General PC help/advice (1 Viewer)

[Laiders]

The free upgrade from Windows 7 & 8 to 10 seems like it will close for good on Thursday.

What's the verdict on Windows 10 for sim-racing/gaming on a GTX 970 and DK2 for the next 2 years or so? I'm sure my CPU/RAM slots will be obsolete and unable to cope with CV1 and beyond technology.

Is Windows 7 going to become obsolete for gaming anytime soon or will it keep going? I prefer the Windows 7 interface if the performance/lifespan will be the same as 10, but can put up with 10 if there's any performance/future benefit to upgrading.

I recently upgraded my (cheap & old) Windows 8 laptop (that gets very occasional use for word processing...) to 10 and the interface is much better than the awful Windows 8 and the upgrade seemed painless with nothing lost or changed, including all the annoying hardware/driver bugs or general slowness of my laptop but I've not found anything it does worse than Windows 8 yet!


On a side note have the prices of all computer related gone through the roof over the last few years?

I was about to throw my laptop in the bin and go to Tescos/Argos/PC World to buy another one in a late night strop at trying to do basic printing tasks (mainly due to the erratic track pad/fumbling about trying to find a mouse to use instead etc.) the other day. Then I realised that I'd have to pay at least £100 more than I paid 6 years ago to get something equivalent (£250, HP 15.6", i3/4GB RAM/500GB HDD).

And laptops that can actually properly cope with the demands of current everyday/office use (current gen i3 or i5 & 8GB RAM) seem to start at £600. I had assumed this kind of machine would be in the sub £300 market now I guess the market is shrinking for conventional laptops and the market has segmented into super-cheap and premium...

Also graphics cards seem to have gone sky high!

 

[Gopher04]

Is Windows 7 going to become obsolete for gaming anytime soon or will it keep going?

2021 for Win 7..
I'm in no rush for Win 10, and you can pick up a genuine key for 20 notes, so for now I'm staying on 7, 10 is still unpredictable and still confused.

 

[Cluck]

Some games do look and run better on W8.1 and W10 as they take advantage of certain aspects of DirectX that aren't (and won't be) supported in W7. I took the view that although W7 will be supported until 2020, if an upgrade is free, grab it.

There is much to dislike about W10, that's certainly true, but unless you're planning to upgrade in the next 12 months, I'd just bite the bullet and upgrade to it whilst it's free

As for hardware prices, yep, they've all gone up over the last 12-18 months. SSD prices nearly doubled and RAM has more than doubled. GPU prices (and availability) is still crazy. Factor in slower demand for PCs and you can see why prices have risen so much. SSD prices have just started to slowly (very slowly) creep back down but all the reports I've seen suggest that RAM won't be dropping in price until the end of the year at the earliest. Given that SSD prices were predicted to start falling before the end of 2017, I won't hold my breath for RAM prices to drop before 2019.

 

[Laiders]

Some games do look and run better on W8.1 and W10 as they take advantage of certain aspects of DirectX that aren't (and won't be) supported in W7. I took the view that although W7 will be supported until 2020, if an upgrade is free, grab it.

There is much to dislike about W10, that's certainly true, but unless you're planning to upgrade in the next 12 months, I'd just bite the bullet and upgrade to it whilst it's free

As for hardware prices, yep, they've all gone up over the last 12-18 months. SSD prices nearly doubled and RAM has more than doubled. GPU prices (and availability) is still crazy. Factor in slower demand for PCs and you can see why prices have risen so much. SSD prices have just started to slowly (very slowly) creep back down but all the reports I've seen suggest that RAM won't be dropping in price until the end of the year at the earliest. Given that SSD prices were predicted to start falling before the end of 2017, I won't hold my breath for RAM prices to drop before 2019.

Interesting, I think I'll just take the update then to get the use of DX2. No doubt I'll probably end up not upgrading for far longer than planned, so may as well stay current if it's free!

 

[Gopher04]

Surely cluck it would be better to upgrade your system first if it's going to be a major one, rather than moving to Win 10 first, as aren't you locked in as such on certain hardware? so if you upgrade the main components on Win 10 your licence wont be valid?

 

[Invincible]

Surely cluck it would be better to upgrade your system first if it's going to be a major one, rather than moving to Win 10 first, as aren't you locked in as such on certain hardware? so if you upgrade the main components on Win 10 your licence wont be valid?

True. As soon as you replace your mainboard, your license "might" be lost.
Why the quotation marks you ask? Because in some cases, you can call MS Support and they can re-enable your key for the new system. But it doesn't always work and also is highly dependent on the mood of the customer service agent on the phone.

For other components, is isn't as critical. If you replace RAM, GPU and CPU in one go, there's a possibility that you also invalidate your license. To be safe, replace one component at a time and allow the system to fully reboot and update before you chuck the next one in. But still - new mainboard = insta-invalidation.

 

[Michael]

The Windows 10 license is bound to your Microsoft LIVE account, independant of your hardware. Just make sure to login in with your LIVE account after the upgrade at least once. You can switch to a local profile afterwards.

 

[Invincible]

The Windows 10 license is bound to your Microsoft LIVE account, independant of your hardware. Just make sure to login in with your LIVE account after the upgrade at least once. You can switch to a local profile afterwards.

Tried that when I got my new rig.

 

[Darksi]

Tried that when I got my new rig.

View attachment 3286

I had the same, luckily when i got in touch with microsoft i quoted there license details and advice back to them in the original ticket as it were and actually activated my license, the only part of the machine that was original was my hard drive and graphics card.

 

[Cluck]

Surely cluck it would be better to upgrade your system first if it's going to be a major one, rather than moving to Win 10 first, as aren't you locked in as such on certain hardware? so if you upgrade the main components on Win 10 your licence wont be valid?

Yes but if you wait until you upgrade your hardware you're not going to be able to do the free W10 upgrade anyway - the free offer ends this week

I just think that given the extra features in DirectX 11, that only apply to Windows 8.1 and 10, that do provide a tangible benefit to some games (Project CARS 2 being one such game - I can't recall if pCARS1 also benefitted), why not do the free upgrade

 

[Michael]

From the Microsoft Terms of Use:

4. Transfer. The provisions of this section do not apply if you acquired the software in Germany or in any of the countries listed on this site (aka.ms/transfer), in which case any transfer of the software to a third party, and the right to use it, must comply with applicable law.

a. Software preinstalled on device. If you acquired the software preinstalled on a device (and also if you upgraded from software preinstalled on a device), you may transfer the license to use the software directly to another user, only with the licensed device. The transfer must include the software and, if provided with the device, an authentic Windows label including the product key. Before any permitted transfer, the other party must agree that this agreement applies to the transfer and use of the software.

b. Stand-alone software. If you acquired the software as stand-alone software (and also if you upgraded from software you acquired as stand-alone software), you may transfer the software to another device that belongs to you. You may also transfer the software to a device owned by someone else if (i) you are the first licensed user of the software and (ii) the new user agrees to the terms of this agreement. You may use the backup copy we allow you to make or the media that the software came on to transfer the software. Every time you transfer the software to a new device, you must remove the software from the prior device. You may not transfer the software to share licenses between devices.

 

[Laiders]

Interesting, sounds like it's even more worth doing the upgrade if it will save buying a standalone copy come upgrade time.

I definitely bought a copy of Windows 7 for my PC (I think a full retail box, not sure if OEM discs still exist).

If I did a complete fresh install/built a new computer I guess it would still work with the linked Live account and making some kind of boot disk from the current Windows install (can you boot/install Windows from a USB drive these days?).

 

[Gopher04]

Yes but if you wait until you upgrade your hardware you're not going to be able to do the free W10 upgrade anyway - the free offer ends this week

I just think that given the extra features in DirectX 11, that only apply to Windows 8.1 and 10, that do provide a tangible benefit to some games (Project CARS 2 being one such game - I can't recall if pCARS1 also benefitted), why not do the free upgrade

True, but the benefits of DX11 are out weighed by the cons of Win 10.. in my eyes and many others, as for the licencing, yeh I forgot about the rip off clause to changing your own hardware, and MS saying fck you, pay us again. I think the Win 10 /Win 7 thing is as split as Brexit is, both are a sham, but both will have to change there policies eventually..

 

[Cluck]

Interesting, sounds like it's even more worth doing the upgrade if it will save buying a standalone copy come upgrade time.

I definitely bought a copy of Windows 7 for my PC (I think a full retail box, not sure if OEM discs still exist).

If I did a complete fresh install/built a new computer I guess it would still work with the linked Live account and making some kind of boot disk from the current Windows install (can you boot/install Windows from a USB drive these days?).

If you're running a full retail copy of Windows 7 then you will have no problem transferring the license to new hardware - I have a full copy of W7, upgraded to W10, changed mobo/cpu/RAM/HDD and the activation was automatic (I didn't even think about it!)

 

[Jaco P.]

I'm considering replacing my GPU card (currently old old HD6950).

I see like 3 options:
- GTX 1070
- GTX 1080
- GTX 1080 Ti
Of course GTX 1080 Ti would be the best option but current GPU prices are just ridiculous.

Would GTX 1070 be able to run Project Cars 2 in let's say HD or 2K resolution with all settings maxed out? What about 4K?

Not thinking about VR at the moment (I mean..I am wanting it but it will have to wait).

 

[Cluck]

For 4K you'll need a 1080 if you want to run the settings maxxed out at 60fps in all conditions. I fitted a 980Ti for a customer and pCARS1 was fine in clear weather at 4K but would drop below 60fps in the worst conditions. From what I understand, the 1070 is about 980Ti level so I'd work on the basis that it won't give you 60fps in all conditions at 4K but, at 2K you should be absolutely fine. If you want 4K and/or VR, it's going to have to be a 1080 or 1080ti and even then it can struggle if you're at the front of a 30-car grid at night.

Given that you're running with a 6950 at the moment, even the 1070 is going to give a significant jump in performance but, as I said, don't expect to max things out and get a solid 60fps at 4K with one.

EDIT : Thanks Invincible, I'd forgotten about the 1070Ti, good call. And yeah, even at 2K you are not going to be able to ramp the downsampling up to the max (which renders the equivalent of 3x the resolution in both horizontal and vertical, equating to a 1920x1080 screen actually rendering at 5760 x 3240) but at the 'Low' setting you'll be fine.

 

[Invincible]

Would GTX 1070 be able to run Project Cars 2 in let's say HD or 2K resolution with all settings maxed out? What about 4K?

Not thinking about VR at the moment (I mean..I am wanting it but it will have to wait).

2K, yes, if you skip on downsampling. 4K rather not. Even a 1080ti struggles at 4k when you max out everything besides AA.
Try the 1070ti maybe? Price is between 1070 and 1080, performance is pretty close to 1080.

 

[Puffpirat]

What these guys said

I see another option depending how imminent your purchase is. NVIDIA Ampere will hit the shelves in April. Gfx Card prices will still be ridiculous then but you will get more performance compared to Pascal for the same price.

I’d consider a used 1070 if you can’t wait

 

[Invincible]

For 4K you'll need a 1080 if you want to run the settings maxxed out at 60fps in all conditions.

My 1080 barely keeps 75 fps in 2k with everything maxxed with rain, night and full grid. A 1070 will most likely drop to 50 ish until the field has stretched out.

 

[Cluck]

Strewth, OK. But you're running a crappy AMD processor and Corsair RAM so that's probably why

In seriousness, I haven't run on my monitor for about 3 years, except when I'm taking screenshots. And for screenshots, I don't care about framerate, so I'm actually rendering at 7680 x 2400 and downsampling to 1920x1200. I didn't realise the performance difference from pCARS1 to 2 was that great.