PC gaming. - The Bear and Badger

AndCallMeCharlie

That new Xbox elite controller looks tasty

Birdorf

mrsmr2 wrote:

Pah, too heavy.

Pah, wires.

Shout out to the 602 massive.

Dark Soldier

My first proper Steam sale!

Kow

Ooh, Steam sale. Store seems to be down for me at the moment though.

Dark Soldier

Down for everyone, as per

Tempy

Love to buy hot new release “bad gateway”

Dark Soldier

Anything else worth getting? Indie games primarily

GurtTractor

NEO SCAVENGER MATE

£2.84, just buy it. Everyone should probably check it out, really deep, atmospheric, tough as nails and also shockingly brutal. Go in blind, but I can offer a few basic tips if anyone struggles. Could start a thread for strategies/stories for the game if others get into it. I'm going to buy a few keys to gift at some point I think.

Dark Soldier

Bought.

Tempy

I heard JW: Evolution was a big of shite - maybe wait for Zoo Tycoon for that fix?

I'm shattered so I don't have any idea what games are on offer or good atm

Facewon

It's mildly annoying there's no way to see what price games are that are in your library. It's an odd thing, and I can see why they wouldn't, but it'd be cool to see my games list with the sale prices so I can suggest to ds...

acemuzzy

I'm not sure DS is worthy of Celeste

The Daddy

Dark Soldier wrote:

Anything else worth getting? Indie games primarily

You tried Gris?

Dark Soldier

The Daddy wrote:

Dark Soldier wrote:

Anything else worth getting? Indie games primarily

You tried Gris?

Second best GOTY 2018

Minnesänger

Dark Soldier wrote:

Anything else worth getting? Indie games primarily

You tried Gris?

Second best GOTY 2018

An oldie but one that passed a lot of people by way back when - Aquaria. It seems to still run well on modern machines, should be cheap and it's one of my all time Top 100 games. Underwater metroidvania with SHMUP trappings and gorgeous audio work.

b0r1s

Dark Soldier wrote:

Anything else worth getting? Indie games primarily

Did you get Subnautica?

Dark Soldier

Yeah nabbed Subnautica on Epic.

Bought Katana Zero and all Civ 6 DLC. Done now.

Subbax

I'm tempted to get Katana Zero on Switch. Looks good for portable.

Blue Swirl

Dumb question, which should go to show how long it's been since I upgraded/tinkered with PC hardware.

I want to upgrade the RAM on my laptop. Using the tools built into Windows 10, I know that I have 8 GB (in two sticks of 4). So I'm thinking of getting two sticks of 8 GB. Here's what I'm wondering about - Windows says my RAM is 2400 MHz, but this RAM kit is 1600 MHz. Is this a problem? Is 16 GB of 1600 MHz RAM better than 8 GB of 2400 MHz RAM? Next: I think my system uses DDR3. What's the difference between DDR4 and 3? If I accidentally buy DDR4 RAM, can I still use it?

Cheers guys. Apologies for my noobishness.

Facewon

Paging @gurtTractor

Facewon

I have nfi.

But MOOR RAM GOOD

Blue Swirl

Cheers, Face. EDIT: Yeah, 'more is better' was all I needed to know when I upgraded the RAM on my Mac mini.

In other news, fuck me. I just noticed you can get the exact same RAM kit in 1.5 and 1.35 volts. What the fuck is that about.

Kow

You can only use the type of ram your system is made for - you can't switch between ddr3 and ddr4. I don't think speed, Mhz, etc actually means much though. More gb of ram is what will make the difference.

GurtTractor

Blue Swirl wrote:

Dumb question, which should go to show how long it's been since I upgraded/tinkered with PC hardware. I want to upgrade the RAM on my laptop. Using the tools built into Windows 10, I know that I have 8 GB (in two sticks of 4). So I'm thinking of getting two sticks of 8 GB. Here's what I'm wondering about - Windows says my RAM is 2400 MHz, but this RAM kit is 1600 MHz. Is this a problem? Is 16 GB of 1600 MHz RAM better than 8 GB of 2400 MHz RAM? Next: I think my system uses DDR3. What's the difference between DDR4 and 3? If I accidentally buy DDR4 RAM, can I still use it? Cheers guys. Apologies for my noobishness.

DDR3 and DDR4 are not compatible, and the slots should also be physically incompatible. 2400MHz sounds like DDR4 speeds to me, and 1600 is more DDR3 territory, but it varies.

The first thing you can do is double check the frequency you are running at, Windows sometimes doesn't report quite correctly. HWiNFO is excellent, and the sensors only mode should show you the memory clock if you scroll down a little, just double whatever it shows (Double Data Rate memory) and that is what your RAM is running at. For example I have 3000MHz DDR4, and in HWiNFO my memory clock is 1,499.5 .

You should also open up the laptop, hopefully it has a handy little hatch for easy access to the RAM slots. Then you can see the model number on the SODIMM's, usually a little label. Sometimes the code includes the rated frequency within it. Ideally you want to get another kit of the same stuff, or as close as possible.

GurtTractor

And a quick general FYI for everyone here; generally you need to tell the motherboard's BIOS to run memory at a particular speed, otherwise it will default to the standard for the DDR specification, 2133MHz for DDR4 IIRC. If you bought a swanky kit of RAM that's rated for say, 3200MHz, and you plopped it in you motherboard and didn't change any BIOS settings then it most likely isn't running at the faster speed. Any decent motherboard should have some memory profiles that you can enable to match your RAM, typically known as XMP profiles. Just select it and it should sort out all the tricky timing and voltage settings for you and get it up to speed.

hunk

Blue Swirl wrote:

Cheers, Face. EDIT: Yeah, 'more is better' was all I needed to know when I upgraded the RAM on my Mac mini.

In other news, fuck me. I just noticed you can get the exact same RAM kit in 1.5 and 1.35 volts. What the fuck is that about.

Normal ddr3 ram operates at 1.5v and laptop ram, so dimm l-ddr3 only needs about 1.35v.
Sodimm l-ddr3 ram also uses a slightly smaller pin arrangement but should slot fine in a ddr3 slot. Otherwise they are the same.

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/373090/Ram+Upgrade:+can+I+use+DDR3L+instead+of+DDR3

I'll be doing a similar upgrade with my laptop soon.

GurtTractor

Kow wrote:

I don't think speed, Mhz, etc actually means much though. More gb of ram is what will make the difference.

If you are running out of RAM when using multiple programs or hungry games then more will definitely make things smoother. Also if you have a graphics setup with a small amount of VRAM then RAM can be used to hold texture data and such, and a meager RAM buffer here can cause stuttering.

Faster RAM speeds can definitely make things run faster and smoother, but it varies on application and platform. Some games like Fallout 4 benefit a lot from having fast RAM (IIRC), and AMD Ryzen based systems really benefit a lot from fast RAM, more so than with Intel currently.

Blue Swirl

Cheers Gurt, HWiNFO is a top wee program.

HWiNFO says I have 8GB of DDR4 SDRAM running at 1200 MHz. So applying Gurt's rule, that's actually 2400 MHz. Awesome. So all I need to do now is get myself a set of screwdrivers so I can do a visual confirmation. (Sadly, while my laptop is pretty good for upgradability/repairability, there's no easy way of looking at the insides, and the screw driver on my pen knife wasn't doing the trick.)

The Daddy

Right, £6.33 is burning a hole in my steam wallet, can I do better than the borderlands collection for just under £5?

Minnesänger

How much is Aquaria right now? Recommended it to DS the other day, but it’s an absolute cracker.

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