GPUs & CPUs & Enthusiast hardware: Questions, Discussion and fanboy slap-fights - Nvidia & AMD & Intel - Separe but Equal. Intel rides in the back of the bus.

[Slav Power]

I'm skeptical myself.

Here's something to keep in mind: everyone loves to overblow how bad and evil Windows 11 is because that's what generates clicks, but as a side effect it spreads misinformation like wildfire. Even Chris Titus, who is the one that writes WinUtil for debloating Windows 11, someone who knows how Windows works, overblows how bad it actually is on his videos just because Windows drama = clicks.

Let's quickly demystify Windows 11's issues. There are three main controversies with it.
1. The UI changes
2. CoPilot/Recall
3. Codebase issues

1. Those happened with every major Windows release and everyone complained about them. Windows 11 is especially egregious in that they've rewritten it in React, which basically means a lot of the UI is now a web app, the taskbar doesn't have the same functionality as all the previous ones, the new start menu sucks and the new context menu sucks. All of this can be easily rectified, and let's not act like people weren't rectifying Windows 10's UI with third party software. Even then people used Open-Shell since 10's menu still wasn't perfect. As for the context menu, there's a registry tweak that Microsoft themselves recommend to skip it and go straight to the old one, and the taskbar is something you'll either get used to because you use it at the bottom anyways or you'll install something like RetroBar and be done with it. Of course, they've also replaced a lot of other UI elements, and went ahead and started replacing legacy UI's like the printer queue or the printers & devices menus with the shittier, newer counterparts. Some of those old menus are still there but are a little harder to access so that's your first major issue: annoyances. The world has ended, Windows is annoying to use. Was never said when Vista, 8 or 10 were released. Grab your pitchforks and go to Redmond.

2. Think rationally for a second. Go back to 2015. Remember what people were saying about Windows 10? That it's evil spyware that tracks all of your moves and what you're doing and sends it back to Microsoft/NSA/whatever? Why didn't people ditch 10 en masse and by the end of 7's lifespan everyone was happily on 10? Because this shit is always overblown to high heavens by the media. Recall isn't even something the Windows division was keen on introducing I don't think, given how lazy the initial implementation was. Feels like the AI division of Microsoft keeps pushing the Windows division to add shit they don't want to add just so that investors are happy. Like the recent agentic AI features in the Dev channel that screa at you that these are a security liability. Classic internal Microsoft conflicts.

Now, back to the severity of these "features": they can be removed. Hell, Microsoft, after the initial backlash, made it so that it's an optional system component that can be removed. At some point Chris Titus found that if you remove it from the ISO it would break Explorer, insinuating that it was embedded way deeper so you could never remove it. But to me that was just the ol' Chris ragebait. IIRC Microsoft acknowledged this was a bug and Chris has not said a thing about that ever since. If it was confirmed that it was on purpose, you know he's stir some drama. But if it was resolved then he'd stay silent about it since doing a correction on Microsoft not being as evil as everyone claims clicks even worse than videos outright praising Microsoft, since those will at least get the hate clicks. Be skeptical of the noise surrounding Microsoft and Windows, people are especially yappy about that in the current times. Windows 11 doesn't spy on you more than 10 did.

3. This is the most severe issue that you'd have to worry with 11. An issue that's so bad that even Microsoft has admitted to it. There has been a lot of codebase rot going on with 11 leading to unexplained and sometimes severe instabilities, like the infamous SSD controller shutdown bug. According to Microsoft, these issues are also present in 24H2, on which the latest LTSC versions of 11 are based, so it's something to keep in mind. It's possible you won't experience any serious issues as with WinUtil you'll set a 7-day delay between every patch update to avoid any day one bugs and Microsoft may or may not put more scrutiny to pushing updates to the LTSC branch as that's the branch meant for companies that demand stability. But consider this: if people online aren't constantly raging about serious system breaking issues with 11, but about all the benign, negligible bullshit Microsoft did with 10 as well, or even worse, bitching about what other people say and not their actual experiences with the OS, then it's not as bad as it may seem.

using cloud services that they invested so much into but nobody actually wants

Quite the contrary. Their cloud services is their most profitable company branch. Second is Office, third is Windows, but Azure is worth more than Office and Windows combined. Again, keep a calm head about this because people who don't know anything about Microsoft or technology love to spew shit based on what they've pulled out of their asses, and at some point people start treating it as truth without checking the facts themselves and coming up with their own conclusions.

 

[Fcret]

Apple is for rich homosexuals that don't want to build a proper rig.

Or for people who want a laptop that can actually be used away from an outlet.

 

[WelperHelper99]

Or for people who want a laptop that can actually be used away from an outlet.

That is for the weak. You need to take the 200w power brick pill lmao.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Quite the contrary. Their cloud services is their most profitable company branch.

Profitable doesn't mean good.

eg. A friend of mine who has gamepass only uses the cloud gaming feature to try a game before downloading it. Gamepass is getting enshitified at an decent rate. While the input delays from cloud gaming make it bad for any kind of action game.

Go back to 2015. Remember what people were saying about Windows 10?

No.

People liked 10. The main issue people had was the constant updates, and how they break things.

I remember people shitting on 8 because they made the UI a tablet UI, even on desktop. And they were right. I also remember people stuck with 7 because 8 tried to force programs to use their store exclusively. They were right too. It's why Valve went all in on SteamOS, and MS eventually caved because it was so unpopular.

 

[Post Reply]

Think rationally for a second. Go back to 2015. Remember what people were saying about Windows 10? That it's evil spyware that tracks all of your moves and what you're doing and sends it back to Microsoft/NSA/whatever? Why didn't people ditch 10 en masse and by the end of 7's lifespan everyone was happily on 10? Because this shit is always overblown to high heavens by the media.

Consumers didn't ditch Windows 10 over Microsoft's data harvesting because it continued to come prepackaged with their PCs, and because consumers are cattle and don't care if companies hoover up their data and commoditize their identities.

 

[The Ugly One]

Been half tempted to get a mini PC. Something like a small GMKTech chinese thingy to use it as an emulation box and maybe play old steam games in the living room. It would also serve as a backup PC in case something goes wrong, but that could just be paranoid.

My mom likes hers. It's a 4-core N150.

I'm still running a 6600.

This is basically the PS5 GPU. Slightly a step down. So yeah, it'll be good at 1080p gaming for some years yet. Sony probably won't retire the PS5 until 2029.

Why didn't people ditch 10 en masse and by the end of 7's lifespan everyone was happily on 10?

Nobody really cares about the stuff that doesn't affect the user experience.

 

[Slav Power]

Profitable doesn't mean good.

Profitable is what drives the decision making in a company. If Azure is profitable then there is no reason to try and get people to use Windows in Azure. Windows itself is also profitable still, so there's no point in pushing everyone to Azure. If anything, Windows' parasite are all the CoPilot+ laptops, so any modern laptop with an NPU to run AI locally. Again, apply some Occam's razor for once. If Microsoft wanted to force everyone to use Windows in the cloud, they wouldn't be working on AI features that run locally so that you'll buy a CoPilot+ laptop to run Windows directly on it.

I know people love to get emotional whenever I dare to point out how Microsoft isn't some supervillain and they just do a lot of dumb shit that can be explained and then call me a corporate bootlicker whenever that happens but for fuck's sakes, nothing about what Microsoft is doing with Windows suggests they want you to be using a cloud OS. Otherwise they wouldn't bet on local AI capable laptops with all the branding.

Meanwhile the Xbox division has been constantly shooting itself in the foot so hard that it makes the Windows division look competent. Xbox consoles don't sell, so they're trying to make Game Pass the core business of Xbox with the whole "everything is an Xbox" marketing campaign.

Consumers didn't ditch Windows 10 over Microsoft's data harvesting because it continued to come prepackaged with their PCs, and because consumers are cattle and don't care if companies hoover up their data and commoditize their identities.

Yet plenty of people who have revolted have loudly declared that they'd ditch 10 in the name of something else, usually Linux as that always seems like the path of least resistance when it's free and doesn't require a hardware purchase, only to then forget about the outrage that was going on and keep using Windows. Not to mention that this practically happened every time Microsoft released a bad version. Happened with Vista, happened with 8. People love to complain but never commit to ditching Microsoft.

And yes, I am a bootlicker just because I go against the zeitgeist of "don't use your brain whenever talking about Microsoft and enact ape rage". What else is new. I myself was reluctant to move to 10 because of all the bullshit that everyone was spewing back then so I'm speaking from experience. It's also another reason why I'm so fucking fed up with everybody spewing the same shit about Windows 11 over and over again, because it's mostly regurgitated shit people were saying about 10 back in 2015 and just like back then, people bitch and complain, refuse to commit to a change and keep using the next version, the cycle continues.

 

[DavidS877]

That is for the weak. You need to take the 200w power brick pill lmao.

I use my laptop because it's portable. The battery lasts long enough to get from the desk to a conference room when I'm on-site at a customer. I need speed, storage and RAM far more than I need battery life. It's miserable to even try and use a laptop on a plane and that's about the only time I'd be away from an outlet long enough to matter. So that's what the iPad is for.

 

[WelperHelper99]

I use my laptop because it's portable. The battery lasts long enough to get from the desk to a conference room when I'm on-site at a customer. I need speed, storage and RAM far more than I need battery life. It's miserable to even try and use a laptop on a plane and that's about the only time I'd be away from an outlet long enough to matter. So that's what the iPad is for.

Yeah it feels in the laptop argument people forget the tablet exists and can do most of the shit you'd want to outdoors away from an outlet

 

[Dan of Steel]

Spending $300 for RAM still feels wrong dewd. but it is what it is I guess. I got 32GB DDR5 @6400Mhz, so I'm planning on not upgrading from that for quite a long time.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

Been half tempted to get a mini PC. Something like a small GMKTech chinese thingy to use it as an emulation box and maybe play old steam games in the living room. It would also serve as a backup PC in case something goes wrong, but that could just be paranoid.

I don't know what's good right now, but I see GMKTec 7640HS under $400 lately, which would have better graphics than the really cheap options: https://slickdeals.net/search?q=GMKTec

The N100/N150 PCs or $50-150 old PCs (like Skylake/Kaby Lake old) might be fine for you, depending on your definition of emulation/old games.

These are kind of cool but you have to supply all the other parts, including DDR4, which is less optimal for Alder Lake-N:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/305093486162

https://www.newegg.com/asrock-n100m-micro-atx-motherboards-intel-intel-quad-core-processor-n100-supports-intel-turbo-boost-technology/p/N82E16813162134

N97/N100/N150 mini PCs were mostly near $175 where I looked, or shipping with DDR4. Old PC pricing didn't look great either. I looked at the OptiPlex MFF ebay listings specifically and wasn't impressed. Nothing looks good, maybe I'll tag you with a deal if I see something on SD.

You know what? This right here is looking better than ever:

Alright, so back on the subject of stupid cheap hardware for dumb little project boxes to run software on your home network - apparently there's an even cheaper option than Thin Clients for the amount of RAM and CPU you get, and that's digital signage boxes. For some reason the corpos that make these things have a habit of putting full fat laptop CPUs in the stupid damned things for a while, and nowadays under $100 can get you a Seneca box with an 11th-gen mobile i3 if you keep your eyes open. Don't get me wrong, they don't seem to come with full-sized PCI-e slots like a lot of your higher-end thin clients (e.g. the HP T740) do, but that's a good bit more CPU than even the best thin clients...

$65 for an i3-1115G4 signage box with a power cord. 8 GB RAM in dual-channel, 256 GB SSD, based on the photos provided. CPU/GPU should be better than N100/N150, but possibly worse if it's heavily throttled from a passive cooling solution.

 

[Post Reply]

I don't know what's good right now, but I see GMKTec 7640HS under $400 lately, which would have better graphics than the really cheap options:

I grabbed a refurb Minisforum UM870 Slim off Amazon for $350 a few weeks ago. Ryzen 7 8745H with 780m graphics, 32gb DDR5, 1tb SSD. Dunno if that deal is still around.

 

[残念。]

1. Those happened with every major Windows release and everyone complained about them. Windows 11 is especially egregious in that they've rewritten it in React, which basically means a lot of the UI is now a web app, the taskbar doesn't have the same functionality as all the previous ones, the new start menu sucks and the new context menu sucks. All of this can be easily rectified, and let's not act like people weren't rectifying Windows 10's UI with third party software. Even then people used Open-Shell since 10's menu still wasn't perfect. As for the context menu, there's a registry tweak that Microsoft themselves recommend to skip it and go straight to the old one, and the taskbar is something you'll either get used to because you use it at the bottom anyways or you'll install something like RetroBar and be done with it. Of course, they've also replaced a lot of other UI elements, and went ahead and started replacing legacy UI's like the printer queue or the printers & devices menus with the shittier, newer counterparts. Some of those old menus are still there but are a little harder to access so that's your first major issue: annoyances. The world has ended, Windows is annoying to use. Was never said when Vista, 8 or 10 were released. Grab your pitchforks and go to Redmond

Oh man, look at all this shit I shouldn't have to do.

 

[Nihil Jung]

I think my GPU just failed? I got a Huion 24 Kamvas Pro last week, reconfiged my studio space to have my Asus Predator tower have it's hdmi out go to my tv, and its display out go to my Huion. It took a while to configure the extended screen/screen 1/screen 2, but I got it to be in a nice spot.

Anyways, it was acting a bit weird tonight, so i restarted my PC. Now, neither are receiving signal, together or individually, after full restarts. Tried the windows control with display keys, etc. The next chat.gpt diagnoses suggest plugging directly into the motherboard or some shit which I dont feel comfortable doing, so I plan on having some on-site service come.

How fucking much is this gonna cost me and is there anything i am missing? Last time I had a PC issue the local fucktards ruined my brand new PC frankensteining it and my old one and partitioning hard drives rather than just recover files onto a new storage device so I am super hesitant to take my PC with all my art to some shop.

I am gonna take my wife's monitor downstairs first thing tomorrow morning and try directly into that, but my god, this is a disaster. All I wanted to do was have my photoshop on my huion and my YouTube slop on my tv, controlled from one station. FML.

 

[Fcret]

Anyways, it was acting a bit weird tonight, so i restarted my PC. Now, neither are receiving signal, together or individually, after full restarts. Tried the windows control with display keys, etc. The next chat.gpt diagnoses suggest plugging directly into the motherboard or some shit which I dont feel comfortable doing, so I plan on having some on-site service come.

Plugging directly into the mobo is just hooking into the integrated graphics on your CPU (assuming your CPU has an iGPU). It's a good way to test if it's a problem specifically with your graphics card. You can't damage anything by doing it.

Anyway, what do you mean by acting a bit weird? What kind of behavior were you seeing?

 

[seri0us]

Yet plenty of people who have revolted have loudly declared that they'd ditch 10 in the name of something else, usually Linux

I did. I was once such a Microsoft normie I not only had an Xbox but also a fucking Zune.

 

[Slav Power]

Oh man, look at all this shit I shouldn't have to do.

Yet everyone's been doing so for decades. It's no different from having to install a separate DE on Ubuntu because GNOME is shit, but it's okay when Linux does it!

but also a fucking Zune.

To be fair, Zune was a decent MP3 player. The issue is that they've released it right when the fucking iPhone became a thing, and not a few years earlier when MP3 players were still more of a relevant market.

My point still stands. Most people who kvetched about 10 never left Windows despite how much they declared they would, and the same will happen with 11. I remember what people were saying, even if they themselves have the memory span of a goldfish so they gleefully forget how hypocritical they are, which just makes the current Win11 fear mongering so fucking tiresome to hear. There will always be a literal handful of those that will make the switch, a loud group that'll declare they will make it but never will, a tiny minority that'll stick around just because they need to stay on WinNT and know how to unfuck 10/11, and a vast majority of normies that will just be annoyed but ultimately won't care.

 

[Overly Serious]

Or for people who want a laptop that can actually be used away from an outlet.

Oh please. Apple has the advantage in battery life, sure. But mid-range Windows laptops are now hitting ten plus hours of actual use. I haven't been ten hours away from charging in the past five years, barring camping. Every train or plane has charging by my seat even in the event that I'd wanted to spend ten hours on my laptop whilst travelling. Hell, my monitor charges my laptop without even a dock just via the same DP cable it uses for the picture. Someone wants to try and make the case that 19 hours of usage is a critical difference to them over 11 hours of usage via some contrived scenario they're welcome to try. Someone wants to compare a Macbook to some bargain basement laptop much cheaper, they can (it just wont mean much). But suggesting that you can't travel and work easily with a Windows laptop or that you're tied to a power outlet, who is writing this in this day and age? Has Steve Jobs risen from the grave?

 

[Nihil Jung]

Plugging directly into the mobo is just hooking into the integrated graphics on your CPU (assuming your CPU has an iGPU). It's a good way to test if it's a problem specifically with your graphics card. You can't damage anything by doing it.

Anyway, what do you mean by acting a bit weird? What kind of behavior were you seeing?

By acting weird I mean it was acting as if i was holding the shift key at all times.

With different monitor I was able to get to Bios and do a reset on the graphics setting, but then it immediately did the "no signal" thing on restart.

My desktop is power-cycling on its own with no display and USB devices losing power earlier, chat.gpt thinks it's a PSU or motherboard failure and that I need PSU voltage testing and motherboard/GPU POST diagnostics.

 

[残念。]

Yet everyone's been doing so for decades. It's no different from having to install a separate DE on Ubuntu because GNOME is shit, but it's okay when Linux does it!

Oh yeah, well what about all the starving kids in africa? I didn't even bring up linux. I just want windows to not search the internet when I'm trying to open "documents" from the start menu and the right click to not be shit without installing addons and editing the registry, but oh no, my favorite punching bag sucks worse so my preferred OS being ass is ok.

The only time I've ever seen normies use an addon was for the start menu on windows 8, but I never switched to 8, because windows 7 was still supported until microsoft got the message and released 8.1. Can't really stick with 10 until they unfuck it this time unless I wanna dish out more money or let them touch my butthole or whatever they want with the settings sync shit.