Month: January 2019

UPDATE: Having brushed it off as a perfectly normal issue a fortnight ago, Nvidia has confirmed there is an issue with an early batch of GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition graphics cards.

In a statement on the Nvidia forums, Tim@Nvidia said “Limited test escapes from early boards caused the issues some customers have experience with RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition. We stand ready to help any customers who are experiencing problems.

“Please visit www.nvidia.com/support to chat live with the Nvidia tech support team (or to send us an email” and we’ll take care of it.”

The fault in question is causing visual artefacts, blue screens of death, and even total failure of the hardware. A number have theorised it may be to do with overheating GDDR6 memory, although Nvidia hasn’t officially confirmed this.

It’s also worth mentioning that Nvidia believes this issue is restricted to Founders Edition owners, meaning AIB partner boards aren’t affected. There have been reports of RMA’d AIB RTX 2080 Ti’s though. This may be connected or it could be the usual fault rate that is expected with hardware such as this.

For any of you folks fortunate enough to have an RTX 2080 Ti, have you noticed any significant issues? For everyone else, does this make you worry about splashing out on Nvidia’s top-end GPU? Let us know!

Original Story: 01-Nov-2018 – Widespread Reports of GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Graphics Cards Breaking and Causing BSOD

There are now widespread reports of Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards dying, just weeks after the top-end graphics cards officially launched. Nvidia’s official support forums and Reddit have been flooded by a number of users claiming their RTX 2080 Ti GPUs are artifacting, crashing, causing blue screens of death, and even just completely failing to work.

Some users have said degradation is occurring over a number of days or weeks, and it doesn’t appear as if the issue is tied into overclocking or otherwise stressing the cards outside of its usual means.

Right now over on the Nvidia forums, RTX owners are busy sharing partial serial numbers in order to determine whether there’s any particular link between those affected. It goes without saying but obviously, if you are affected, don’t share your entire serial number online. Based on the discussions though, it would appear the issue isn’t exclusive to the RTX 2080 Ti Founders Editions; some folks AIB versions are also encountering issues. There may even be a link with poor cooling solutions. Cheaper AIB partner cards with budget cooling seem to be the most affected. However, being cheaper, it may just mean more folks are buying up the cheap models and throwing off these results.

Over on Tom’s Hardware Germany, they’ve hypothesized it could be an issue with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti’s GDDR6 memory. They’ve used infrared imaging to take a look at the RTX 2080 Ti and discovered the Micron GDDR6 packages are peaking at over 100C, which is behind the maximum safe temperature of 95C touted by Micron itself. This could definitely be a root cause of the problem, and it would become a bigger issue if a graphics card is powered up for a long time and under a heavy load.

The worry here would be that all Nvidia RTX 20 Series graphics cards currently available all use GDDR6 memory. In theory, the RTX 2080 Ti will be the hottest of the bunch, but if this is a genuine issue, it could also become problematic lower down the chain.

Nvidia provided a very boilerplate response to Tom’s Hardware saying “it’s not broad” and “it’s not an increasing number of users,” but that Nvidia would be “working with each user individually like we do always.”

Resident GD’er Xquatrox originally brought this up a couple of days ago, but it’s difficult to ascertain just how widespread this issue is or whether it’s just the typical RMA numbers you’d expect from any hardware launch. Those having problems will undoubtedly be making the most noise about it. For his part, Xquatrox has a pair of RTX 2080 Ti’s and says he’s “done rendering and gaming on mine and they’ve been running pretty much 24/7 since I got them (5th of October) and no issues besides a random fan rattle.” If anyone else is using an RTX 2080 Ti, or any Geforce RTX card for that matter, do be sure to let us know how it’s holding up in the comments below.

It’s definitely too early to make judgments on this one without concrete numbers. There are likely to be hundreds of thousands, if not millions of these graphics cards out in the wild. If it’s just a few hundred RTX 2080 Ti’s with manufacturing issues then it’s practically a non-issue. However, the worst-case scenario could see Nvidia eating up a heck of a lot of costs in replacing broken graphics cards.

If you’ve got an RTX graphics card, let us know how it’s holding up!

Command and Conquer
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It’s official. After EA producer Jim Vessella said the studio was considering Command and Conquer remasters last month, it’s now been confirmed. Both Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn and Command & Conquer: Red Alert are being remastered, as well as the Covert Ops, Counterstrike and Aftermath expansion packs.

All three expansions are going to be bundled in with the original C&C: Red Alert, plus C&C: Tiberian Dawn, in one big remastered collection “without microtransactions.”

“Now, in addition to the excitement and support of this remaster initiative over the past month, there has also been a healthy skepticism that we can pull this off”, said Vessella in a post on Reddit. “How are we possibly going to remaster these titles while maintaining the authenticity of the original experiences? Bottom line, there is no better way to achieve this than to partner with some of the talented developers who brought these original games to life.”

With that in mind, EA will be partnering with Petroglyph Games for the remasters, a studios formed up of many ex-Westwood Studios developers. They’re the studio behind 8-Bit Armies, Grey Goo and Star Wars: Empire at War, so they’re outfit that’s kept doing what it does best – base-building RTS.

If you’re hoping to play the Command & Conquer remasters soon then, well, you may want to think again. Vessella wrote in his post that “the exciting part is that we haven’t started development yet.” Which, er, I guess is exciting to someone? Anyone? Basically, we’d best be patient, this could take a while yet.

You’ll need thumb and index fingers the size of Hercules’ thigh to pinch enough salt for this one, but it is being claimed that AMD is manufacturing fewer than 5,000 Radeon VII graphics cards. In total. Ever.

This extremely tenuous claim comes by way of Tweaktown, who also claimed a couple of years ago that AMD would have fewer than 16,000 Radeon RX Vega graphics cards available for launch. This actually ended up leading into a delay and AMD denying there was a major shortage, although we’ve got no actual launch shipment figures to confirm whether the rumour was true.

Things are a little bit different for the Vega 2 though, according to this new rumour. Tweaktown has said its ‘industry contacts’ have informed them there’ll be “less than 5000 made.” Jensen, wipe that grin off your face.

The reasoning behind this is that AMD is actually losing money on each graphics card sold and this is just a means to use up the remaining Radeon Instinct MI50 workstation GPU stock. Specs-wise we can see the Radeon VII is a simple repurposing of exactly the same GPU so there’s definitely some sense to this. It did also give something, anything, for AMD to get onstage and shout about after  Nvidia revealed the GeForce RTX 2060.

In addition to this, it’s being reported there will be no custom AIB versions of the Radeon VII. With fewer than 5000 to go around, there just wouldn’t be enough to make it worthwhile getting board partners involved.

If this happens to be true, the Radeon VII would be nothing but a parp in the wind. A token gesture that AMD is still competing at the top-end and a way to grab a few headlines but nothing. That’s a big ‘if’ though.

And despite all this, and despite its power-guzzling ways, the Radeon VII does look like a decently capable video card. It’ll be the fastest gaming graphics card AMD has ever produced. The Radeon VII doubles the memory of the Vega 64, more than doubles the total memory bandwidth up to almost 1TB/s, and improves average gaming performance by 29%.

AMD is due to launch the Radeon VII on February 7th, priced at $699. Time will most definitely tell whether this a load of baloney or a worrying truth.

Times change and Adobe Photoshop isn’t the demanding software it once was. Just about all new graphics cards will work with Photoshop without a hitch, and it’s even possible to run Adobe Photoshop without a display adaptor. However, there are a number of GPU-exclusive features in the Adobe Photoshop software. 

Photoshop requires a graphics card for 3D, Oil Paint; Render – Flame, Picture Frame, Tree; Scrubby Zoom; Birds Eye Views; Flick Panning and Smooth Brush Resizing.

Features that can be made to run faster in Photoshop using a GPU for acceleration are Artboards, Camera Raw, Image Size – Preserve Details, Select Focus, Blur Gallery, Smart Sharpen, Perspective Warp and Select & Mask.

Outside if these GPU-accelerated features, a graphics card isn’t required for Photoshop at all. Processor speed, CPU cores, RAM and storage speeds will instead all help to run Photoshop faster. Your top priorities should be a decent 6+ Core CPU, at least 8GB memory and M.2 SSD storage for the fastest possible Photoshop performance.

The minimum spec graphics cards for Photoshop are the Nvidia GeForce 400 series and up, and the AMD Radeon 5000 series graphics and up.

As for which graphics card is better for Photoshop, in order to achieve the fastest performance in Photoshop, you will need a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or Radeon RX 480 8GB or upwards. The higher resolution your display, the more video memory you will require.

The list below is Adobe’s officially tested GPUs that are compatible with Photoshop. This list is by no means complete, however, lacking a lot of modern Nvidia and AMD graphics cards that will run Adobe Photoshop without issue.

Official Adobe-supported Photoshop Graphics Cards

nVidia GeForce: 400, 500, 600, 700 series  nVidia GeForce GTX 965M & 980M nVidia Quadro: 2000, 4000 (Windows® and Mac OS), CX, 5000, 6000, K600, K2000, K4000, K5000 (Windows® and Mac OS), M4000, M5000, P2000, P4000, P5000 nVidia GRID K1, K2 AMD/ATI Radeon: 5000, 6000, 7000, R7, R9 series, 7950 Mac OS AMD/ATI FirePro: 3800, 4800, 5800, 7800, 8800, 9800, 3900, 4900, 5900, 7900, W8100, W9100, D300, D500, D700 AMD/ATI FireGL: W5000, W7000, W8000 AMD RX 480 nVidia GeForce 1080 GTX Intel® HD Graphics: P530, P630, 5000 Intel® Iris Pro Graphics: P5200, P6300, P580

Adobe Photoshop Unsupported Graphics Card Series

AMD/ATI 100, 200, 3000, and 4000 series nVidia GeForce 7000, 8000, 9000, 100, 200, 300 series Older Intel HD Graphics (for example 2000, 3000, 4000 series) cards

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“As a daily Photoshop user of many years now, I’d also suggest prioritizing clock speed and IPC performance over core count for best performance in PS. For example, Photoshop was shown time and again to top out the CPU usefulness at around 6-8 cores for the few filters that are actually…”

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Onimusha: Warlords Remaster
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The Onimusha Warlords Remaster is due to arrive in January 2019, providing a much-needed graphical touch-up for one of Capcom’s most beloved cult classics. Neatly summed up as samurai Resident Evil, Onimusha: Warlords is a slow-paced adventure game with puzzle-solving and blood splatter demon combat. But, just how much more demanding will the Onimusha Warlords Remaster system specs be than the original? Let’s find out…

Onimusha Warlords Remaster Minimum System Requirements

OS: Windows 7 64-bit CPU: Intel Core i3-530 2.9 GHz or AMD Athlon X4 730 2.8 GHz RAM: 4 GB System Memory GPU RAM: 2 GB Video Memory GPU: GeForce GTX 760 or Radeon R7 260X DX: DirectX 10 HDD: 12GB Available Hard Drive Space

Onimusha Warlords Remaster Recommended System Requirements

OS: Windows 10 64-bit CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 3.4 GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 1400 3.5 GHz RAM: 8 GB System Memory GPU RAM: 2 GB Video Memory GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon R9 280 DX: DirectX 11 HDD: 16GB Available Hard Drive Space

Onimusha Warlords is an old game. The remaster doesn’t look like much of an upgrade outside of a resolution bump. So we’re a little surprised by just how demanding the system requirements for Onimusha Warlords Remastered are. They’re not a patch on modern AAA games, sure, but a GeForce GTX 760 as the minimum spec graphics card for an up-rezzed 17-year-old game does set a few alarm bells ringing. There’s also a large performance disparity between the 760 and the weaker AMD Radeon R7 260X. Nevertheless, most PC gamers should still have few troubles meeting the minimum specs for the Onimusha Warlords Remaster.

For those wanting to max Onimusha’s graphics settings out, you’ll need a moderately more powerful GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon R9 280, paired with a solid quad-core processor such as the Intel Core i7-3770 or the Ryzen 5 1400. The recommended spec CPUs for Onimusha Warlords HD, in particular, look well above what you’ll actually need in practice, so we wouldn’t pay too much attention to that.

As ever, remember you can always check out how well your PC can run Onimusha Warlords Remaster System Requirements here, where you can check benchmarking and performance from other users. Compare your graphics card to Onimusha Warlords Remastered GPU benchmark chart and we also have an Onimusha Warlords Remastered Frames Per Second system performance chart for you to check.

It’s been a long time coming but the PCIe 4.0 standard is almost upon us. PCI Express 4.0 will officially be supported by AMD’s upcoming Ryzen third-gen Matisse CPUs but in the meantime, Phison, a Taiwanese manufacturer of NAND flash controllers, has been showing off its E16 NVMe SSD controller during demo sessions at CES 2019.

The new PCIe 4.0 standard represents the first jump forward in the motherboard expansion slot for the best part of nine years. PCIe 4.0 has many benefits but the chief advantage is it doubles the bandwidth of the PCIe lanes and therefore improves data transfer rates. The PCIe 4.0 specification delivers 16GT/s data rates in comparison to 8GT/s on PCIe 3.0.

Enough of the theoreticals though because the reality is that PCIe 4.0 is capable of beastly performance. Phison’s SSD benchmark used CrystalBenchmarkTest to test the read and write performance of an SSD interfacing through PCIe 4.0. In the benchmark, Phison achieves 4GB/s of sequel read and a pretty mind-blowing 4.2 GB/s of sequential write performance.

While it’s slightly tangential, Xquatrox’s piece on SSD slowdown issues does delve into what sort of read and write speeds you can expect from an SSD using PCIe 3 and there is a stark change with the jump to PCI 4.0. In those particular benchmarks, we see it max out at 3GB/s read and 1.8GB/s write speed, compared to 4 GB/s read and 4.2 GB/s write speed with PCIe 4.0.

Phison anticipates that once officially supported SSDs come to market with the E16 NVMe SSD controller we can expect to see even faster speeds of 4.8 GB/s read and 4.4 GB/s write performance.

For the end user, the benefits of this speed increase are two-fold. Firstly, we’re going to be able to move big files around faster than we ever have before. 4.4 GB/s sequential write speed is lighting fast, particularly when stacked up against the 80-150 MB/s write speed of modern 7200 RPM hard drives. In addition to this, we have the improved responsiveness. The E16 controller is capable of 900,000 IOPS and should deliver very speedy operating systems and software.

There are no motherboards that actually support PCIe 4.0 just yet but we’re expecting to see the first of them begin to roll out in the next few months, in all likelihood alongside AMD’s Matisse processors.

The full transcript has emerged from the CEsS 2019 Q&A session in which Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called out the Radeon VII as “lousy”. It turns out there were plenty of other takeaways from the session as well, including Huang’s affirmation that while cloud gaming will be huge, PC gaming on local hardware is here to stay.

Nvidia has pumped a lot into game streaming already and is, at this point, one of the most successful proponents of it thanks to GeForce Now. Huang touts “hundreds of thousands” of concurrent users even at this early stage, primarily down to PC users trying to take their games anywhere.

“Our core starts with PC,” said Huang. That’s our center point. That’s why GeForce Now plays PC games. That’s why GeForce Now allows you to take the PC games you’ve purchased and play them anywhere. That’s why GeForce Now runs every game that’s available. No porting is necessary.

“Our strategy is very different [from competitors like Google and Microsoft]. There are other strategies around streaming games, like Netflix or something like that. I think that’s terrific. The more expansive the gaming market is, the better.

But, and there’s always a but, “It will never replace the PC.”

As for why streaming will never replace local hardware, it simply comes down to the speed of the service and the demand for as near-perfect an experience as possible from gamers. There is not going to be a solution to delayed response times. They can be improved but they can never be perfected, meaning competitive gamers will always have an advantage playing on their actual PC hardware.

“If your question is, “How long before streaming can be as good as a PC?” the answer is never,” said Jensen. “The reason for that is because there’s one problem we haven’t figured out how to solve, and that’s the speed of light. When you’re playing esports, you need the response in a few milliseconds, not a few hundred milliseconds. It’s a fundamental problem. It’s just the laws of physics.”

There’s always pesky science getting in the way isn’t there. The only thing between us and instant response game streaming is faster-than-light travel. It does mean that your PC gaming future is safe though. Those after the ultimate in reaction times are always going to benefit from playing on the actual hardware rather than relying on our ISP overlords to defy science. Options are great though, and it seems we’ll have plenty of choice in the future both in terms of how and where we play our games.