CPU Bottleneck. Where to go from here? Answer: New GPU

[sirgallium]

I'm currently running an i5-4670k overclocked to 4.7GHz* and a GTX480

I have a 144hz screen and in the games that I don't get 144 frames per second such as Insurgency or Natural Selection 2, it's still very smooth, but it will float around 100 and vary. When I look at the system status it shows that the CPU is at max duty cycle and causing the bottleneck to the system.

I recently raised it from 4.4 to 4.6 GHz and I still have a little bit of voltage to use that people say you normally have to use to get to 4.5. I also have a pretty nice air cooler, and my case is next to a cold window that doesn't have good insulation so it is drawing some cold straight from there which is nice.

I don't think I can afford a faster CPU although I'm curious what the next step up might be. I was thinking about learning about ram timings and some of the more obscure overclocking settings to get the most out of everything that I have. Suggestions? Ideas?

Edit: After reading some delidding threads it looks like it might be worth a shot for a decent temp drop

Edit2: I am seeing GPU and CPU bottleneck. The GPU bottleneck was happening in a deceptive way that made it look like CPU. i.e. With graphics settings turned all the way up or down the framerate doesn't change much.

Edit3: I'm going to see how overclocking my GTX480 goes today. I'm also going to wait for an RX480 to come down in price as low as possible, hopefully under 175. I just have no extra money and I don't even know if I will buy one but I want to. 4GB should be fine right? I mean the GTX480 is only 1.5GB currently. I don't play a whole lot of cutting edge graphics games, just Insurgency and NS2.

Edit4: Card is now OCed to 800mhz up from 700 and the memory is at 4250 up from about 3800. Temps are up from 65 to 75 and that's with cold air coming in from the window cracked open. But still I am seeing about 120fps average now in Insurgency instead of 100 so that is nice. This card has an aftermarket cooler on it that is pretty good. Thanks for all the help everybody.

Edit5:

Card is now at 816 and 4250. I have enabled hardware monitoring and Afterburner doesn't seem to have a load percent to show but it has "FB usage" which people say online is the "frame buffer" or the amount of memory being used on the card. Stock speed it was around 20 to 25% and now overclocked the FB has gone up to 40 to 50%. I wonder why it's using more of the card's memory at higher OC? I thought 1.5GB was too little video memory for NS2 and Insurgency so I wonder why this makes it look like it's not all being used.

 

[Peter2k]

http://www.overclock.net/t/1313179/official-delidded-club-guide

quite a guide on delidding

RAM timings
barely worth it in many cases in my opinion
best to leave it at setting it to XMP


you can try to tighten the timings a bit

gonna have to be really uptight about testing the stability though


that being said

I'd wager you're GPU is holding you more back

my 1060 is faster then my 780

and you're 480 quite a chunk older

would be more interesting for the moment to see what you're fps are, if you drop you're OC down to 4.2 or so
if it really changes a lot

and maximum OC you can get on the i5 at the moment
and OC you're card some more

and see what makes a bigger difference


edit:

maybe something to get you started



also with a tool for delidding it becomes quite a lot easier

 

[Koween]

I truly doubt it's the cpu at fault when it is paired with a gtx480. Having said that, even if you were to upgrade and get the best cpu and overclock you would still be getting a 20% improvement at most - I doubt that is needed to run those games at 144fps+. My old 3570k @4.4ghz ran cs:go at hundreds of fps on most maps at highest settings and I doubt the games you mentioned require better hardware. I did, however, have 660ti sli and a 980ti after that.
I'm quite sure that a large part of your issue is a weak gpu - those games shouldn't need the best cpu of 2016 overclocked to the max for 144fps+.

 

[sirgallium]

I have had lag issues in only those two particular games in the past before. Running the process at high priority completely fixed the issue in NS2. Similarly in Insurgency after a certain update suddenly framerate was so low that the game was unplayable for me. This is when I overclocked my CPU for the first time. I forget what the stock speed was but after overclocking to 4.4GHz the framerate went way back up in Insurgency. Also turning the graphics all the way up or down made hardly any difference at all in that game for my framerate which was another clue it was CPU related. Also talking with the Insurgency community it seems widely regarded that the game is a total CPU hog.

I have breen looking at upgrading my graphics card too but those are the only two modern graphics intensive games I play, all the rest are pretty old and run at 144 no problem. But I swear it seems like CPU bottleneck because I remember looking at the task manager too and seeing it maxed out.

I guess further testing is required. Is there any kind of benchmarking program that will specifically help me find bottlenecks in my system? Maybe I'll just run those games again for a minute and alt tab and screen cap my performance screen to show that the CPU graphs are maxed out.

I know the GTX480 is absolutely ancient but if you look here CPU boss rates it as roughly equal to this Radeon R9 which is a modern card http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-270X-vs-GeForce-GTX-480

If anything I would get an RX480 which appears to be about triple the speed of my GTX 480 but first I need to find out what is truly limiting my system. I'll be back with pics of the rig and screen caps of performance during gaming and benchmarks. Thanks for all the help already.

 

[sirgallium]

Ok guys heres the screen caps:

Here is my rig - you can see the large cooling fan on the side normally sits against this cold window that leaks air in, so thats good..



Here is the inside. I used to have more ram slots but my old mobo got fried. I used to have 16GB, now only 12.



Here you can see the 4.6GHz OC settings I have:



Here is the Vcore, I still have some room to raise it up:



Here is task manager after running insurgency on the normal settings I use, high graphics:



You can see the CPU was being maxed out periodically but not absolutely constantly.

And here it is after turning all the graphics settings all the way down:



I should mention with high graphics I was averaging about 100fps and with lowest graphics I was averaging about 115 to 120 fps. So it does appear that the graphics card is hitting a limit as well. At this point it appears to me that both CPU and GPU are hitting a limit.

You can see that with all the graphics at lowest settings, the CPU is much less stressed. I still believe that the CPU is the primary bottleneck for this game although I now see that the GPU is limiting it to some extent as well. I have never tried overclocking this video card. I already don't like how loud the fans are on it with how fast they spin Watercooling some day when I'm rich.

 

[SomeGuy133]

I'm currently running an i5-4670k overclocked to 4.6GHz and a GTX480

I have a 144hz screen and in the games that I don't get 144 frames per second such as Insurgency or Natural Selection 2, it's still very smooth, but it will float around 100 and vary. When I look at the system status it shows that the CPU is at max duty cycle and causing the bottleneck to the system.

I recently raised it from 4.4 to 4.6 GHz and I still have a little bit of voltage to use that people say you normally have to use to get to 4.5. I also have a pretty nice air cooler, and my case is next to a cold window that doesn't have good insulation so it is drawing some cold straight from there which is nice.

I don't think I can afford a faster CPU although I'm curious what the next step up might be. I was thinking about learning about ram timings and some of the more obscure overclocking settings to get the most out of everything that I have. Suggestions? Ideas?

Edit: After reading some delidding threads it looks like it might be worth a shot for a decent temp drop

I play NS2. I run a 4.7Ghz 6700K and a 1500mhz 980TI...system below.

I get 120hz most of the time but it does dip depending on the map. Siege and Woozas have different effects on cpu vs GPU limits with how much is on screen.

I do also second the GPU being a major part of it. I highly recommend you going with 120hz ULMB over 144hz. 120hz ULMB is 10 times better. just look at blur busters. My ns2 accuracy went from 8-15% to 15-25% easiky from 60z to 120hz ulmb. I tried 144hz but it looks as bad as 120hz. ULMB gets close to CRT

I also play at 144p BTW. NS2 is CPU limited overall but it is also GPU limited on my rig at select moments but mostly CPU.

If you want games to run better you need more single thread but remember that card is also a major limit even at 1080p or whatever res you are running.

I would be surprised if you are not cpu and gpu limited. open msi afterburner and watch loads on a second screen or record the stats.


RAM timings can have an effect but its the last thing to worry about. That is why I have the best RAM ATM. Though wizzard reviewd it and said sub timings are a bit loose...as far as i know its one of the best...maybe not the best

Oh also you need to look at the process. If you have 4 logical cores NS2/insurgancy should be at 12-13% if its maxing single thread.

Throttle stop can help you too in seeing a cpu single thread limitation. Its a bit more complex on how to read. I would have to read through uncle webbs post again explaing how that works. It also may not be 100% perfect.....I need to finish talking to him about that.

also water cooling has limited effect these days. A high quality air cooler is close to the same :/

You need phase change to make the difference.

I truly doubt it's the cpu at fault when it is paired with a gtx480. Having said that, even if you were to upgrade and get the best cpu and overclock you would still be getting a 20% improvement at most - I doubt that is needed to run those games at 144fps+. My old 3570k @4.4ghz ran cs:go at hundreds of fps on most maps at highest settings and I doubt the games you mentioned require better hardware. I did, however, have 660ti sli and a 980ti after that.
I'm quite sure that a large part of your issue is a weak gpu - those games shouldn't need the best cpu of 2016 overclocked to the max for 144fps+.

cs go inst single threaded line ns2 shitty lua

 

[sirgallium]

I do also second the GPU being a major part of it. I highly recommend you going with 120hz ULMB over 144hz. 120hz ULMB is 10 times better. just look at blur busters. My ns2 accuracy went from 8-15% to 15-25% easiky from 60z to 120hz ulmb. I tried 144hz but it looks as bad as 120hz. ULMB gets close to CRT

Is this ULMB a setting I can change somewhere? Or are you suggesting I get a new monitor? I'm not familiar with all of these terms. I just got this 144Hz one, was planning on keeping it for a long time. I basically have no spending money, just paying rent right now. Also I do really miss the response time of CRTs, as well as the native resolutions they support. Then you can just lower the res a notch if you want more FPS and you don't suffer the scaling issues of panels. I couldn't stand running a panel at non native res.

I agree it looks like there is CPU and GPU bottlenecking going on at the same time. I think the CPU is more limiting though, since I still don't get 144 frames at lowest graphics settings. And personally I prefer instant response and fluid gameplay if that means low graphics settings, over high graphics and lag. But since turning them down only gives a few frames back, I keep them high.

Oh also you need to look at the process. If you have 4 logical cores NS2/insurgancy should be at 12-13% if its maxing single thread.

I posted pics of the task manager with Insurgency. I can get more pics of other stuff if you want. I'll do some NS2 benchmarks and screencaps if you want. I don't completely understand what you mean about 12-13% maxing single thread, or throttle stop. But I am going to investigate and research all of the other things you told me that I do understand, I just wanted to point out what I don't understand.

also water cooling has limited effect these days. A high quality air cooler is close to the same :/

That's too bad. I still want it someday just to have a rig that is next to silent. I have a system all specced out, for a few hundred bucks I could be running at extremely low dB levels, we're talking around 20 or less using a PWM water pump the quietest I could find after research and using Enlobal barometric bearing fans which use air pressure and magnets to float the blades above the frame so that no moving parts touch each other, my favorite fans. They are basically silent and can never wear out since there are no moving parts that touch anything but air. I already have 3 of them at 140mm. Just need 3 more, 2 waterblocks, the pump and rad.. someday.

Also I live in a cold climate and I could stick the radiator out the window

Can anybody tell my why my Vcore is running at 1.256 when I have it set at 1.240?

Edit: I'm just going to edit this instead of bumping the post. I just OCed again up to 4.7GHz

I ran 4.4 for about a year and the other day bumped it up to 4.6 and it's been completely stable. So now let's try 4.7 and game for a while. Let's see how high this baby can go! Haha I haven't really had a reason to OC before now, I was running a 60hz screen and all games were always maxed.

I also installed MSI Afterburner so now we can monitor graphics and CPU load in both of those games.

Edit2: I gained about 5-10 fps in Insurgency at 4.7GHz on low graphics settings. It even maxed out at 144 a few times which normally never happens. It also bogged down to 70s FPS at one part in the map. I alt tabbed and looked at performance afterward and the CPU was not loaded. So just like SomeGuy133 said about NS2, Insurgency is mostly CPU limited but there are some parts of the map that are GPU limited.

Edit3: Ok now I realize that about 50% of the map area in Insurgency is video card limited to the 70s range of FPS. This GTX480 has 1.5GB of ram. The RX480 is what I'm looking at and I wanted the 8GB version but do I really need that? I'm trying to get the most for the money, and I play mostly old games anyway. The 4GB model I could probably afford if it's under $200.

Edit4: Maxed out all graphics settings in Insurgency. Still getting 100 fps average. It's kind of funny to me how changing them from max to lowest doesn't really affect the frame rate that much. Only 5-10 fps it seems. But I still know it's GPU limited because when I checked the task manager after running the game on low settings and getting low framerate the CPU was not being loaded. So there is something fundamentally taxing to the GPU about the game regardless of graphical fidelity settings. That's why I thought it was a CPU bottleneck.

 

[Koween]

You have set up afterburner to show cpu/gpu load and temperatures in the OSD, right? As for vram - if all you plan on playing are older games then the 4gb version will be enough. IMO by the time you need more than 4gb the rx480 will be too slow anyway if you got the 8gb version. Also, since you are playing an older single threaded game you will want the best IPC x single core speed. Your cpu is pretty much there and only a 5ghz overclocked Kaby Lake will be a bit faster.

 

[sirgallium]

You have set up afterburner to show cpu/gpu load and temperatures in the OSD, right? As for vram - if all you plan on playing are older games then the 4gb version will be enough. IMO by the time you need more than 4gb the rx480 will be too slow anyway if you got the 8gb version. Also, since you are playing an older single threaded game you will want the best IPC x single core speed. Your cpu is pretty much there and only a 5ghz overclocked Kaby Lake will be a bit faster.

No I will setup afterburner to do that. Well that sounds great about the 4GB. That's the thing with graphics cards anyways, investing in higher end ones is such a diminishing return because of how fast the cycle is for new generations. So I'm glad that we are thinking along the same lines.

 

[SomeGuy133]

it depends if your 144hz monitor is gsync. ULMB is a gync thing but some benq IIRC had a built in strobe that was grahpics card independent, which was cool. I wish more monitors had that so it wasn;t nvidia only :/
(writting this as i read so i think you figured asll this out by the end)
like i said its easy to tell if its gpu just watch gpu utilization and cpu in the process section 4 core is 12-13% is cpu limit IF GPU is not maxed. If GPU is maxed its gpu. Your cpu isn;t bad. There is only a little bit of room to go better for GPU and a ton for the GPU. 4.6-4.8GHz HW is only like 10% slower than a 5GHz kaby so your best with just getting a better GPU given your GPU at the moment.


4GB VRAM is enough. It has been shown games that use 10GB of VRAM are simply using it because they can most of the time. Maybe a handful of games really need more than 4GB of VRAM and in that case those are games that require Pascal Titan level GPU so for midram 4GB is way ore than enough! 3.5GB...well that does cause some issue hehehe

1.5GB VRAM will cause issues. BTW

I am not good on whats the best bang for your buck card but thats where you should go. I hear good things about 1060/480. I think 1060 is a bit better but price matters and what games you play. For ns2/insurgency i would wager (complete guess but wouldnt be surprised) if nvidia is a better choice.

Also PM me your ns2 name I am not alucard but i am the other massive dick that yells at retards lol

 

[sirgallium]

it depends if your 144hz monitor is gsync. ULMB is a gync thing but some benq IIRC had a built in strobe that was grahpics card independent, which was cool. I wish more monitors had that so it wasn;t nvidia only :/
(writting this as i read so i think you figured asll this out by the end)
like i said its easy to tell if its gpu just watch gpu utilization and cpu in the process section 4 core is 12-13% is cpu limit IF GPU is not maxed. If GPU is maxed its gpu. Your cpu isn;t bad. There is only a little bit of room to go better for GPU and a ton for the GPU. 4.6-4.8GHz HW is only like 10% slower than a 5GHz kaby so your best with just getting a better GPU given your GPU at the moment.


4GB VRAM is enough. It has been shown games that use 10GB of VRAM are simply using it because they can most of the time. Maybe a handful of games really need more than 4GB of VRAM and in that case those are games that require Pascal Titan level GPU so for midram 4GB is way ore than enough! 3.5GB...well that does cause some issue hehehe

1.5GB VRAM will cause issues. BTW

I am not good on whats the best bang for your buck card but thats where you should go. I hear good things about 1060/480. I think 1060 is a bit better but price matters and what games you play. For ns2/insurgency i would wager (complete guess but wouldnt be surprised) if nvidia is a better choice.

Also PM me your ns2 name I am not alucard but i am the other massive dick that yells at retards lol

Yeah it's at 4.7GHz now and I played for 20 mins and it was stable so, it seems alright. Not a super thorough test but it's promising still I don't know the limit. It's kind of fun. Also delidding is tempting. I don't get why people re-lid after the delid... to replace the paste with better paste but why even use a lid at that point, just put it right on the heatsink.

The RX480 is slightly better on newer games and nvidia would be better for the games I play, but the difference is very small and both are a great value and I'm happy to see AMD coming back and competing for real again so I can't help but want to support them right now. This GTX480 was given to me second hand there is no way I could have afforded it.

I'm currently Chompy in game I have played as BattleGorge before. I've played since NS1 so almost 10 years. I'm pretty good at the game and I love skulking now. It took me so many years of playing these NS games to get good at skulk. It's such a different mindset than having a gun as a marine. Now I naturally climb walls and ceilings and usually attack from above and I circle and bunnyhop around marines second nature as I chomp them. I've held off teams of 5 to 6 marines trying to get into a room but they keep going in single file and I just patiently wait on the ceiling above the doorway and tag them and a few chomps and they're done for. I love the demoralizing effect, the other marines are then afraid to come in and when they do they are all shaky and worried and it makes them easier to kill. With this 144hz screen now Lerk is amazing I never really tried it much before because it's so hard, but I play Tribes Vengeance and that is a super high speed game which was the main reason I got a 144hz screen because it makes a huge difference in how well you can play at high speed. Well Lerk is just as fast to play and so this screen makes it way easier and I'm beginning to play that class now pretty sucessfully.

Another one of my favorite tactics that I was doing last night is a battlegorge tactic and what you do is follow skulk groups and heal spray them as they are attacking marines. This damages the marine as it heals the skulks and also distracts the marines and heals you. I tell you it works pretty damn well sometimes and I cleaned out a few rooms with some skulks doing that last night. It's always hilarious doing that too because if the marine was a good shot it would all be over and that strat would never work. But on these partial newb servers its super fun. Getting those healspray kills is so satisfying, it's like a level above a knife kill in difficulty. Plus the victory squeal that you can give. Haha what an incredible game really. I was thinking yesterday how it is a rare case where the second one in the series not only lived up to the first, but is patently better in some if not many ways. We all miss devour, it's too bad that was taken from us. It was probably the single best feature of NS1. Who wouldn't want to swallow a marine whole and poop him out after slowly digesting him and gaining health as he is forced to watch the inside of your intestines before getting a view of the ceiling as his remains are expelled. It is truly a tragedy that this feature is gone.

I've always naturally been best at Fade. On some of the best rounds I've ever played I've gone maps where I am 25 and 2 or 40 and 6 or something like that. And most of the deaths were from before I faded. I wish I could record stuff like that. I make youtube highlights. But recording that game when my computer can already not run it constantly at 144 is not a great idea.

Here's a highlight vid I made of some of the best shots I've made in TV:



While I'm at it here is a vid from tuesday, playing my favorite game of all time online:

 

[SomeGuy133]

relidding keeps the CPU safer and skylake and on you can't direct die anymore. Package or whatever is too thin. Haswell you can.

haha yea i know you not personally but i have played with you a few times. My name changes regularly depending who my mistress/master is lol

I can noly skulk or onos....i am a terrible lerk/fade. Never bothered to learn.

 

[Peter2k]

use Asus RealBench for testing stability on CPU and memory OC

you're board might give a bit more voltage then you put in manually



I went with a 3GB RAM 1060
very happy about it

but a RX480 would be a good purchase too

but
the Nvidia cards would be running a bit cooler, and therfore more silent

that being said I had bad luck with coil whine
what was really bad:
when I moved the mouse and looked around in games the pitch of the whine changed with it

but got rid of it using some nailpolish from my wife


also I understand when you talk about a game that is so dependend on single thread performance

love Mechwarrior Online
but that must be one of the most CPU hungry games ever
not well optimised and couldn't multithread if it's live depended on it

not regretting getting a 7600k, delidding it and getting it up to 5.2 Ghz

I also get why you want to get water-cooled
but if you're on a budget getting a new card with a great customer cooler would be better spent then putting you're old card under water


also you could buy an AiO and replace it's fans with the ones you preferr

 

[sirgallium]

use Asus RealBench for testing stability on CPU and memory OC
that being said I had bad luck with coil whine
what was really bad:
when I moved the mouse and looked around in games the pitch of the whine changed with it

I had that happen to me before on this very same system. Playing minecraft which I was more or less addicted to for a number of years. The solution was to stop using onboard sound. That source wasn't isolated enough I guess.

but got rid of it using some nail P
polish from my wife

How did you do that?

not regretting getting a 7600k, delidding it and getting it up to 5.2 Ghz

I'm officially jealous and envious. We will see I'm sure I'll delid mine someday now that I know about it. I've got a nice vice waiting for me in the shed. Fingers crossed I don't break anything.

I also get why you want to get water-cooled
but if you're on a budget getting a new card with a great customer cooler would be better spent then putting you're old card under water

Yeah I was briefly considering getting a block for this card but it's $100 and a card 3x faster is $170 for a good deal with a MIR. So that's what's going to happen. Then maybe get a block for that card someday.

 

[Peter2k]

I'm officially jealous and envious. We will see I'm sure I'll delid mine someday now that I know about it. I've got a nice vice waiting for me in the shed. Fingers crossed I don't break anything.



Yeah I was briefly considering getting a block for this card but it's $100 and a card 3x faster is $170 for a good deal with a MIR. So that's what's going to happen. Then maybe get a block for that card someday.

there are solutions to fit an AiO on a graphics card as well
later

I've loaned a tool to delidd from somebody I found online

was really easy, very safe actually
trying that first would be you're best bet I think

seeing if someone, like here on the forum, would be willing to loan it

 

[Peter2k]

How did you do that?

I removed the cooler on the card
was only 6 screws I think

the actual coils are closed and not open, a small block of something around

but I guess they still transfered noise
I just put some clear top coat from my wife on it
on top and around wherever I could brush them

let it dry a bit, applied Arctic silver(would've loved using liquid metal, but the cooler had an aluminum base; a no go for liquid metal)

back in the day coils where open, and putting in some nailpolish would just stop them from vibrating


I guess the polish just acts as another barrier that doesn't transfer noise well

and it's an open case so I can tell if they whine

 

[sirgallium]

there are solutions to fit an AiO on a graphics card as well

I really want to buy a liquid system on a component by component basis so I can pick each part as the one that best suits my needs. I've found a PWM pump on watercooling review sites that they say can run at about 17dB which is basically silent. Monster thick triple 140 rad for $100 ish, to accommodate my 140mm magnetic air bearing fans. Should be about ambient noise level. And it allows room for expansion, cpu and gpu in one loop eventually.

That's interesting about that coil whine, they are actually vibrating in there eh. Who would have guessed.



That's one of the 3 fans I own of that type. They don't make them anymore and I can't find anymore for a reasonable price, or even for sale at all. My build was going to use 6 of them for the triple 140 rad. All the ones they make now with the frictionless bearing have funny 'batwing' shape blades and have lots of leds and lights all over them which I'm not a huge fan of. More LEDs = more mhz am I rite? I like these ones because they are sleek and simple design. Simple and black, like all the rest of my computer and stereo stuff. That's ok I'll just settle for some adjustable LED ones at some point and I'll put them on the back side of the rad so you don't see them as much, and they can be PWM since these aren't to help with any temp fluctuations if I ever need to do that anyway. But I'm thinking that massive radiator should more than make up for low airflow fans.

I got those 3 off of ebay it was a huge pain in the butt and I paid way more than they were worth. But I love how they look so, idk. I guess something is wrong with my brain. Fast computers and fast cars that look cool. Those are the main priorities of life right?



Tell me that ain't a sexy fan... you should see the abomonations they make now. And they are holding at ransom one of the best bearing designs I've ever seen. There are others that look just as good or better but I haven't personally tested them. Frictionless bearings are very cool though. No moving parts to wear out. Blades touching nothing but air. Almost silent.

Edit:

Found some Noctuas that have the same type of bearing it seems. Hard to say since its still such a relatively new design there is still no wiki about it specifically or anything like that that I can find about hydrodynamic magnetic bearings.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/2...200_RPM_NFP14SR12P.html?tl=g36c365s1507#blank

So yeah I want to pair those with this http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...40mm_Radiator_-_80mm_Thick.html?tl=g30c95s931

and I have a PWM pump bookmarked somewhere. Whole setup should be around 15-20dB max hopefully.

 

[Koween]

Yeah it's at 4.7GHz now and I played for 20 mins and it was stable so, it seems alright. Not a super thorough test but it's promising still I don't know the limit. It's kind of fun. Also delidding is tempting. I don't get why people re-lid after the delid... to replace the paste with better paste but why even use a lid at that point, just put it right on the heatsink.

The RX480 is slightly better on newer games and nvidia would be better for the games I play, but the difference is very small and both are a great value and I'm happy to see AMD coming back and competing for real again so I can't help but want to support them right now. This GTX480 was given to me second hand there is no way I could have afforded it.

I'm currently Chompy in game I have played as BattleGorge before. I've played since NS1 so almost 10 years. I'm pretty good at the game and I love skulking now. It took me so many years of playing these NS games to get good at skulk. It's such a different mindset than having a gun as a marine. Now I naturally climb walls and ceilings and usually attack from above and I circle and bunnyhop around marines second nature as I chomp them. I've held off teams of 5 to 6 marines trying to get into a room but they keep going in single file and I just patiently wait on the ceiling above the doorway and tag them and a few chomps and they're done for. I love the demoralizing effect, the other marines are then afraid to come in and when they do they are all shaky and worried and it makes them easier to kill. With this 144hz screen now Lerk is amazing I never really tried it much before because it's so hard, but I play Tribes Vengeance and that is a super high speed game which was the main reason I got a 144hz screen because it makes a huge difference in how well you can play at high speed. Well Lerk is just as fast to play and so this screen makes it way easier and I'm beginning to play that class now pretty sucessfully.

Another one of my favorite tactics that I was doing last night is a battlegorge tactic and what you do is follow skulk groups and heal spray them as they are attacking marines. This damages the marine as it heals the skulks and also distracts the marines and heals you. I tell you it works pretty damn well sometimes and I cleaned out a few rooms with some skulks doing that last night. It's always hilarious doing that too because if the marine was a good shot it would all be over and that strat would never work. But on these partial newb servers its super fun. Getting those healspray kills is so satisfying, it's like a level above a knife kill in difficulty. Plus the victory squeal that you can give. Haha what an incredible game really. I was thinking yesterday how it is a rare case where the second one in the series not only lived up to the first, but is patently better in some if not many ways. We all miss devour, it's too bad that was taken from us. It was probably the single best feature of NS1. Who wouldn't want to swallow a marine whole and poop him out after slowly digesting him and gaining health as he is forced to watch the inside of your intestines before getting a view of the ceiling as his remains are expelled. It is truly a tragedy that this feature is gone.

I've always naturally been best at Fade. On some of the best rounds I've ever played I've gone maps where I am 25 and 2 or 40 and 6 or something like that. And most of the deaths were from before I faded. I wish I could record stuff like that. I make youtube highlights. But recording that game when my computer can already not run it constantly at 144 is not a great idea.

Here's a highlight vid I made of some of the best shots I've made in TV:



While I'm at it here is a vid from tuesday, playing my favorite game of all time online:

I would suggest a used gtx970 - it's close to a 1060/rx480 but at almost half the price.
If money is not really a problem then a 1060 may be a tad better.