inkyserifs

So.... SOMA, anyone?

This looks really promising. For something like this I'm willing to wait a good few months before breaking open the piggy bank.

Lol, thank you, I will file away all that lovely theoretical knowledge

huh, okay, thank you. I might just give that a shot then.

Hey guys! I'm currently running windows 8.1 on my build, but it's the embedded edition (Windows 8.1 Industry Pro) that I got for free through Dreamspark as a student. And yes, I know, technically not a normal OS, designed for things like ATMs and such. So far I've had no problems and it runs normally (minus all kinds of bloatware which is nice) but I was hoping I could update to windows 10 for the DX12 support. I am aware that I will probably have to buy a key for it, but other than that, is an upgrade from this system to windows 10 even technically possible? (Without having to reinstall everything from scratch or doing anything crazy). Or am I stuck with 8.1 for the lifetime of this particular build?

Thank you! This will be very handy. I don't see my PSU on the original whitelist, but a few posts down it's rated as an 'acceptable' psu. X') I'm guessing this means it's safe to keep for at least a while longer.

Mm, I found a 550w unit on my go-to website for under that, but doesn't seem to be available at the moment. On another site it seems available and looks quite okay, but with reported high noise levels (which I'm not crazy about but would be willing to put up with for the sake of a good psu if absolutely necessary.) Thank you for the recommendation. I've never actually heard of Super Flower, it doesn't seem very commonplace in my country.

Yeah, I definitely was not planning on overclocking anything on this at all. X') I was really hoping to stay well under 100 usd, but prices work a little differently where I live on account of exchange rates and tax when compared to the US, so I think I'm allowed a little wiggle room, especially if this upgrade is not urgent.

Eh. I'm a little miffed. A few months back I built my very first PC (sans gpu) and being a total noob, I went by what my friend recommended of the power supply - a Corsair VS 650w unit that seemed to have nothing but positive reviews online, and was endorsed by the people giving me advice at the time. I didn't think much of it, and I've had no issues with it so far, but I also haven't really stressed it to any real degree, because I've not been doing any gaming or serious work without a gpu. However, since I started shopping for a GPU I did more research, upon which I discovered that VS psus are apparently complete crap and not to be used for gaming or heavy workloads at all, period. Suffice to say I'm pretty mad at myself for not having uncovered this lovely tidbit earlier. Since I'm trying to buy a gtx 970 or its pascal equivalent later this year, would you guys recommend a psu upgrade along with the gpu purchase? This is not desirable because it will take a solid chunk out of my limited GPU fund, and I also don't relish the thought of unplugging everything from my mobo and reconnecting everything (cable management was kinda a bear). Obviously I will do it if the PSU is going to explode or fry my parts or something, but how soon should I look into doing that, and are there any good but reasonably budget ones you could recommend? I was thinking of upgrading to something like an XFX , I hear those are quite decent (I saw the PSU Tier list).

I'm actually starting to half consider a lower end card like the 960 or something to get me through the months before pascal and see where it goes from there. I can't decide what's more wasteful, splurging now to hold off an upgrade as long as possible, or skimping now so I can get a head start saving up for new gen. X) Leaning towards the 970 or the r9 nano actually. That or just waiting. *_*

Lol so much for the plug and play appeal of consoles

Lol thank you for the advice X) All input is much appreciated.

thanks, I'll check that out.

Lol well it is tempting to get the shiny new thing the moment it releases, but I don't know how long I can handle running software and games on Intel HD integrated graphics. Probably wiser to wait, but I'll probably go insane somewhere along the way.

Yes, I am keeping it in mind and therefore fidgeting greatly over my choices.

Huuuuh. Interesting. A new possibility presents itself...... Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

I'm still debating waiting for it, but there's no way I can afford a 970 SLI right now. X'D I also don't think my case could handle it and I'd need a few extra upgrades to make sure that can run.

O_o the nano is cheaper than the 980. What the hell? How? I mean, not by much but... this was not true the last time I checked my go-to supplier...? or maybe I'm just delusional/misremembering.... Couldn't afford it with watercooling though. But dang it sure is a nice card.

Loool the Witcher 3 is going to be like 95% of my gaming life I grew up on the books and I've been obsessed with trying to play through the games since they released, except my laptop wouldn't give me more than 20 FPS on low settings on witcher 1 before it died, so I never got to play X) I feel like if the 970 can handle Witcher 3 reasonably well, I'll be happy for a goooood long chunk of time.

I think the 970 should still age pretty decently considering we won't see a new Playstation or XBox for a few years and since most of the games that push PCs the most are AAA console ports designed to run on crappy Jaguar processors with HD 7850 level graphics. You're not going to be maxing games like you would with a Pascal 70 or 80 series, but it's still a very strong GPU. I think one big thing that makes the 500 series seem so ancient is the 600 series came out right before a new console generation. So I don't think a 970 will age anywhere near as badly as the 570 did, for example. That's pretty encouraging to hear. I think I will go for the 970 in the next few days, as it has the best price/performance ratio + features for my current needs. It is a tad expensive, but much cheaper than buying a top tier card and realizing I want to upgrade it very soon. And it should last me hopefully a few years, maybe not with everything maxed, but with decent fps until it's time for me to get whatever pascal happens to be around at the time. I don't think I can wait for months to get a working GPU in my system. It feels kinda annoying to be buying a GPU so close to the end of its generation, but given the time frames of the new ones coming out, and all the maybes associated with it, I think I'd rather have something for work and gaming now, and start squirreling money away for a pascal down the road. Thank you for all the brilliant advice by the way, to all the people commenting. It's really educational

Yes, Polaris also sounds very promising. To be honest my decision would be much easier if I knew the retail prices in my country X'D If Polaris/Pascal launches at prices that are about on par with current GPUs of a similar caliber I'd be willing to wait a short period of time. Although to be fair, even if Polaris launches early, people will still advise me to wait until Pascal so that the two cards can be compared against each other. It just never ends. It's the 'wait for 6 months for something that MIGHT be in your budget' bit that gets me. Even if it's leaps and bounds ahead, it's still a flipping long time X"D

Do you think the performance jump is large enough to justify the price leap, especially this close to pascal? Genuine question. The way I see it it could go two ways -- it's a better investment and lasts me longer than the 970 would, thus justifying the price. OR it is *still* outclassed by pascal in a few months and I will have tossed that money into the void where perhaps I should have saved for a pascal upgrade. lol I feel like I'm digging my grave here.

Yeah, most do, but for professional's it's recommended (putting it gently, lol) to take advantage of CUDA and other Nvidia exclusives when available. Overall I prefer AMD GPUS so it honestly bugs me, but I think Nvidia is just the wiser option for work and study. Also I don't know if it's smart to invest the larger sum so close to the release of pascal eh. Decisions.

Basically everything Adobe like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects, Lightworks, 3DMAX, Autodesk, Maya, Zbrush, Cinema 3d.... and a few others I can't think of off the top of my head, for school alone. My MAIN tools are Photoshop, Illustrator, After effects and Zbrush, but the others definitely come into play.

I love the price/performance of 390x, but I don't always get the option of choosing what program to work in so I'll sometimes be forced to do things with CUDA programs. I'm not sure just how much that's going to impact work performance though. It might even be worth the overall boost...?