Tech Things You Dont Know But Are Too Afraid To Ask.

[Glenwing]

When does intel turbo boost actually turn on? I have a i5 2500k and,  if I run it at stock speeds, I use program like prime95 and cpu-z, I see no increase in clock speed despite the supposed "turbo boost" that should occur when the processor is getting heavily tasked. Can someone explain?

 

It activates if temperatures are acceptable.

[Blade of Grass]

how many fans can you practically connect to one single motherboard fan header?(using splitter cable)

It all depends on how many amps the actual fan header can provide/how much it has been made to handle.

 

 

Quantum computers are still messing with my mind. I get it abit, but how do you actually calculate stuff?!?!?!

[Patthecat]

It activates if temperatures are acceptable.

 Well, in that case, what is considered acceptable? With my cooler at stock speeds I hit about 50 degrees C at full load

[Glenwing]

It all depends on how many amps the actual fan header can provide/how much it has been made to handle.

 

 

Quantum computers are still messing with my mind. I get it abit, but how do you actually calculate stuff?!?!?!

 

Same way you do with transistors.  Transistors, which are made from semiconductors, either conduct electricity or don't, and the on-off signals are interpreted as binary digits.  In quantum computing, electron spin position is used to represent binary digits.  Although they have some in-between states which can also be utilized to represent information.

[Glenwing]

 Well, in that case, what is considered acceptable? With my cooler at stock speeds I hit about 50 degrees C at full load

 

I have no idea xD

[Blade of Grass]

Same way you do with transistors.  Transistors, which are made from semiconductors, either conduct electricity or don't, and the on-off signals are interpreted as binary digits.  In quantum computing, electron spin position is used to represent binary digits.  Although they have some in-between states which can also be utilized to represent information.

But each time you check you have different data! Which is unlike standard computers.

[Blade of Grass]

 Well, in that case, what is considered acceptable? With my cooler at stock speeds I hit about 50 degrees C at full load

That's more than acceptable. The max is around 100 C.

 

You may have turned turbo boost off.

[Godlygamer23]

But each time you check you have different data! Which is unlike standard computers.

Quantum computers though aren't intended to replace traditional computers. They're only fast for certain forms of data.

[Patthecat]

That's more than acceptable. The max is around 100 C.

 

You may have turned turbo boost off.

Im pretty sure its on. I really don't care I have it clocked at 4.0ghz, but I was just wondering

[JokersProdigy]

why do companies give out mail in rebates, why not just tell the distributors to take off the amount that they would rebate. From personal experience rebates take quite a bit of time and are more trouble than it is worth sometimes, say a $5 rebate.

[Koori]

Can someone give me a rundown of Nvidia's and AMD's model numbers and what it all means? For example: Gtx 660 and 660ti, 690, 780, Radeon 7750, 7770, 7770 Ghz, 7870 XT....

 

 

What am I looking at?? I can watch Linus's graphics card videos for days and not retain most of it because of those numbers. And it's the only thing I haven't decided on in my first build.

In simple terms its just a SKU.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_keeping_unit

[NazzzF]

why cant IPS panel have a low response time?

[MG2R]

When does intel turbo boost actually turn on? I have a i5 2500k and, if I run it at stock speeds, I use program like prime95 and cpu-z, I see no increase in clock speed despite the supposed "turbo boost" that should occur when the processor is getting heavily tasked. Can someone explain?

It activates if temperatures are acceptable.

If I remember well, Turbo Boost is only applicable on single-core operations. Run prime95 on a single thread and then use the Intel Turbo Boost Monitor to check out if it's working or not.

[Glenwing]

why cant IPS panel have a low response time?

 

It is inherent in the technology, the crystals in the panels are slower to align.

[Lachrymal]

The first number for both AMD and Nvidia cards is the series number which is essentially what generation of GPU the card has in it. Higher numbers mean newer generation which means more power and better efficiency.

The 2nd number (and 3rd number for AMD) represent how powerful they are within that series.

For example, a 760 is weaker than a 770. A 7850 is weaker than a 7870 or a 7970.

The 0 in AMD's line-up is just to make it in the thousands as a marketing gimmick.

When it comes to comparing cards from different generations, usually you can subtract 1 from their power number (the 2nd number for Nvidia and AMD) for every generational gap.

For example, a 680 =/= 780 in power. A 680 is much closer to a 770 in power. That's more of a rough way to do it, but it more or less works.

One special case in all this is when the numbers end in "90". For example, 7990 and 690 have 2 GPU's on the card. Meaning a 690 is basically 2 680's on one card in SLI mode. Except it only takes up 1 PCI-e slot.

Same thing with a 7990 and 7970's.

This is not true of older cards (the 5XXX series had the 5970x2 meaning "times 2" and older generations followed that scheme).

One other thing to note is that the AMD 6XXX series is NOT the same GPU generation as the Nvidia GTX 6XX series.

The Generations go like this comparing Nvidia to AMD:

GTX 7XX - Radeon 9XXX (The 9XXX series isn't out yet and won't be for a while)

GTX 6XX - Radeon 7XXX (The 8XXX series was skipped over.)

GTX 5XX - Radeon 6XXX

And so on.

One other special case is the GTX Ti (short for Titanium) versions of cards. I have no idea how that works, however. I just know that a Ti version of a card is better than a non-Ti version (mostly) and that this usually only applies to GTX X60 power cards.

For example, a GTX 560 would have a Ti version. So would a 660 and (we assume) the 760 will as well, though some people think that's not going to happen. Me being one of them.

Here's a chart to show you relatively (this is a rough estimate) similar cards in power. Note that if they are in the same row, they are relatively in the same "tier" of power.

GTX Titan GTX 780

GTX 680 GTX 770 Radeon 7970

GTX 670 Radeon 7950

GTX 660 Ti GTX 760 Radeon 7870

GTX 660 Radeon 7850

GTX 650 Radeon 7770 (This is where GPU's stop being for gaming and start being for Home Theater's and Video Playback).

GTX 640 Radeon 7670

And so on...

And do note that is only power, not price tiers.

 

 

The first number in each model number represents the series.  The GeForce 600 series, 700 series, etc.  Or the Radeon HD 6000 series, 7000 series, and so on.

 

In GeForce model numbers, the middle digit represents the relative position in the lineup.  GTX 650, GTX 660, GTX 670.  NVIDIA also uses the "Ti" moniker, which stands for Titanium.  It doesn't mean anything, they just use it when they are running out of model numbers, since they usually have more than 8 graphics cards in each series, filling up the 610-680 positions (690 position is reserved for dual-GPU cards).  The GTX 660 Ti goes in between the 660 and 670.  The "Ti" doesn't mean the GTX 660 Ti is related to the GTX 660 in any way.  It just means they ran out of model numbers and had to make up some in-between ones.

 

 

 

This is explained alot. I will reference this when watching the Linus video's now. Thanks.

[Vitalius]

It is inherent in the technology, the crystals in the panels are slower to align.

And thanks to that, they reproduce colors better. :P *complete guess*

[jaypro]

If they can move the 8 pin CPU power to the right-edge of ITX boards, why can't they do it on ATX boards? Or just make a 32-pin.

[JokersProdigy]

If they can move the 8 pin CPU power to the right-edge of ITX boards, why can't they do it on ATX boards? Or just make a 32-pin.

That's just the standard, if they did that it wouldn't be ATX anymore.

[Snickerzz]

That's just the standard, if they did that it wouldn't be ATX anymore.

ATX rev 2.0  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[MG2R]

If they can move the 8 pin CPU power to the right-edge of ITX boards, why can't they do it on ATX boards? Or just make a 32-pin.

That's just the standard, if they did that it wouldn't be ATX anymore.

 

It's an electronic design principle... The shorter they keep the traces, the less problems they have with heat/resistance. On ITX boards you often see them on the right because they have no other/better option. The closer that 8-pin connector can be to the VRM, the better it is for power delivery and board integrity.

[FireFox]

How do instruction sets work, I've been trying to learn these complicated little things but either they are difficult or I'm too stupid to understand, I think someone said that the SSE or Steaming SIMD Extensions are used for math decoding or something but all of the tech speak regarding those to me are too difficult to grasp.

[Vitalius]

This is more so something that I wanted to let people know about when they are comparing PCI-e slots.

PCI-e 3.0 has double the bandwidth of PCI-e 2.0.

This means that PCI-e 3.0 8x has the same bandwidth as PCI-e 2.0 16x.

From what I've read, not even a Titan can fully saturate the bandwidth that PCI-e 2.0 16x offers. Not sure about Dual GPU cards though like the 690 or 7990.

Because of this, PCI-e 3.0 8x is plenty for any single GPU solution, and the same is true of PCI-e 2.0 x16 since it's the same bandwidth.

[HirgaLTTki]

This is more so something that I wanted to let people know about when they are comparing PCI-e slots.

PCI-e 3.0 has double the bandwidth of PCI-e 2.0.

This means that PCI-e 3.0 8x has the same bandwidth as PCI-e 2.0 16x.

From what I've read, not even a Titan can fully saturate the bandwidth that PCI-e 2.0 16x offers. Not sure about Dual GPU cards though like the 690 or 7990.

Because of this, PCI-e 3.0 8x is plenty for any single GPU solution, and the same is true of PCI-e 2.0 x16 since it's the same bandwidth.

 

PCI-e is evolving faster than graphics cards... I wonder what the future would bring

[Vitalius]

PCI-e is evolving faster than graphics cards... I wonder what the future would bring

Well, I would say no it's not.

I believe PCI-e is keeping up with the Workstation graphics cards (like Teslas and Quadros). They need the insane bandwidth of PCI-e 3.0 x16, if I'm not mistaken.

Gaming GPU's are just getting the benefits of this by never being bottlenecked (mostly) by the technology since it's advanced so far.

[HirgaLTTki]

Well, I would say no it's not.

I believe PCI-e is keeping up with the Workstation graphics cards (like Teslas and Quadros). They need the insane bandwidth of PCI-e 3.0 x16, if I'm not mistaken.

Gaming GPU's are just getting the benefits of this by never being bottlenecked (mostly) by the technology since it's advanced so far.

 

Wow didnt know about those cards till you said them

 

http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro-k5000.html#pdpContent=0

 

Amazing technology! But why place PCI-e 3 on consumer mobos? Just put them on workstation mobos then, i just see it as a plan to increase the prices mobos are sold at