K i'm going to need some Tech Support

[Human_Error]

:salute:I'm really confused and im just getting more confused while reading all these posts on computer ugrade, and upgrades, and overlocking etc. I bought my computer about 1-2 months ago. A very decent computer, and i'm hoping to keep this computer to another 3-4 years.

Here is my first question. Ever since I got the computer running till this very day, i have yet done any video card driver updates. Are you supose to Look for driver updates every month or so? How does this work, once again havn't gotten an driver update yet?

Second Question. I'm planning on expanding my single ATI Radeon 4870 HD to ATI Radeon 4870x2 HD. I'm looking for the cheapest price localy, and on the internet for the graphic card. But before I decide to confirm this purchase, when I do get this prahic card is there anything else that i've got to upgrade say my my Fan, or even Power Supply etc. ? Whats recommended to do in this situation, before installing the purchase?

Third Question. Overclocking... i really don't have any clue what this does, but i know it's an performance upgrade. Once again I havn't done anything to my computer yet performace wise nor upgrading my spec's. Is it recommended to overclock your CPU and your graphic card? If it's worth it, then does anyone have a link or a website post that explains how to do this process

Fourth Question. I've heard that DirectX 10 was somewhat a dissapointment to lots or people because of overal performance. Some one said DirectX 11 is due to be out somewhere in Q1 10. Where is the DirectX version located ? Is this part of the CPU or the Graphic Card ?

Thanks For Any Helpful Advice :salute:

Game Hard, Life is Short :salute:

[Vreki]

Re: K i'm going to need some Tech Support

:salute:I'm really confused and im just getting more confused while reading all these posts on computer ugrade, and upgrades, and overlocking etc. I bought my computer about 1-2 months ago. A very decent computer, and i'm hoping to keep this computer to another 3-4 years.

Here is my first question. Ever since I got the computer running till this very day, i have yet done any video card driver updates. Are you supose to Look for driver updates every month or so? How does this work, once again havn't gotten an driver update yet?

Second Question. I'm planning on expanding my single ATI Radeon 4870 HD to ATI Radeon 4870x2 HD. I'm looking for the cheapest price localy, and on the internet for the graphic card. But before I decide to confirm this purchase, when I do get this prahic card is there anything else that i've got to upgrade say my my Fan, or even Power Supply etc. ? Whats recommended to do in this situation, before installing the purchase?

Third Question. Overclocking... i really don't have any clue what this does, but i know it's an performance upgrade. Once again I havn't done anything to my computer yet performace wise nor upgrading my spec's. Is it recommended to overclock your CPU and your graphic card? If it's worth it, then does anyone have a link or a website post that explains how to do this process

Fourth Question. I've heard that DirectX 10 was somewhat a dissapointment to lots or people because of overal performance. Some one said DirectX 11 is due to be out somewhere in Q1 10. Where is the DirectX version located ? Is this part of the CPU or the Graphic Card ?

Thanks For Any Helpful Advice :salute:

Game Hard, Life is Short :salute:

Driver updates: I look for them when I have problems with a game, otherwise I just leave well enough alone.

Card upgrade: Do you mean a singe-slot gfx card with two GPU, or do you intend to crossfiire the existing card with one more? In the latter case you need to make sure that your MB suports crossfire, and in both case you should check that you have an adequate power supply. The power requirements can be found on the manufacturers website.

Overclocking: I personally dont think its worth it. I have tried a bit with both my CPU and GFX card, but what is a 10% increase really worth? A jump form 30 to 33 FPS? But there are guide available in or own Guide section if you feel like it.

DirectX is implemented by the GFX card and the operating system.
But as far as I know, the older DirectX10cards will still work with DirectX11 games, they will just have the DirectX11 specif features disabled.

[KillerStickMan]

Re: K i'm going to need some Tech Support

1. As long as your drivers work and you don't have any problems playing games and stuff there's not much of a point in changing them. If you start running into problems with games not running properly or running poorly then I would go out and find the newest drivers.

2. Are you looking into crossfire or just buying a new video card? And also what's the wattage on your power supply.

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclocking (read the first paragraph) Basically it's just making something run faster than it's made to run.

4. DirectX 11 is due out with Windows 7 which comes out in September or October if I'm not mistaken. And all DX10.1 cards should be compatible with DX11 (if not all DX10). And DirectX is a program, not a part of any hardware although I'm not completely sure what all it does.

[Vreki]

Re: K i'm going to need some Tech Support

And DirectX is a program, not a part of any hardware although I'm not completely sure what all it does.

Its an API.
The basic idea is that developers don't have to write programs for every piece of hardware in existence, they can just use a common set of functions defined by windows.
The individual hardware manufactures then make drivers that convert the DirectX call to something their hardware can understand.
However some of the functions may only be available on the newest hardware, that why you will see that the hardware itself is labeled as DirectX-whatever.

Thats the idea anyway, many people still have problems getting their hardware to work with a specific game, but it could be much worse.

[mxvolta]

Re: K i'm going to need some Tech Support

Its an API.
The basic idea is that developers don't have to write programs for every piece of hardware in existence, they can just use a common set of functions defined by windows.
The individual hardware manufactures then make drivers that convert the DirectX call to something their hardware can understand.
However some of the functions may only be available on the newest hardware, that why you will see that the hardware itself is labeled as DirectX-whatever.

Thats the idea anyway, many people still have problems getting their hardware to work with a specific game, but it could be much worse.

thats exactly what it is, and the problems ppl see are driver/hardware especific so thats why you should always try to get the new ones, after you read some topics about em, not all the new drivers are stable on release, ATI catalyst lol, but then they put out a hotfix so if you got no drivers issues wait for a stable NEW release.

[AvalancheDiode]

Re: K i'm going to need some Tech Support

Overclocking performance depends on how high you jack it up. You get about 10% performance gain for about 10% overclocking. Those new i7 OC performance may be catchy depending on how programs perform on turbo mode. Usually it doesn't worth it unless you can jack it up all the way from 2.4GHz to 3.6GHz. Then there's really some difference.

One problem for Phenom OC performance is that the L3 cache is very laggy, so the performance gain from core OC is not as well as i7 or C2D. Phenom's uncore isn't very overclockable. I'm not sure about Phenom II, but it seems that its uncore can only reach about 2.6GHz. L3 latency is the problem here, and you can do nothing about it.

GPUs usually don't have much headroom for overclocking.

If you're talking about heat, power usage, noise etc, then OC makes nonsense.

[Human_Error]

Re: K i'm going to need some Tech Support

How do you check what kind of power supply you have in your computer

& yea, I got an i7 Quad Core.. 2.66 GHz, and I just want to get another graphic card & maybe a new power supply if needed. Will there be any heating issue's if I get a second graphic card ?

[Wizrdwarts]

Re: K i'm going to need some Tech Support

How do you check what kind of power supply you have in your computer

Open your case and see. :)

[cableguy619]

Re: K i'm going to need some Tech Support

over clock that i7.. very easy proper cooling and you will be all good. I run daily a i920 @ 4.2 daily. You will see your biggest gains in FPS in the 3.6-4 ghz range.. Really no reason to go higher than 3.6 IMO. I do it because I water cool my rig and like going to the extreme with it.

[=d][b=Ausden]

Re: K i'm going to need some Tech Support

No offense, but if you cannot determine on your own what kind of power supply you have, you don't need to be overclocking your CPU or doing "do-it-yourself" upgrades.

Buying another GPU and going crossfire is a waste of money. You'll only get 5-10 more FPS than with a single card. You should probably just stick to enjoying games now and cross the upgrade bridge when you start seeing issues with your computer handling future current games.

[imported_Will]

Re: K i'm going to need some Tech Support

How do you check what kind of power supply you have in your computer

I got an i7 Quad Core..

Wait whut?

i7 is an i7, a quad core is a quad core. i7's have 8 cores. Which one is it?

[Wizrdwarts]

Re: K i'm going to need some Tech Support

Wait whut?

i7 is an i7, a quad core is a quad core. i7's have 8 cores. Which one is it?

i7 are quad cores. They also have hyperthreading support which the OS sees as double the cores.

[imported_Will]

Re: K i'm going to need some Tech Support

i7 are quad cores. They also have hyperthreading support which the OS sees as double the cores.

Lol whoops, my bad. I just saw my i7 box and it did say Quad Core. :shakehead:

[Human_Error]

Re: K i'm going to need some Tech Support

So what is the proper/safe way of checking what kind of pwer supply box I got ?

[Wizrdwarts]

Re: K i'm going to need some Tech Support

So what is the proper/safe way of checking what kind of pwer supply box I got ?

Open your case and just look at it. There should be a sticker on it with the model, wattage, etc.