Newbie questions.

JohnTevor · August 17, 2014

1) Why IPS monitors are limited to 60Hz refresh rate. Why not 144Hz for example?

2) In these days gaming, what's worth, IPS LED 60Hz better looking or 144Hz LED better refresh rate (Reduced Blur)?

3) When you place 2 GPU next to each other SLI/Crossfire, the top GPU has no fresh air. Will be fried?

4) What happens if you put a GPU PCI Express 3.0 to a mobo limited to PCI Express 2.0? FPS will be slightly lower?

5) Vram Gigabytes. The more Vram GB, the better higher resolution at the same fps rate?

6) An HDD on normal work, makes noise like it shuts down randomly. Is this HDD going to die soon?

7) Is Nvidia Gsync worth it?

8) DirectCU II or Windforce?

Thanks.

Speiner · August 17, 2014

CU II

August 17, 2014

1) The technology behind IPS is simply slower. It would be possible to make a 144Hz IPS monitor, but it doesn't make any sense because the display could not keep up with the high refresh rate, something we see with the "overclockable" IPS monitors.

2) Definitely a 60Hz IPS/PLS or VA monitor. While 144Hz might be nice for fast paced shooters, you will get a monitor that is otherwise inferior when it comes to colours, contrast, viewing angles, etc. The only way I could recommend a 144Hz monitor is if you do nothing but playing FPS games 80% of the time.

3) It is a good idea to space 2 GPUs out so the top card can get fresh air, yes. A blower type cooler is also a good idea since it won't recycle the heated air from the bottom card. A fan blowing fresh air between the 2 GPUs will also be very helpful.

4) As long as it is a PCIe 2.0 x 16 slot the performance will basically be identical.

5) VRAM only matters as soon as you run out of it. With a single GPU simply don't worry about it, you won't run into a VRAM bottleneck. With multiple GPUs you probably want 3+GB of VRAM.

6) Constant clicking can be a sign of a dying HDD, yes. Back up your data if your HDD makes funny noises and hope for the best. Or replace it if you have a very bad feeling about it.

7) Depends on your budget. The G-Sync module is horribly overpriced and you will lose all the functionality if you switch to an AMD GPU. I personally would say that it's not worth it.

8) Depends on the card. On a GTX 780, for example, I would feel more comfortable with the Direct CU2 cooler. On the R9 290 the windforce cooler is far superior.