the game has always performed pretty poorly even on powerful PCs such as my own Titan X setup. If you've never heard of Ark: Survival Evolved before, it is an open world sandbox game that takes place on an island full of dinosaurs where you are free to gather resources, build bases, tame dinosaurs and attack other player built bases. In concept it is similar to other open world games like Rust but this game just runs a lot worse. 

 

Quote

Performance is also a big problem in both of the work-in-progress builds we've tested. The initial release failed to move beyond 30fps in our test clips, often lurching way below the desired target. Ark is often plagued with momentary stutter that can range from 100ms all the way up to 500ms - a split-second, intrusive freeze-frame effect. On top of that, the developers are running with a completely unlocked frame-rate with v-sync disabled, meaning that screen-tear is a constant companion throughout the adventure. A couple of days ago, the developers updated the game with bug fixes, more content and promises of improved performance and fewer stalls. There are boosts in both areas, but it's still in need of serious work in achieving a consistent level of performance throughout the game. The game is crying out for a 30fps cap with an adaptive v-sync solution. Romps through swampland on both builds can see frame-rate dip well below 20fps, illustrating just how much of a challenge the developers face in getting Ark: Survival Evolved into shape.

 

You can watch Digital Foundry's video review below:

 

 

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@Dschijn whatever belonged in your guide were moved there. If there were any recent posts that belong here moved into your guide, just let me know and I can put them back here. I had to guess which were yours after a certain point as our backup didnt cover the latest replies. 

Yeah definitely slap on a higher res camera on there if you want some youtube clicks  and don't wanna kill people's eyes with that VHS porno grain:

 

1 minute ago, iloveb00bs said:

also nothing like getting high and getting high, lols

 

LOL! No doubt about that. Needs HD though, for a second I thought I was watching 1980s VHS footage

Nice man, that does look like something I've wanted to do with a drone. When you fly first person, do you see it on your end or is it record only?

 

Edit:  Ah saw the ending now, see you looking at a display heh. What would make this even cooler is if they create one powered by oculus. 

This will be a working log of features added/removed/modified from Tech|Inferno forums. Please bookmark/follow this post to stay up-to-date on feature specific changes made to this forum. If you have a feature in mind, you can submit it in our feedback thread.

 

5/26/16:

 

New Features:

• When you mouseover the badge showing who liked a post, you will now see a larger list of who liked that post. You can still click to get the full list.
• Ratings now show half-stars for the average (for example, if one user votes 3 stars and another 4, it will show 3 and a half stars) and there is now an indication if you have rated something.
• A "Preview" button has been added to the post editor which shows how the post will appear after BBCode processing. Tabs show how the post will appear on desktop, tablet and mobile.
• Users can now choose to ignore notifications for being mentioned in posts by particular users.
• You can now filter searches by specific forums/categories.

 

Activity Stream enhancements:

• The filter dropdowns now have an "Apply" button for better usability (previously you had to click outside the dropdown).
• The "Expanded/Collapsed" toggles are now clearer.
• Hitting back from a clicked item in any activity stream now remembers your position and loaded results.

 

 

3/23/16:

• Platform update including a large amount of bug fixes and security updates. 
• Please let us know if you run into any issues after today's update.

 

 

 

Previous updates:

 

Features Added:

 

Anchor links:

 

Example:

 

Table of contents:

• anchor 1
• anchor 2
• anchor 3

 

 

Header

 

Anchor 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anchor 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anchor 3

 

 

 

Known issues:

 

• The old link editor will pop up in addition to the new one if you double click on a link. You can use either one to edit the link but if you started w/the new one, it's best to use that. Test it out, let us know if it works well for you and if it does, we'll keep it. If not, we'll pull it. 

 

 

 

 

1/23/16

More features added for the e-GPU crowd and others:

• Cell coloring for tables
• Lots more editing features for table rows/cells - Press control + right click over a table for editing menu
• Custom colors + increased color palette for text

Table Header with bg color
table	table
table	table

 

When making a table, please be sure to set width as a percentage rather than in pixels so that it scales properly in mobile view. For example. the default size is 500px, instead replace it with 50%. 

Tables are now set at 50% width by default. Please always use percentages when modifying table widths. Those based on pixel sizes from this point forward will be deleted by us without notice.

 

Thanks. 

 

Threads repaired, the URL for this and @Dschijnthread have changed, please update your bookmarks accordingly. Apologies for the inconvenience. 

@Dschijnyou may need to update your bookmark but your thread is here: 

We had to manually separate it rather than use a db restore as we didn't want to lose recent replies. 

@Dschijn your thread was mistakenly merged into another. During our next maintenance period we're going to restore your thread and the thread it was merged into. However, the result may be the loss of some recent replies. 

First post cleaned up.

First post of thread cleaned up.

First post updated and cleaned up.

First post updated. You can find the original 7970M vbios pack with dell vbios developed by @svl7 here: 

 

Something makes me think you probably enjoy coffee candy.

Do you plan to purchase a new gaming notebook in the next few months? If so, which brands are you considering and why? Additionally, with the release of Thunderbolt 3 and external enclosures like Razer Core coming to market, is this a contender for you vs a dedicated gaming notebook that is thicker and weighs more?  

@urmother93 the links to the missing tool have been fixed. If you see any others missing, be sure to alert me via @Brian or report the post.

@ba10s118I'm puzzled how that happened but regardless your post has been restored completely. 

In the not so distant future, we will be tackling many diseases and cancers using the newest revolution in biotechnology that involves targeting very specific parts of DNA and then snipping it.

 

One such technique that has taken the biotechnology world by storm is CRISPR which involves the use of a cas9 endonuclease and guide RNA. This complex is recruited to a target sequence and cas9 cuts the desired region that results in a double strand break. With this double stranded DNA break, it can be ligated back together with a method called Non-Homologous End-Joining (NHEJ) to introduce random mutations via insertions/deletions to knock out a specific gene.

 

Another method of repair called Homology Directed Repair (HDR) involves using a repair template that has homology to the flanking region of the double stranded break which results in controlled gene editing allowing researchers to use it for gene knock-out, knock-in, tagging etc. 

 

 

 

 

 

There are other competing methods such as TALENs (Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases) which a French biotechnology company called Cellectis is using to experiment for possible cancer treatment. As mentioned above, CRISPR uses guide RNA to direct DNA breaks where as TALENs employs the use of 18 repeats of 34 amino acids that vary at amino acids 12 and 13 which is the "Repeat Variable Diresidue" or RVD; RVD mediates the DNA binding specificity. 

 

(image credit: genecopeia)

 

A pair of TALEN are targeted to opposite sides of a desired break site. Each TALEN is a chimeric protein with Fok I nuclease domain that results in a specific double stranded break. 

 

(image credit: genecopoeia)

 

The use of this technology is detailed in article by Business Insider where an infant in the UK named Layla was born with leukemia that had failed to be treated using common cancer treatment modalities such as chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant. Doctors there knew about Cellectis's work with TALENs and reached out as a last ditch effort to save her. 

 

Cellectis accepted their request and began her therapy by targeting her T-cells using TALENs to stimulate her immune system to attack the cancer and the result was complete remission.

 

While many people will be weary of the possible abuse of such technologies, they should set those fears aside because it is this type of technology that will one day lead to the precise targeting and elimination of many diseases including cancer. 

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Eurogamer has an article looking at the upcoming VR tidal wave that is going to land sometime later this year that promises to change the way we game forever. With VR requiring up to 7x increase in performance needed compared to a traditional gaming PC, will anyone besides the top 1% even be able to enjoy it? 

 

Quote

As the days pass, we draw closer to a potentially seismic change in the PC gaming space - the arrival of Virtual Reality experiences, brought to life via the Oculus Rift and HTC's Vive. And for many, one key question needs to be comprehensively addressed - whether their existing gaming PCs can handle the strenuous requirements of the VR experience. And if they don't, what hardware will need an upgrade.

 

There's a sense that there's a lot of conflicting information out there. First up, let's take a look at the Oculus minimum spec:

 

• Nvidia GeForce GTX 970/AMD Radeon R9 290 equivalent or greater
• Intel Core i5 4590 equivalent or greater
• 8GB+ RAM
• 2x USB 3.0 port
• HDMI 1.3 video output supporting a 297MHz clock via a direct output architecture
• Windows 7 OS or greater

 

Some say that less than one per cent of the gaming PCs out there can meet this specification, but it's certainly a good place to start from Oculus, certainly bearing in mind the GPU spec.

 

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-is-your-pc-really-vr-ready

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20 minutes ago, Aspire said:

I  am not a new user (I'm promoted) and if I click on the link for the vbios:

https://www.techinferno.com/attachments/lenovo-ibm/6933d1365968131-y500-y400-sli-650m-80.07.27.00.33-oc.rom.zip

It says "404 Not Found" Any Ideas? :/

 

Files been replaced. Please use the report function if you discover any more broken links.

ARMA 3 is one of those rare jewels in gaming where the game was designed and built with PC gamers in mind. Unlike EA's Battlefield series which started out on the PC as a somewhat open platform only to become a victim of its success by evolving into a closed off series where people cannot mod the game any longer, Bohemia Interactive has taken the opposite approach by working more closely with the community that has helped it spawn some memorable and game changing mods such as Day Z, Epoch, Arma 3 Life, Breaking Point, Battle Royale and many more. 

 

With nearly 2 million copies sold since release, ARMA 3 has done exceptionally well coming from a small developer that has only a fraction of the resources other industry giants have access to. And the game looks to have a bright future ahead with the developers optimizing for it and adding more features in 2016. In their new video (found at the end of this article), Bohemia reflects on 10 important updates to the game in 2015 and 10 exciting features and additions to look forward to in 2016:

 

 

1. Release of Eden Editor - A 3D Scenario Editor.

 

2. Launcher based server browser - already live on the dev branch. It will help facilitate the detection and automatic download of mods.

 

3. Audio - improvements to audio fidelity and more features to be added.

 

4. Visual - update targeting ARMA Apex (originally for Eden update): An overhaul of game lighting configuration and introduce C shader and Screen Space Reflection technology. 

 

5. Usability improvements - A variety of improvements such as switching weapons, interacting with objects, game difficulty and fixing long standing UX needs. 

 

6. ARMA 3 Units -  Introduce event organization, integrate parts of the service in game and make jumping into multiplayer quicker and easier.

 

7. Script improvements - Bohemia will continue to work closely with the community to bring additions, improvements and optimizations to scripting.

 

8. Scripted multiplayer - complete revive and dynamic groups by extending and finalizing their functionality. 

 

9. Vehicle classes - ARMA 3 will see the introduction of new vehicle classes such as light strike vehicles and vtol aircraft.

 

10. Tanoa - The crown jewel of 2016 will be the release of ARMA 3's new and long awaited map. Tanoa is 100 square kilometers and takes place in the South Pacific Archipelago. 

 

I personally have spent more than 2000 hours in the world of ARMA 3 and years later I'm still not done with it. This is a testament to the game's extensibility thanks to the continued support of the developer and more importantly, the community continuing to mod it everyday with exciting new additions. 

 

ARMA 3 - Scanning The Horizon 2016

 

 

 

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As an update, we created a query and repaired nearly every single broken link and most tables. If you find any others, please report them to us. 

9 minutes ago, RokasK said:

Scaling... that's what I missed... But this last one... This one is what I was after - x1 configuration shows barely any inferiority... amazing! I guess I will keep the possibilities in the back of my head about bigger better cards  tough... the possibility of my motherboard choking the bandwidth by routing data through the chipset.. gotta check that out...

 

Thanks, Brian!

 

 

 

Yet... other places show other situations...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-scaling-analysis,1572-8.html

Looks like different games will behave differently on the same setup.

 

PCI-e 2.0 x 1 will take a significant performance hit in games: 

 

But anything above x1 does fine.