ThymineC wrote:

Charley_Deallus wrote:

Cornflakes_91 wrote:You should also watch out for the PCI connector version the card needs, the 750Ti's i found need pci-e 3.0 and your mainboard does not even list 2.0

Good catch. Glad I was willing to wait a while to make sure no one else on the forum popped up something that would screw me over I have only 2.0, so where does that leave me?

In your position I would just get a completely new computer, except for the RAM which is pretty decent.

Yeah...I would too except I got this computer only about 2 years ago, it runs just fine except I haven't really focused on playing newer games (until very recently). And I don't have the money for it at the moment. I am more concerned with moving into my own place

Charley_Deallus wrote:

Cornflakes_91 wrote:You should also watch out for the PCI connector version the card needs, the 750Ti's i found need pci-e 3.0 and your mainboard does not even list 2.0

Good catch. Glad I was willing to wait a while to make sure no one else on the forum popped up something that would screw me over I have only 2.0, so where does that leave me?

Don't worry about it.

The standard is backwards compatible. If you run a 3.0 card on a 2.0 slot you just won't get all the performance out of it. You won't notice that performance difference because your CPU bottlenecks it before the slot-type does.

As a note of interest, saw a tech article one time where the guys took an exacto knife to one of those tiny PCI express x1 slots to cut the end of the plastic off and shoved a full-size graphics card in. Card worked fine, just extremely bottlenecked by the small slot's bandwidth. This is also something a lot of people do in order to maximize the amount of video cards they can run if they're mining altcoins.

Thus, it's also safe to say that putting a better card in the worse slot does no harm. It also means that if you eventually upgrade your computer, you can be ahead of the game at least on that front.

Edit: Here's a link to a similar question - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/35055 ... phics-card

DWMagus wrote:

Charley_Deallus wrote:

Cornflakes_91 wrote:You should also watch out for the PCI connector version the card needs, the 750Ti's i found need pci-e 3.0 and your mainboard does not even list 2.0

Good catch. Glad I was willing to wait a while to make sure no one else on the forum popped up something that would screw me over I have only 2.0, so where does that leave me?

Don't worry about it.

The standard is backwards compatible. If you run a 3.0 card on a 2.0 slot you just won't get all the performance out of it. You won't notice that performance difference because your CPU bottlenecks it before the slot-type does.

As a note of interest, saw a tech article one time where the guys took an exacto knife to one of those tiny PCI express x1 slots to cut the end of the plastic off and shoved a full-size graphics card in. Card worked fine, just extremely bottlenecked by the small slot's bandwidth. This is also something a lot of people do in order to maximize the amount of video cards they can run if they're mining altcoins.

Thus, it's also safe to say that putting a better card in the worse slot does no harm. It also means that if you eventually upgrade your computer, you can be ahead of the game at least on that front.

Edit: Here's a link to a similar question - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/35055 ... phics-card

from what i read from the standards definition paper it should not be backwards compatible, at least there is a chance of damage.
because PCI-E 3.0 is only specified for 3.3V but 2.0 for 5.0V
there are universal cards which have mechanical features to fit in both types of slots, and the GTX750's i saw only have the 3.3V kerbs.
it may be possible, but no engineer who has not designed the voltage regulators on the card by himself can say you if its safe to mount it.
if the 5.0V are too high your card is instantly electonic garbage, and if you're lucky, your mainboard too

i strongly recommend not to mount PCI 3.0 only cards in PCI 2.0 mounts

DWMagus wrote:This opens up another question.

Since Josh is using the shaders as the way to generate stuff, will AMD actually end up being stronger? For example, when people mine bitcoins, AMDs do far better than nVidias due to AMD usually having more shaders to brute-force (even though nVidia makes up with numbers with sheer power and efficiency).

Hmmm. Interesting. Possibly balanced by the better nVidia drivers?

Josh may just force me to get a better computer...or learn enough to build my own. I'm sure my current computer can run LT...but I don't just want to 'run' LT. I want to be able to play so that it looks as good as the dev videos. So that I can say "This looks fucking AWESOME" and runs smoothly as well. :-\

The PCI-SIG claims in their FAQ that PCI Express 3.0 is backwards compatible:
http://www.pcisig.com/news_room/faqs/pcie3.0_faq/#EQ6
I have, however, not read the spec in detail.

Rabiator wrote:The PCI-SIG claims in their FAQ that PCI Express 3.0 is backwards compatible:
http://www.pcisig.com/news_room/faqs/pcie3.0_faq/#EQ6
I have, however, not read the spec in detail.

from what i understood its backwards compatible to 2.2 (2.3?), because it also has 3.3V leveling, but not to 2.0 or earlier because of that 5.0V

Cornflakes_91 wrote:

Rabiator wrote:The PCI-SIG claims in their FAQ that PCI Express 3.0 is backwards compatible:
http://www.pcisig.com/news_room/faqs/pcie3.0_faq/#EQ6
I have, however, not read the spec in detail.

from what i understood its backwards compatible to 2.2 (2.3?), because it also has 3.3V leveling, but not to 2.0 or earlier because of that 5.0V

You're thinking of PCI not PCI express. Conventional PCI had both 3.3v and 5v. PCI Express uses 12v and 3.3v simultaneously according to PCI-SIG's standard (yes, PCI-SIG was the creators of the standard).

The other reason why you can plug a full length x16 card into a x1 slot is because the power pins are within the first 10 pins and all the rest are data. This is also why PCI express power connectors are 12v (the 3.3v is usually for standby power).

The only reference for a google of pci express with both terms 3.3v and 5v reference either to legacy PCI information or to mini PCIe.

Okay, I still have lots of time to prepare before LT releases, so I plan on saving up money I normally allocate towards alcohol and putting it into the "Computer Upgrade" account. I am going to just buy a new computer, but when the time comes, I would like everyone's opinions on a good computer that does NOT cost me like 198375193 dollars.

Charley_Deallus wrote:Okay, I still have lots of time to prepare before LT releases, so I plan on saving up money I normally allocate towards alcohol and putting it into the "Computer Upgrade" account. I am going to just buy a new computer, but when the time comes, I would like everyone's opinions on a good computer that does NOT cost me like 198375193 dollars.

Then don't buy one, DIY! It's not difficult and very satisfying.

HowSerendipitous wrote:

Charley_Deallus wrote:Okay, I still have lots of time to prepare before LT releases, so I plan on saving up money I normally allocate towards alcohol and putting it into the "Computer Upgrade" account. I am going to just buy a new computer, but when the time comes, I would like everyone's opinions on a good computer that does NOT cost me like 198375193 dollars.

Then don't buy one, DIY! It's not difficult and very satisfying.

Well, we could still give him advice on different parts he could buy

I've had enough of building these things myself. To be honest these days the cost benefit just isn't really there. In the UK, an online retailer like scan.co.uk will build you a really nice machine and offer a multi-year warranty for virtually the same price as the components themselves. Let them worry about making it all work!

mcsven wrote:I've had enough of building these things myself. To be honest these days the cost benefit just isn't really there. In the UK, an online retailer like scan.co.uk will build you a really nice machine and offer a multi-year warranty for virtually the same price as the components themselves. Let them worry about making it all work!

That sounds nicer. I was thinking 'Maybe I could build my own' but didn't know if that involved soldering parts together or if it just involved plugging in everything to each other and putting them in. I only knew a handful of people who built their own computer and one (and his was like 3TBs space, 4-5GB RAM, 4 monitors, etc (I honestly cant remember)) was crazy good. I guess him having 2-3 degrees and being a super nerd helped.

Charley_Deallus wrote:

mcsven wrote:I've had enough of building these things myself. To be honest these days the cost benefit just isn't really there. In the UK, an online retailer like scan.co.uk will build you a really nice machine and offer a multi-year warranty for virtually the same price as the components themselves. Let them worry about making it all work!

That sounds nicer. I was thinking 'Maybe I could build my own' but didn't know if that involved soldering parts together or if it just involved plugging in everything to each other and putting them in. I only knew a handful of people who built their own computer and one (and his was like 3TBs space, 4-5GB RAM, 4 monitors, etc (I honestly cant remember)) was crazy good. I guess him having 2-3 degrees and being a super nerd helped.

you dont need degrees to plug a computer together, im currently only on the way to my first degree
and manual soldering is something you do only in the first prototype stage, after then it gets automated

Dumb that down please.