TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

The Computer Thread

Go To

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#6451: Apr 14th 2018 at 9:34:28 AM

Hyperthreading and more threads is useful for parallel computation, yes; but the general trend for that is to shunt such things off onto the GPU (Direct X12 is useful for that, for one) due to having a more suitable architecture. "More threads = better" only holds true when things are arranged so that more can be processed at the same time...

Which is really the sort of thing that's more useful to Total War than an RPG.

Nikkolas from Texas Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#6452: Apr 14th 2018 at 9:41:14 AM

So you are saying an 8400 would do just as well for just as long as an 8700?

All I want is a good computer that will maximize FPS and last me many years so I don't have to go through all this stress again. Spent the last two weeks talking to everyone I can and researching all I can and I'm still not sure what to do. :(

And yes I know a lot of it also comes down to GPU.

edited 14th Apr '18 9:43:03 AM by Nikkolas

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#6453: Apr 14th 2018 at 9:55:44 AM

Yes. Quite bluntly, games tend to overstate their CPU requirements massively, even with improvements to parallel processing many are still heavily reliant on single-core performance, and if anything tends to restrict them it's the graphics output. It's easy to find situations where people have been running AAA titles with ultra graphics on CPUs under the given minimum specifications without flaw. You might get an extra year, maybe two, from the i7—but you're already looking at 7-8 years anyway before the processor might be an issue.

Nikkolas from Texas Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#6454: Apr 14th 2018 at 10:13:57 AM

Alright, fair enough. That puts my build around $600. That's pretty fuckin' amazing considering I still need to put a few dollars towards at least a couple games and save up for a graphics card. Somebody on Reddit in a thread I just looked at said never sacrifice GPU for CPU and to put money towwards a better graphics card instead of a better processor.

Thanks.

edited 14th Apr '18 10:14:12 AM by Nikkolas

Nikkolas from Texas Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#6455: Apr 14th 2018 at 4:15:56 PM

Since I'm getting a cheaper, "locked" system, how important is the motherboard?

Obviously I want it to support RAM and have all the ports I need. But stuff like VRM or whatever is less important now, right?

Should I just try to get the cheapest Z370 I can? (the other models don't support 3200MHz memory so I gotta get one of these or else my Ripjaws are wasted)

edited 14th Apr '18 4:16:31 PM by Nikkolas

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#6456: Apr 14th 2018 at 4:54:08 PM

I don't follow. Are you asking if you should get a motherboard with room for theoretical expansion? I'm not even sure what you mean by VRM.

Nikkolas from Texas Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#6457: Apr 14th 2018 at 4:59:54 PM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_regulator_module

It came up a lot in the top tier motherboard reviews. Don't ask me to explain it, it's just apparently important.

What I was asking if getting a cheaper motherboard will really make a difference as long as it supports my RAM speed.

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#6458: Apr 14th 2018 at 5:29:31 PM

If it supports your RAM and it supports your CPU, has enough PCI slots for any GP Us you might add in future, has sufficient USB and SATA ports, then it's fine. There's no point spending extra money on a feature that you don't even know enough about to tell if you need it.

Ultimatum Disasturbator from The Wiggle Room (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#6459: Apr 18th 2018 at 3:03:24 AM

50,000 Minecraft users infected with hard drive formatting malware

Essentially it was spread through the official website as a skin which is uploaded as a PNG ,that viruses can spread through PN Gs makes me nervous any,how long before scanning images before you download them becomes necessary?Could JPG images be used as a vector as well?

edited 18th Apr '18 3:03:46 AM by Ultimatum

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Imca (Veteran)
#6460: Apr 18th 2018 at 3:07:06 AM

Any thing can be a vector if you try hard enough, I am more curious in how they got it to execute though.

The data in a PNG won't run itself.

Edit: That's not sarcasm BTW, I am legitimately interested in the technical details of how they got the data in a PNG to execute, rather then just kind of being there....

edited 18th Apr '18 3:08:43 AM by Imca

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#6461: Apr 18th 2018 at 4:07:44 AM

Many years ago there was an exploit in the JPG format that allowed arbitrary code execution. Fundamentally, you have a situation where there's a program that reads the file and interprets the data in it as instructions for creating an image. If there's a vulnerability in the program, it could be exploited by a maliciously crafted file.

edited 18th Apr '18 4:08:30 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#6462: Apr 18th 2018 at 6:41:27 AM

Now, that doesn't make it more surprising in this instance. Somehow, they got the virus into a PNG file, made it executable as a skin, and then got the JVM to somehow pull off drive formatting or got out of the environment entirely.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#6463: Apr 18th 2018 at 7:29:42 AM

The biggest surprise is that there's such a serious flaw in the JVM.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#6464: Apr 18th 2018 at 9:16:10 PM

Kinda reminds me of the image processing classes where we have seen how it was possible to hide information inside pictures by manipulating the 4th color bit and even create macros when you fiddled up with the file extension.

Inter arma enim silent leges
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#6465: Apr 18th 2018 at 9:31:56 PM

Alpha channel aside, I want to know how the hell they got a PNG to, through minecraft, get the JVM to format a drive.

SebastianGray (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#6466: Apr 19th 2018 at 6:46:56 AM

Is it true that there is a global shortage of graphics cards? My card caught fire this morning and when I went to my local retailer they had a sign saying that this was the reason they were totally sold out of them.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#6467: Apr 19th 2018 at 6:48:26 AM

Yes, because everyone's using high-end graphics cards to mine cryptocurrencies. Seriously. It's a major problem.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Memers Since: Aug, 2013
#6468: Apr 19th 2018 at 6:55:45 AM

If you got like a 1050 or something cheap it would be ok to find. 1060 and up you will have to hunt for it, I believe the 1060 Founders Edition is still in stock on Nvidia's website, it will run ya $300 but with a 3 year warranty and the whole shebang.

SebastianGray (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#6469: Apr 19th 2018 at 6:58:50 AM

[up][up]Interesting

[up]I'm in the UK and not too computer savvy. I was considering getting a new computer recently anyway so I will probably do that then get a cheap card or something so I can get my data off the old one.

Steven (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#6470: Apr 19th 2018 at 7:12:38 AM

I think one tech website said that it would be cheaper to simply buy a prebuilt PC from a retailer that has the high end graphics card than to try and buy the card itself.

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#6471: Apr 19th 2018 at 8:24:10 AM

And the only people happy about this are the cryptocurrency miners.

Amazon seems to do reasonably well at keeping cards stocked.

edited 19th Apr '18 8:25:10 AM by RainehDaze

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#6472: Apr 19th 2018 at 10:10:53 AM

As if I needed more reasons to hate cryptocurrencies...

Disgusted, but not surprised
Imca (Veteran)
#6473: Apr 19th 2018 at 1:09:10 PM

I would think them causing significant enviromental damage would be enough reason to hate them.

But the graphics card shortage is just the icing on the shite cake.

SebastianGray (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#6474: Apr 20th 2018 at 9:46:55 AM

Could I have a bit of advice. As I said before, my graphics card cought fire and while I now have a new computer I still want to get a replacement card for my old one so I can get my data off it and then use it as a backup but due to my computer illiteracy I am unsure what to replace the old card with and don't want to risk buying blind and getting one that doesn't work. The card that went pouf was a KFA2 GTX660 2GB DDR5 193Bit card. Does anyone know what the best type to replace this would be?

edited 20th Apr '18 9:48:10 AM by SebastianGray

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#6475: Apr 20th 2018 at 10:05:39 AM

A more useful piece of information would be your PSU and motherboard. But the answer is "anything that you could connect to your monitor"; basically all GP Us you'll find on sale use PCIe 2.0 slots, anything that fits into your case should work.


Total posts: 10,659
Top