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

[DigitalHermit]

Will it blend?

 

Why can't I run KitKat natively on an x86 build? (I've seen KitKats on Atoms... *ahem* Lenovo *ahem*)

[Trik'Stari]

PCIe switches can't increase the total bandwidth available, so if you are saturating your PCIe bandwidth then it won't help.  You may have dual x16 slots wired to the PLX chip, but the PLX chip itself will still only have 16 lanes connecting it back to the CPU, so you're still limited to 16 lanes worth of bandwidth total.

 

The most powerful GPU does not even come close to saturating PCIe 3.0 x4.  But if one board has dual x16 people will buy it over a board with dual x8.  In the majority of cases, if a product is designed a certain way it's not necessarily because that's the way that makes the most sense, but because it will sell better.  Even if there is no real reason for it.

Better question: What the hell does it take to saturate PCIEx16 3.0 then?

[WoodenMarker]

Minecraft and video editing are more CPU and RAM intensive and the GPU doesn't matter that much, right??

Vanilla Minecraft doesn't need more gpu horsepower but is rather more cpu intensive. Mods can end up making it more cpu or gpu heavy. More ram reduces what would be the performance hit from more things going on--TNT explosions, more players and such. 

Video editing will depend on the program. With applications that support it, gpu-assisted renders can render out much more quickly than the cpu. 

[terrytek]

Vanilla Minecraft doesn't need more gpu horsepower but is rather more cpu intensive. Mods can end up making it more cpu or gpu heavy. More ram reduces what would be the performance hit from more things going on--TNT explosions, more players and such. 

Video editing will depend on the program. With applications that support it, gpu-assisted renders can render out much more quickly than the cpu. 

Actually, there are some mods and texture packs that are pretty light, like Soartex Fanver, the only one I use.

[Admiaczking]

well half of the time Linus is talking about the features of the graphics card he is reviewing i have no idea what he is talking about

[terrytek]

well half of the time Linus is talking about the features of the graphics card he is reviewing i have no idea what he is talking about

Give me an example. What card?

[79wjd]

well half of the time Linus is talking about the features of the graphics card he is reviewing i have no idea what he is talking about

Shadow Play/AMD Game DVR -- Screen recorder

Mantle -- optimization for AMD cards, allowing certain games to run extremely well

Gameworks/Physx -- special effects basically 

Eyefinity/Nvidia surround -- Surround monitors 

[Admiaczking]

i mean when he's talking about CUDA and stream processors and shit like that, i have no idea what it means i just know more = better

[terrytek]

Not exactly remotely tech related, but how are Twinkies filled?

[79wjd]

Not exactly remotely tech related, but how are Twinkies filled?

needles

[Glenwing]

i mean when he's talking about CUDA and stream processors and shit like that, i have no idea what it means i just know more = better

 

Fancy words for cores.  NVIDIA calls their cores CUDA cores, because they have a feature called CUDA which allows the GPU's cores to be used to accelerate computations for workstation type stuff.  Stream Processors are what AMD's cores are called.

[terrytek]

needles

Like how small?

[flibberdipper]

Will my video cards get enough airflow in Crossfire, and pretty much any question related to fans.

 

EDIT: And do GPU's have cores like what a CPU does?

[terrytek]

Will my video cards get enough airflow in Crossfire, and pretty much any question related to fans.

If they are spaced out enough, yeah. Put them right next to each other and you're asking for doom.

[flibberdipper]

If they are spaced out enough, yeah. Put them right next to each other and you're asking for doom.

I just worry a lot.

 

The GPU core thing is a big thing for me.

[Admiaczking]

Fancy words for cores.  NVIDIA calls their cores CUDA cores, because they have a feature called CUDA which allows the GPU's cores to be used to accelerate computations for workstation type stuff.  Stream Processors are what AMD's cores are called.

alright well i just re-watched the ASUS MARS 760 review (the one i didn't understand a few months ago" and now i understand all of it.

[Akolyte]

What is the north bridge, south bridge and the busses? Also, what's the difference between sli and crossfire?

[cam_96]

What does a Hyper Threading do?

Creates digital cores. Intel has it with core i3 and i7. Say a six core has hyper threading, it will have digital 6 cores. So in general, you will have 12 cores. But I heard that it doesn't really work good, I don't know though.

[Glenwing]

What is the north bridge, south bridge and the busses? Also, what's the difference between sli and crossfire?

 

Older motherboards had two main chipsets.  The Northbridge was the PCI Express controller, but in modern platforms the Northbridge has been integrated into the CPU, so it's not on the motherboard anymore.  The Southbridge is the main I/O controller, for your motherboard's native USB ports, SATA ports, and other things like that.  On modern platforms we don't call it the Southbridge anymore since the Northbridge is gone, we just call it "the chipset".

 

A bus is a generic term for an interconnect between two components.  The design of a bus affects the nature of data transfer between those two components.

 

SLI and Crossfire are both configurations which allow multiple GPUs to work together on the same task.  SLI is NVIDIA's implementation, while Crossfire is AMD's implementation.

[Glenwing]

Creates digital cores. Intel has it with core i3 and i7. Say a six core has hyper threading, it will have digital 6 cores. So in general, you will have 12 cores. But I heard that it doesn't really work good, I don't know though.

 

Over a year old question bud

[Akolyte]

Older motherboards had two main chipsets.  The Northbridge was the PCI Express controller, but in modern platforms the Northbridge has been integrated into the CPU, so it's not on the motherboard anymore.  The Southbridge is the main I/O controller, for your motherboard's native USB ports, SATA ports, and other things like that.  On modern platforms we don't call it the Southbridge anymore since the Northbridge is gone, we just call it "the chipset".

 

A bus is a generic term for an interconnect between two components.  The design of a bus affects the nature of data transfer between those two components.

 

SLI and Crossfire are both configurations which allow multiple GPUs to work together on the same task.  SLI is NVIDIA's implementation, while Crossfire is AMD's implementation.

omg,  Thank you!  No one has ever told me that!  

[Glenwing]

I just worry a lot.

 

The GPU core thing is a big thing for me.

 

A core is a pretty generic term, it doesn't mean anything specific.  GPU cores are similar to CPU cores in principle in some ways, but they are designed with a much different focus.

[peters.11]

what does 32 and 64 'bit' mean in terms of operating systems ?

[79wjd]

what does 32 and 64 'bit' mean in terms of operating systems ?

The computer can address 64 bits of memory vs. 32 bits. 

 

basically: a 32 bit operating system can address 2^32 pieces of memory, whereas 64 bit can address 2^64. In practice, this means the computer can address more memory (ram) and code/programs are thereby able to use more memory. Basically it allows for more advanced programs without the need to compact things as much. One of the reasons games/programs keep getting bigger and bigger is because more time is spent on developing the program itself rather than worrying about the amount of memory it uses or the space it takes up simply because both are quite cheap--cheaper than the time it would take to make applications more memory efficient. 

[STRMfrmXMN]

Like actually, how does watercooling work? Like, water doesn't directly splash on the CPU obviously.. but like, how does the water keep the CPU cool? How does the copper from the heatsink interact with water?