Posts by Boothy

Intel's 13th-gen CPUs are hot, hungry, loaded with cores

Cherry-picked internal benchmarks

Quote: "To this end, Intel released flurry of cherry-picked internal benchmarks that show its new chips besting the two-year-old 5950X and going toe-to-toe with AMD's SRAM-stacked 5800X-3D in a selection of games and productivity apps."

Also worth mentioning they included the specs for the test environments for these benchmarks linked on the slides, and Intel basically didn't set a level playing field. (Shocked I tell you! Said no one). Copy of the slide here (on reddit).

The new Intel system was sporting fast premium 5600 DDR5 memory.

Whereas they fitted the Ryzen systems (5950X and 5800X3D) with 3200 DDR4 memory.

Lots of people complaining about this, as anyone who knows Zen (at least for 2 & 3), knows you generally fit 3600 memory [*], otherwise you gimp the performance of the CPU. You can easily drop around 5-15% in game FPS by using 3200 RAM instead of 3600 RAM.

Also the fact that Intel focused on the 5950X for gaming benchmarks is just odd! The 5950X is not a gaming CPU, with other chips in the range actually being faster for gaming (even before the 5800X 3D). Basically if you're gaming, you want no more than 8 cores, so that you have a single CPU chiplet. More than 8 cores means two chiplets, and the increased latency between them impacts gaming (although doesn't really impact productivity type workloads, and the game impact depends on the specific game).

The 5800X 3D data is in there, but almost as an afterthought, as they just added a tiny little mark on the chart, rather than a new bar, almost as if they were hoping people wouldn't notice the data! Someone on Reddit actually put the bars back in :-) link

With the nobbled RAM, the 5950X and 5800X3D scores likely need to be at least 5%+ higher than they actually are at the moment. Which means over all, the 5800X3D still leads.

As always, for real data, wait for someone like Hardware Unboxed or Gamers Nexus to get hold of the new Intels (they already have the new Ryzen CPUs tested). As they actually know how to do benchmarks!

* In case anyone doesn't know, running the Infinity fabric frequency at a 1:1 ratio with RAM speed, gives best performance in Zen. So 3600 RAM, as it's double rate, runs at an 1800Mhz, same speed as the Infinity fabric. You can also do 3733 RAM and infinity fabric at 1866Mhz for even better performance, but 3733 RAM is less common and some systems can have stability issues.

Re: Vs AMD

Yes, new Zen 4 looks very interesting, and from what I've read and watched, the actual architecture hasn't changed massively from Zen 3, a few tweaks here and there, some optimisations etc, but most of the gains have come from the new TSMC n5 node. Zen 5 is rumoured to be a more major architecture update, and also should be on TSMCs n3 node. (Zen 5 due 2024).

I'm on AM4 currently. Did consider moving to AM5, but wasn't keen on being an early adopter for AM5, plus I don't really 'need' a big upgrade. Plus of course the cost of at least needing a new motherboard, new DDR5 memory, and the CPU all adds up.

As I mostly game on this PC (I work on a laptop), I instead ordered a 5800X 3D to replace my now oldish 3800X. That should see me through for a good few years, perhaps even long enough to see AM6 coming out! Especially considering the CPU is rarely the bottle neck in gaming.

Re: Countries need to start taxing TDP or some other metric

TDP is already taxed, it's called an electricity bill!

Also TDP has nothing to do with efficiency, TDP is primarily about what cooling you need, efficiency is about the amount of work done, for a given amount of consumed energy.

Each gen of chips is more efficient than the last, that's always been the case, and is unlikely to change any time soon. Yes the TDP has risen, but the work being done for that consumed power has increased to a greater extend, ergo more efficient.

As an example the latest Zen 4 CPUs have ECO modes, in this mode they have a lower TDP setting. A zen 4 in the lowest ECO mode can do around the same amount of work as a Zen 3 CPU, whilst only consuming around 30% of the power. Removing the power restrictions, will increase power consumption of course, but the work done will also increase.

Re: Power vs performance

I've mentioned in a post above, but PCWorld (not the UK retailer), did some ECO testing for the 7950X.

Even in 65W ECO mode, the 7950X still beat the multicore Cinebench scores of both the 5950X and i9-12900K, with these both unrestricted.

Re: Seems an odd choice for 2022

PCWorld (not the UK retailer), did a good comparison of the ECO modes in the new Zen 4 CPUs. link

The findings were basically:

Tests were done with Cinebench R23

Single core, no drop found in single core performance when in 105W or 65W ECO modes. (single core score is also higher than the old 5950X and the i9-12900K).

In Multicore mode. The 7950X ran about 10% slower in 105W mode (than standard mode), and around 25% slower in 65W mode.

But critically, even in 65W ECO mode, the 7950X was still faster than both the 5950X and i9-12900K, with those two having no power limits applied!

For comparison: The Cinebench R23 multithreaded scores were:

i9-12900K (no power limit): 27,283

5950X (no power limit): 25,600

7950X (no power limit): 37,973

7950X (ECO 105): 34,300

7950X (ECO 65): 28,655

Be interesting to see where the i9-13900K lands in all this.

California to try tackling drought with canal-top solar panels

Re: 13GW from four thousand miles of solar panels...

I wondered the same, I watched a video a few months back of physicist Helen Czerski visiting the worlds largest wind turbine, and that was 13MW, but it's a prototype off-shore unit, mounted on shore for testing, so not yet commercially deployed.

I did a quick look up, it's the Haliade-X in Rotterdam port. 260m tall, each blade is 107m long! Seems they expect these to hit 14MW for the production versions.

Looks like they plan to install 100s of these at the Dogger Bank Wind Farm project (along with other similar sized units from different manufacturers), for a total generating capacity of 4.8 GW.

So not even half of the 13GW, and that's going to be the largest offshore windfarm ever built (till the next one of course) :-)

AMD refreshes desktop CPUs with 5nm Ryzen 7000s that can reach 5.7GHz with 16 cores

Expensive? These are cheaper on release than the previous gen was on release, and they are cheaper than current comparable (in performance) Intel parts.

For DDR5, yes, it's expensive, all new gen RAM is expensive when first out. DDR4 was no different when it came out, and DDR5 has been the same. But it will gradually drop over time, especially as more and more products start to use it, to drive up competition and economies of scale etc. Don't want to pay the price, don't be an early adopter.

PCIE4? I assume a typo and you mean PCIe5? PCIe4.0 has been around for years now. You also realise that PCIe is fully backwards and forwards compatible? You can put any PCIe device in there, doesn't need to be a new latest top end GPU. Also faster PCIe is more about supporting things like faster SSDs at the moment, rather than GPUs. PCIe5 SSDs are now hitting the market, and the next GPUs are expected to also be PCIe5 (although would likely only make a difference to top end cards). It would make no sense to release a new CPU that only supported the previous PCIe standards, especially when their is no downside, and PCIe5 hardware is already being released.

Also what do you mean by 'inefficient'? These new CPUs are now the most efficient Zen based CPUs released so far. Yes TDP/power draw has increased a little over previous gen when running flat out, but the work being done for each watt consumed has increased by a greater amount, meaning efficiency has increased over previous AMD CPUs (and was already much better than Intel).

Quoted AMD figures (so still needs to be tested independently) show that a 7000 CPU, configured to the same power draw as the comparable 5000 CPU, performs 49% better. i.e. 49% more work being done, at the same power draw. Some of that will be down to the improved architecture, but a lot will be down to the move to TSMCs n5 node (same as used by Apple for their M* ARM CPUs).

Regarding your last comments on power bills, what are you expecting to be doing with your PC? PCs pull power based on demand. Most workloads are finite, i.e. you are asking the PCs CPU to do a specific job, compile code, process image data, run the NPC AI in a game etc. As these CPUs are much more efficient then earlier Zen CPUs, (and all current Intel CPUs), a new AMD PC would consume less power for a given workload than a previous system (more whilst running, but less overall as it finishes sooner). So overall your power bills would likely go down, not up!

AMD boasts of record sales, says 5nm Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 coming this quarter

Re: On the flip side...

Quote: "(At this point, I suppose I'll wait until Ryzen 7000 has been out for 2-3 months, read the reviews, and then decide whether to risk that.)"

I'd say this is likely a good choice if you're going for a full new build at this time.

The CPUs are almost certainty going to be fine, better node and tweaked architecture, but they are not fundamentally different from Ryzen 5000.

Main issues are likely to be things like BIOS including the low level AGESA from AMD. Plus potentially memory compatibility, which was an issue with early Ryzen, although not so much recently. But AM5 is a new chipset, and new memory architecture so my guess would be a few teething issues to start with, but who knows!

Leaving it a few months from launch, not only gets reviews out, but gives AMD and the board manufacturers time to iron out any BIOS and AGESA issues, driver bugs etc.

Same here.

Happy with my AM4 system for now, although will likely drop in a replacement for my 3800X to extend the life of the system. I'm mostly a gamer on this PC (I have a company laptop for work), so I might go for the 5800X3D rather than the 5950X.

Can't see me switching to AM5 any time soon, as that would mean new CPU, Memory and a Motherboard, and some of those are going to be premium prices for a while yet.

One thing to note if you are buying a new GFX card as well, prices have dropped considerably since the start of the year.

As an example, AMDs 6800 XT were around $1,130 USD back in March, these are now under $700. In the UK you can pick up a Gigabyte Radeon RX 6800 XT Gamin OC 16GB for £649.99 from OCUK.

Still not throw away money of course, but way better than it's been for the last year or so.

I paid for it, that makes it mine. Doesn’t it? No – and it never did

Re: Before computers we used to make stuff that worked

Small world, I had an uncle who work at DB tractors, my Dad worked at David Brown Gears from the 70s till the early 90s.

My Dad started of on the shop floor, later becoming a draftsman, having a hand in designing many of their products through the 80s, into the early 90s.

I can remember as a teenager going on a tour, and part of the tour was a large stress test room, basically a concrete bunker with a large bench in the middle. It had what I was told at the time, a new gearbox for the military, although they wouldn't confirm which branch, being set up ready for testing (it had a large tarpaulin thrown over it for security!). The rumour was it was a Tank gearbox, but Brown's also did gearboxes for the Navy.

We were told they did both longevity testing in that room, i.e. running continuously for days and weeks at a time, then checking the wear afterwards. Plus also destructive testing. You could see shrapnel damage in the walls!

Back on the tractors, I had a relative that had a small farm, and they had a DB tractor that was already many decades old back in the 80s and still ran perfectly fine. It was the first vehicles I ever drove!

You can liquid cool this Linux laptop to let the GPU soar

Re: Stupid and inefficient

What trailblazing performance? If you're just talking about energy efficiency, then sure, but certainly not in overall performance.

Looking at the new M2 based MacBook Pro, the Mac is still overall slower that the best Intel or AMD based laptops in CPU performance, other than a few outlying functions where Apple have implemented some hardware acceleration in their SoC which doesn't exist in the Intel or AMD parts.

The main benefit the Mac has, is it manages what it does while using much less power than the Intel and AMD systems. To put it another way, Intel and AMD burn a lot more energy to get to that faster performance.

Part of this is of course the architecture, but a big chunk is down to Apple using a more efficient TSMC node, specifically the "Enhanced 5-nanometer" N5P process, whilst Intel and AMD are still on older nodes (and AMD being the only other one using TSMC currently).

Be interesting to see how Intels and AMDs newer chips perform, once chips such as AMDs Zen 4 come out in a month or two, which will also be on TSMCs 5nm node.

Intel have also partnered up with TSMC, and are expected to produce some 3nm CPUs, although not till next year some time.

Quote: "This machine can take desktop-class CPUs and GPUs."

Assuming you are talking about the one in the article, then no it can't, these are all mobile parts. CPU and GPU.

As an example, the 3080 Ti laptop version is basically the same core chip as the desktop part (same GPU part number), but it has less cores and runs at a slower speed than the desktop version, to keep the heat down. Typically the laptop models, have around the same performance as one or two models down on the desktop side. i.e. A laptop 3080 Ti like this one, will have around the same performance as a desktop 3070 (not Ti).

Still not bad for gaming, I've got a now quite old 2080 (not Ti or Super) in my desktop, and the laptop 3080Ti just beats it in overall gaming performance.

NanoAvionics satellite pulls out GoPro to take stunning selfie over Earth

Also don't forget it also needs to be out of focus, as no flerfer has ever learnt how to actually use the P900.

Meta now involved in making metalevel standards for the metaverse

The research

Quote: "...researchers [PDF] who recently asked volunteers to work in VR for an entire 40-hour work week saw poor results. Two of the 18 volunteers dropped out entirely and the rest felt frustrated. Some reported significant nausea and sore eyes."

Looking at the PDF, seems the volunteers were given Oculus Quest 2s, which are basically a ~£320 all-in-one system. Essentially a mobile phone type spec device, strapped to your head. Tracking can be a bit lagy, it runs at 120Hz refresh, which is about the bare minimum for comfortable VR, and it doesn't have anywhere near the processing power of a PC. You also have to go via Facebook to use it!

Might have been better off with something like an Index, much better laser based tracking and faster refresh. One issue could be weight though, as the Index is quite heavy (and the cost, plus you also need a PC with the Index).

Intel delivers first discrete Arc desktop GPUs ... in China

Re: So, only in China, eh ?

For what it's worth (pinch of salt and all that), apparently laptops have started shipping in Asian markets with the A730M chipset. which is higher end than the one mentioned in the article, but is a mobile part, not desktop.

Someone in China did some benchmarks, including Timespy and a few games, this seems to show the 730M is a bit faster than a mobile 2080 (now quite old), but not as fast as a mobile 3070 (both standard versions, not Ti or SUPER).

Seems drivers are still very rough, as apparently they couldn't even get Shadow of the Tomb Raider to even run!

Assuming they can fix drivers, looks like the A730M is basically a medium tear 1080p mobile part at most.

There are more powerful parts coming out, including non mobile like the A770, but these still only seem to be around the 3060 Ti type performance (based on spec, not benchmarks).

Looks like Intel are focusing on the mid, rather than high end cards, at least for now.

But I'll wait for someone like Hardware Unboxed or Gamers Nexus to actual give the cards a proper run for their money.

Either way, competition is a good things, and it could benefit a lot of gamers, even if they don't buy Intel, it might help push prices down, especially in the mid tear cards, which is what most gamers actually buy.

Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? Consult our cynic's guide to desktop Linux

Re: Not be happy ... to reinstall my OS from scratch every year or two

I used to rebuild my Win 7 system (and before that XP), so often I created custom install media, that had almost everything preselected (region, keyboard, local user account, drive configuration etc etc), plus service packs, various drivers, and a few must-have applications all pre-installed, i.e. slipstreamed in etc.

All my data was on a 2nd drive and on a NAS. So wiping C: wasn't an issue.

I'd just stick the DVD in the drive (later a USB), reboot, and leave it to it. Come back 30 mins later, and a nice clean install on C:

AMD reveals 5nm Ryzen 7000 powered by Zen 4 cores

No idea what the source was atm, but I'd heard that AMD had no plans for big/little type core layouts, as they didn't see what the use case was, and it added additional complexity to things like manufacturing, and the scheduling of tasks. Something that hit Intel, with many games and other tasks actually running slower on their new chips, as game engines etc assumed all cores were equal, this needed patching in the applications to fix.

From what I've seen, the chiplet layout of the new AMD CPUs is the same as previously, i.e. a single IO chiplet (now made by TSMC), and 1 or 2 CPU chiplets depending on which model, with up to 8 cores/16 threads, per chiplet, same architecture as we have now. It's just this time, better IPC, and what looks like a much improved clock speed.

Also the demo CPU that was used for AMDs benchmarks in their presentation, was apparently an early 16/32 core/thread part. So perhaps what will become the new 7950X, assuming they stick to the existing naming convention of course.

RYZEN 7000CPU

Puzzled by this statement: "Su discussed only the RYZEN 7000CPU. There's surely more to come, ..."

So far AMD have never released a '*000' CPU model of Ryzen, and when AMD, or anyone else, refers to the *000 they are typically referencing the entire family, not a specific CPU.

I would expect we'd be seeing things like 7600(X), 7700X, 7900X etc. With likely 6, 8, 12 and 16 cores (and perhaps more, especially if there is a new Threadripper at some point).

AMD claims its GPUs beat Nvidia on performance per dollar

Hardware Unboxed

Hardware Unboxed have been doing a monthly series of price comparisons, for basically the full range of current Nvidia and AMD cards, based against original MSRP, and ongoing trends.

They also include some older cards, based on eBay 2nd hand prices.

Worth watching of you're considering getting one of the current or older gen cards.

link to Mays vid on Tube-of-you

Any reason you didn't go for the 6500XT? i.e. the model that replaced the 5500XT.

There are several 6500XT models for sale on OCUK at under £180 each. Of the 8 listed models, 6 of them are in stock, 2 of those are under £180, two others (also in stock) are under £170.

Demand for GPUs used to mine crypto 'disappearing', says ASUSTeK

Re: Unwarranted optimism

That's not really how markets work.

Low stock, drives prices up, as there is no competition, and demand outstrips supply. Healthy stock means supply outstrips demand, and drives prices down, as there is more competition between OEMs, so they have to adjust price to keep selling.

In March very few cards were in stock, across both AMD and Nvidia, and as an example, the AMD 6800 XTs' were around £1200 in March (lowest price).

A quick look on OC UK just now, and almost all (~95%) of all Nvidia and AMD cards are now in stock.

Currently the same AMD 6800 XTs' are ~£820 (lowest price), so almost a £400 drop in two months, and this is still declining.

For ref, the original MSRP for the 6800 XT, was around £650 for the base models, which of course the card has never been sold at by OEMs. But at least it's heading in the right direction!

Also the closer we get to the launch of the new ranges, due later this year, the cheaper the current gen cards are likely to get.

AMD approaches '30%' x86 CPU market share, thanks to servers 'n' laptops

Re: Epyc

Apparently the Genoa 96 Zen4 cores are due out Q3 this year, so not far off.

There is also a Genoa-X variant later (Q1 2023), which is a repeat of the new Milan-X, so has a large L3 cache (supposedly the same 3D cache process as they did to the 5800X to create the 5800X3D).

Bergamo, is also out Q1 2023, that is up to 128 cores, but these are Zen4c cores, so lower power parts. (They max out at 400W for 128 'c' cores, same 400W as Genoa does for 96 full fat Zen4 cores).

Re: Laptops

When was the last time you used an AMD laptop?

There was a trend for many years where AMD CPUs (and chipsets) were treated as budget only in the Laptop space (plus they didn't really perform as well as Intel back then), and as such all the OEMs paired them up with less than stellar other components, typically with an aim to keep costs down (less and slower memory, cheaper SSD, inefficient power delivery, smaller battery etc etc).

Once Zen/Ryzen came out, from what I understand AMD worked closely with OEMs to basically get them to treat Ryzen as a first class citizen and put the same sort of quality components into the newer laptops, at least in the mid tear upwards. As AMD were making it clear, they were going to be marketing Ryzen as a premium product, (at least with the top end chips).

Enterprise-strength FreeBSD-based TrueNAS releases v13.0

I did think about doing something similar, as mine also has an eSATA on the back, but I'm hitting CPU limitations.

The CPU is an old AMD Turion @ 2.2GHz, which is basically an ultra low power mobile CPU.

As an example I can't really use server side compression (on by default) for my automatic backups (via UrBackup), as it was taking triple the time to run, due to the server CPU running 100%. The system also struggles with other operations as well.

I'm also wanting to run VMs and other services, that I currently run on my main PC, but that means I have to leave the main PC running at times, or shut down the VMs. No way the Turion could cope with that work load. So I want something with a bit more oomph.

I'm considering building an AM4 based system, as I'm planning on doing a CPU upgrade in my current PC anyway, which would mean I'd have a spare Ryzen 3800X.

Thanks for the tips.

Always pros and cons to consider.

I read this article on Arstechnica a while back, as an intro into ZFS.

I've also messed around with ZFS in various incantations via VMs (including earlier versions of TrueNAS/FreeNAS), but just using standard virtual drives, not hardware pass through. But this was just to play around with vdevs, zpools etc.

Expanding existing pools does seem to have restrictions.

It's not recommended as far as I know to mix vdev configurations, such as in your example (i.e 4 disks initially, then add 2 later on), and I think you're limited to having to use the same raid mode (z1, z2 etc) each time for additional vdevs within the same pool, which also of course also restricts the minimum number of drives you can add at a time.

So there are definitely restrictions to consider, much less flexible than other RAID options as you mention.

As a test I created a zpool with 4 x 1TiB drives, as z2, giving me ~1.83TiB available after formatting etc.

I then added a new vdev to the same zpool, this time using 4 x 2TiB (*) drives, again z2, giving me 5.63 TiB available in total after formatting due to both vdevs being combined within the pool.

Personally, as my data is fairly segregated by function, I'd probably just create a new pool with the four (or however many) new drives, and migrate specific data to the new pool, rather than continually growing a single pool. Again pros and cons of course.

Cheers

* Emulating getting larger size drives at some later date.

Been considering TrueNAS for a new NAS for a while now, tried out the older versions in a VM just for a trial run, will have to give this new version a look.

I've currently got an old NAS running OMV, on a now rather ancient HP micro server, only capacity for 4 disks, the CPU is rather underpowered, and I'm constantly at around 90% full.

I've looked at purpose built NAS systems, but they always seem too limited, or too costly for what you get etc.

So was thinking of just building essentially a regular PC, i.e. case with lots of drive bays, ATX etc, and just stick TrueNAS on it. Although I'll probably move to a 6 disk array minimum, rather than my current 4 disks (limited by the current HP hardware).

Once built, I'll possibly look at repurposing the old system as a pure secondary backup system, that only connects to the primary NAS as needed.

The end of the iPod – last model available 'while supplies last'

Re: I think the original ipod was the last gadget that blew me away

I still have a Zen Vision M somewhere, I rediscovered it about two years ago, and it still booted up and worked!

No idea how good the battery is by this point. It hasn't been actively used since about 2008.

Phishing operation hits NHS email accounts to harvest Microsoft credentials

Ah yes, my company decided to use a 3rd party for security training a couple of years back.

The training was hosted on the 3rd parties URL, and they'd integrated the login to their site with our company IDs. Thus requiring us to log into this 3rd party site, with our company credentials!

None of this was communicated internally.

Out of the blue, we all got emails direct from this 3rd party, asking us to click a link in the email, and log in using our company logins, in order to access the security training!

The security team were apparently inundated by people reporting it as a Phishing attempt (I also reported it).

They ended up sending out an internal email to clarify this wasn't a Phish, was actually real, and please stop reporting it!

12 months later, still using the same 3rd party, they actually sent out an internal email first to warn people to expect the external email.

Someone really should have got the sack, as this was just incompetence by design!

I've no real issue with them using a 3rd party for the training, but they could have managed the notification email internally, and done something like pass though authentication from an internal company URL then redirect to the 3rd party URL, instead of asking people to log in directly to the 3rd party web site!

Apple's return-to-office plan savaged by staff

Re: Options

That's basically the same as my current boss, I'm also an architect these days (done many roles previously).

He's literally said on meetings "I don't care if your on an Xbox for half the day, as long as the work gets done, to an appropriate standard and is on time."

Why the Linux desktop is the best desktop

I'm very much the same.

My personal PC (built myself), is mainly there for gaming and WWW, with occasional light use of docs and spreadsheets.

I already use Libre Office for most office use. I do have a licenced Visio (standalone), but it's rarely used, and I've been playing with yED as a potential replacement (testing on Windows), which seems to cover most of my uses cases, and also has a native Linux version.

I've been watching my Steam news feeds, for my games, and it's been a steady stream of Windows only titles announcing things like 'Now optimised for Steam Deck' etc. Seems most games (that I play) just worked anyway under Proton, with many of the Deck issues being more around UI scaling for the small screen, or control issues, both of which are specific to the Steam Deck, so wouldn't impact my desktop use case.

I've used Linux on and off for years, both personally and professionally. I currently have a Linux micro server acting as a NAS, backup, media streamer etc. Plus a Pihole, so it's not like I'm not used to Linux itself, including SSH and the command prompt (did a lot of AIX UNIX back in the day).

My main worry would be games that insist on working via other launchers, such as EA/Origin, or Ubisoft titles, but I don't buy these often, and typically play them till completed. (I don't do mutiplayer on PC)

Might go dual boot for a while, so I've at least got my current Windows 10 as a fall back!

Volkswagen: Expect chip supply problems until 2024

Re: and just what were they supposed to do?

Toyota quite literally wrote the book on just-in-time (JIT) namely the 'Toyota Production System'.

They understood that you can't just do JIT, without looking at the fragility of the supply chain itself, and accommodating for that. e.g. If you have a back up supplier for some item, make sure the backup supplier isn't in the same earthquake zone as the primary suppler. If it cant be avoided (just one supplier in the world, or they are all in one region of the world, then make sure you keep some stock. Check for single points of failure in the full supply chain, i.e. are multiple separate suppliers in turn depended on a single factory somewhere else etc etc.

Problem with most other car manufacturers, is they got the book, but only seem to have read a few chapters. So implemented JIT, without really any consideration of supply chain fragility.

Or put it another way, they prioritised cost reduction (aka profits), over resilience.

South Yorkshire to test fiber broadband through water pipes

We actually have that on my street.

New estate by Barrets (yes I know!), about 8 years ago now.

They ran ducting (pipes), under the pavements all around the estate, with periodic manhole covers adjacent to the houses, with a smaller duct from each manhole running to each house (only to the outside wall).

There was another run leaving the estate, ending at another larger manhole cover on an adjacent street (i.e an original pavement not part of the new estate), this seems to be adjacent to various on street boxes (i.e. BT cabinet etc).

Initially these just had the telephone cables running through it. (No fibre, only ADSL services initially, we got VDLS/FTTC eventually, but still no FTTH via BT).

Virgin Media turned up about 8 months ago offering their full fat fibre, several houses have opted for them (not me, so far), zero digging up of road or pavements required!

No idea if this was voluntary (unlikely knowing Barrets), I suspect the local planning office have imposed some rules around new builds, to avoid digging roads up etc.

Russian media watchdog bans Google from advertising its services

Re: Fascism 101

I've seen the same in the Steam forums.

Quite a few Dev and Publisher, especially a lot of the smaller indie devs based in the East of Europe, are either based in Ukraine themselves, have friends or family there, or employees. So they are well aware of what's going on on the ground, as they are getting first hand reports.

So some of these Devs and Publishers have been showing their support for Ukraine, such as helping to get people out of Ukraine (providing a room in their house in Poland etc), raising money and so on.

This has been supported by the vast majority of people on Steam, but then you get the occasional one, who clams it's all a lie, that the Ukraine people are being protected by Russia soldiers from the evil Ukrainian Nazi government. etc etc.

Very sad that these people have drunk so much of the Putin cool aid.

Intel debuts Arc discrete GPUs for laptops

Re: "This is sort of the future of rendering as you know"

Quote: "Meanwhile, Nvidia's RTX 3080 draws 320 W of power, has 8704 "stream processors" (damned if I know what that is), and can display any game on a 3840 x 2160 screen without trouble.

I'm left wondering if your piddly little 150W part is good enough to play Minecraft on."

Bear in mind these are the mobile parts. So you need to compare against the mobile 3080, not the desktop version.

Mobile RTX 3080 draws 80W to 150W (depending on configuration and laptop), only has 6144 "stream processors", running at max boost of around 1,710MHz. (The current top 3080 Ti mobile version, pulls around 175W).

The top end Intel A770M draws 120 to 150 watts, and clocks at 1,650MHz.

So at least in clock and power, it's very close to matching nVidia's mobile 3080.

Obviously we don't know how the Intel's new Xe cores compare with Nvidias stream processors yet, but I'm sure we'll find out once places like Hardware Unboxed and Gamers Nexus etc get hold of one or more of these to actually test out.

Intel updates ATX PSU specs, eyes PCIe 5.0 horizon

Re: 600W for a GPU?

Chuckle.

In Winter, I rarely need the heating on if I'm gaming. (It's actually on, just the thermostat rarely triggers).

I've even been known to open a window to let some air through, as the rooms hit 25c+ whilst it's zero outside.

In summer I don't game much day time, and even some nights I can't get the room below 30c even with all windows open!

And this is in the UK, so no aircon. Seriously considering getting a portable aircon unit this year, especially as I work from home full time now!

Re: 600W for a GPU?

I'm assuming the 600W is for a bit of future proofing.

The current stock Nvidia 3090 consumes around 350W, with the new 3090 Ti variant being around 450W.

AMD use a more efficient TSMC n7 node (Nvidia uses a less efficient Samsung node), so their top end stock 6900XT is around 300W.

Note: Many vendor cards are OCd, so go even higher still!

The existing standard 6 pin GPU connectors only deliver 75W, and the 8 pin 150W, so many even mid range cards need two, or even three for the top end, power connectors!

Even the stock 3060 mid range card has both a 6 and an 8 pin connector, as it consumes 170W, so too much for a single 8 pin.

So a single 600W connector, would simplify things a bit, as all current cards could use just a single connector, and this 600W still leaves some headroom.

Would still be nice if they could drop the power requirements though, as you still need to deal with all the heat generated by these cards!

Re: Still not seeing the point of ATX12VO

Worth mentioning that regular SATA HDDs and SSDs don't use the 3.3 volt line.

Most early systems used MOLEX to SATA cables, which only provide 5v and 12v, so no 3.3v, so all early devices needed to work without 3.3v.

Most PSUs today still include some MOLEX cables (for things like case fans), and usually include MOLEX to SATA converters in the box, in case you need them for more drives, so current HDD and SATA drive manufacturers still don't use the 3.3v supply, presumably for compatibility reasons.

I have heard some mSATA devices do use 3.3 volt, but this is only an issue if you use some sort of converter from mSATA to a regular SATA, such as repurposing an old laptop drive, into an external caddy etc. i.e. You'd need 3.3volts then.

The few ATX12VO boards I've looked at, have SATA PSU outputs on the motherboard, which has been a square 4 pin connector, 2 x ground, 1 x 12v and 1 x 5v. For these boards, I assume the 5v regulator is mounted on the board to drop from the 12v incoming feed.

Win 11 adds 'requirements not met' nag for unsupported hardware

Re: @HildyJ - What about?

Same here.

Although I noticed the latest BIOS update released for my board (Asrock), now has 'Windows 11 compatibility' added to the changes. The board was already compatible!

Turns out, the update simply enables Secure Boot and TPM by default (they were disabled by default previously).

So if I now update the BIOS (which I would need to do to support a Zen 3 CPU if I upgraded from my current Zen 2), I'd need to remember to switch Secure Boot and TPM off again before booting into the Windows 10 OS! (I have no plans to move to Win 11).

So be aware, if updating your BIOS, you might find SecureBoot and TPM being turned on by default, when it was off previously!

Re: Cue the Linux users

Yup, that's one of my favourite features of Linux. The fact you can add software, and it's all basically managed via one mechanism. No need to worry about updating things individually, or having to download and install a separate package.

I really dislike it when you find some Linux 'app' that wants to install via a separate download, Windows style, rather than adding it via a repository.

How CAPTCHAs can cloak phishing URLs in emails

Re: An automated scanner gets stopped at the puzzle.

Also puzzled by this.

We use a 3rd party categorisation system at work, web sites are categorised by the 3rd party, and put into categories (Social media, news, vendors, dodgy (pirates etc), pr0n and so on).

The company decides what categories end users can get access to, rather than specific sites. (Although they can allow or block specific sites if needed).

Anything else, including anything not categorised yet, is blocked. So unless the target site, after the CAPTCHA, is an allowed site, uses wouldn't be able to get to it anyway.

So basically all sites are blocked by default, unless vetted and added to an allowed category.

"Given how often the average user fills out a CAPTCHA challenge..."

How often is this? The statement implies this is a regular thing for 'average' users, but for myself, I get a CAPTCHA very rarely!

And for ref, I use a lot of different sites and services, forums, gaming wiki's, news sites, banks, distro sites, retailers etc etc. I can't even remember the last time I saw a CAPTCHA, must be at least a couple of months back!

And I certainly never get them for anything work related.

Do some people get these a lot?

Are we springing into a Y2K-class nightmare?

Re: USA change its date format ...

The 'Imperial' system was defined after the US measures were standardised.

Both the Imperial, and US system, were based on an earlier English system.

There were multiple Gallons in the earlier English system, depending on what you were measuring.

The US decided, quite rightly, that having multiple gallons was daft, so when they implemented their standardised measures after independence, they adopted the Wine Gallon as the single Gallon measure.

A few years later, when the UK also decided to standardise, and so created the then new Imperial standard, they adopted the Beer Gallon instead, which is a bit bigger than the Wine version. (This is also why things like Pints are different, as they are derived from the gallon).

If you had something in the US labelled as "Imperial Gallons", it would likely to have been an import (such as from Canada), as Imperial units have never been used in the USA (not officially anyway).

AMD unveils first CPU with 3D V-Cache tech, cheaper Ryzens

5800X3D performance

Curios about performance of the 5800X3D.

Clocks slower than the standard 5800X, but has a relatively huge cache.

So can imagine some functions being a little slower than the regular 5800X, but others having quite a boost.

Apparently one of the things Intel did recently was add more cache to their newer chips, which gave quite a boost to some games, putting them back in overall top slot for gaming again. Going to be interesting to see if the 5800X3D does take top spot for AMD again!

Currently got a 3800X on a liquid AIO cooler on an X570 board, so other than perhaps a BIOS update, should be a straight drop in replacement. Plus not planning on moving to AM5 any time soon. So been thinking of getting a 5000 CPU as a last upgrade, which should keep me going for some time to come.

Would also like to update my GFX card, but no way I'm paying current prices for those!

Re: compatible

It's the last hurrah for the existing AM4 boards, before the move to AM5 with Zen 4.

For some of the chips, it's supposedly a direct drop in, with the existing BIOS (especially the X570 boards), other MB may need a BIOS update, depending on what's in there now.

i.e. If you're using an older AM4 system with say a earlier Zen +, 1 or 2 CPU, and not updated the BIOS for a while, then you might need a BIOS update to work with Zen 3.

Note: If doing the BIOS update before you get a new CPU, make sure you don't remove support for your existing CPU by accident. For example, some older boards (typically 300 chipset) only have a small flash memory, so can't support Zen 3, without removing support for older Zen CPUs. i.e. You could actually brick you system by removing support for your existing CPU if you don't have your new CPU to hand yet.

In other words, if you've got an existing AM4 system, check the manufacturers support pages to make sure it supports a CPU, before you buy it, plus check if a BIOS update is needed, plus check if that BIOS update removes support for your existing CPU. (If it does, then you need to do the BIOS update with your old CPU in first, shut down, fit the new CPU, then start up again).

Microsoft slides ads into Windows Insiders' File Explorer

I'm definitely close to enough is enough.

From everything I've read and seen so far, I have no temptations to even try out Windows 11, let alone switch to it.

I have little choice for work, as it's a company provided and managed system, but for personal use...

I've been evaluating what do I actually run on my personal rig that is genuinely Windows only? It's not actually a lot these days, just a few games that don't have native Linux versions and don't run under Proton.

Most other things either have native Linux versions, work fine under Wine/Proton, or have some Linux equivalent that I could switch to.

I think I'll go dual boot for a while, I've done this in the past with Windows 7 and Linux, so I think I'll probably go down that route again, at least initially, and just keep the Win 10 env as-is for the few Windows only games I have, and have Linux as the primary OS.

UK internet pioneer Cliff Stanford has died

Re: Sad news.

Good old demon.ip.support.amiga

I spent many hours chatting away to people on that channel, most of the time not actually Amiga related!

We even organised a couple of in person meetups. A big Amiga weekend at someone's house in Hazel Grove I think. And another more casual country side get together, which included meeting up with a couple of lasses from the USA, and we were making bets on them turning up and being guys, but nope.

Good groups of people on #d.i.s.a

Intel reveals GPU roadmap with hybrid integrated discrete graphics

Re: Lets hope Intel succeeds and game developers pick up on this

Quote: "The big question is how fast game developers will support the new Intel cards"

Do game devs really need to do anything to support Intel?

Games, more specifically game engines, don't target specific cards or vendor architecture, they target an API, such as DirectX, OpenGL or Vulkan. The vendors then provide drivers that support those APIs on their hardware.

Intel already provide these APIs for their existing embedded GFX, and games already work there. Not as fast as a discrete chipset from AMD or Nvidia of course, but typically modern games are still playable if on lower settings.

Granted, they might have some optimisations to do, getting the drivers to work well with specific game engines, or specific games, such as when Nvidia puts out game ready drivers.

Either way, competition is good. Be interesting to see where their performance vs price comes in, and if they actually manage to sell at retail!

Journalist won't be prosecuted for pressing 'view source'

Re: The State changed its tune

I used to always rip my CDs to MP3 at the time, for backup and portability.

I can remember one of my friends complaining that he couldn't rip a CD, but had no idea why.

He brought it over to me to look at, and I managed to rip it without issue.

It only dawned on me a while later, that I routinely would hold shift down when popping CDs in, as so many audio CDs came with 'extras' on the disk at that time, that would often auto run some usually poorly written application.

It was only once the news hit a few weeks later, and on double checking, we confirmed the CD was one of the affected ones with the root kit!

This data center will be Europe’s first with hydrogen backup power

Re: A Step In The Right Direction

I would assume that testing requirements would still remain in place (as it's primarily the testing they are trying to clean up by using H2), so hopefully someone would notice if the tanks were getting low on H2.

Obviously won't help if they don't actually bother testing!