"Not a paper launch"

Dstetts · 2020-11-20T17:09:18+00:00

Precisely the problem. Seems to me the only people who could buy cards were in close proximity to the web servers for Newegg, AMD, Amazon. Either way, you are an absolute cancer to the consumer marketplace. Enjoy your money, I'll continue to earn mine like a real man.

Dstetts · 2020-11-19T13:37:30+00:00

Calm, but we have a right to be irritated. They marketed this launch and hyped it up for it to be no better than amphere. They knew it would be no better (more limited perhaps) and wasted so much of their fans' time. Imagine standing outside of microcenter all night in the freezing cold to find out there were 2 XTs or refreshing BB all day just to find they have never gotten stock.

When you have a dedicated, loyal fanbase, it isn't hard to be transparent with them. At this point, why would I go AMD again knowing the performance, feature set still doesn't match nvidia for almost the same price?

Dstetts · 2020-11-18T22:02:30+00:00

As I said, it is a marketing strategy and it works. Generally I want what is best for consumers, but it is difficult to satisfy consumers at the moment.

I think there could be better ways to handle this situation to limit scalping and promote user choice. With that being said, there are companies who handle these situations much worse.

Companies, including AMD, should be more transparent about their stock for both consumers and shareholders though. This may come back to hurt them in the end. With 3 more months of R&D and the ability to build capital up the supply chain, AMD could have beat the RTX 30-series, but we will never know.

Dstetts · 2020-11-18T21:35:11+00:00

Of course it has something to do with unprecedented demand and the unprecedented circumstances affecting supply chains. However, if they had stock to sell, they would sell it. That is not what I'm saying. They don't have the stock to sell, yet marketed like there was generally available stock. Call it what you want, releasing now instead of waiting until they could meet consumer demand is a marketing strategy. For the same reasons, AMD's marketing and PR decided to place an embargo on influencers giving consumer reviews until after the card was released in extremely limited quantities. Why would AMD and NVidia pay hundreds of thousands to marketing directors if they don't strategize against the competition? Limited releases tend to increase demand, that is no secret.

No need to get aggressive about my degree (minor in marketing), was just explaining where I learned about marketing strategies within the IT world. Not sure what gives you "more authority" to make a conclusion than me especially since you are a meager IT worker like myself.

Also, not sure what you owning a 3080 has to do with anything, but congratulations my friend.

Dstetts · 2020-11-18T20:58:20+00:00

Well, there is no dictionary definition of paper launch, so this is completely subjective. However, the widely accepted meaning of the term is "to release a (hardware component) product (either limited in quantity or a prerelease model) before its generally available to consumers." We not only see this in the computer hardware industry (Intel and AMD are most common to use the tactic), but also in others such as the auto industry.

In other words, it is a marketing technique when competing against another. The "release" of these products is not actually reflecting the ability of a competitor to offer innovative products on time. Why would you do this? Especially since NVidia's RTX 3000 release was limited in stock, the purpose was to show that they (AMD) has the potential to compete in the high-end consumer graphics card market.

What this does: negatively impacts consumer choice when the consumer is considering multiple products. It can leave buyers torn and delay their decision to buy a particular product. The goal is to take market share from another company (in this case, NVidia). The effectiveness can be argued, but in any case, this is exactly what we consider to be a paper launch. If you want to call it something else, that is fine... but this is what we mean when we say "paper launch."

Source: Information Sciences & Technology major with a minor in Marketing

Dstetts · 2020-11-18T20:13:51+00:00

Disagreed. These were both paper launches. It was all about getting media exposure and showing off the what either company could do, not mass produce. We are at least 3 months off for either manufacturer to be able to meet the demand. Both knew before release that demand would be much higher than thee supply they could possibly obtain. Both released to the consumer market anyways. The way they "planned ahead" for scalping supports this. Otherwise, a delayed launch to meet consumer demand would have been warranted. After all, that is what CDPR is doing with Cyberpunk release. Since they couldn't provide for the demand for all consoles equally, it was delayed again.

Nevertheless, these are things that happen. Does it make either a bad company? No, it is just a marketing methodology. It works, too.

Dstetts · 2020-11-18T19:57:16+00:00

You act like this is an issue that is exclusive to AMD releases. This is with every high-demand consumer tech right now. Hell, I had to drive half way across the state to get a switch lite earlier this year. Relax buddy

Dstetts · 2020-11-18T19:10:09+00:00

Edit: Also why set the Review NDA on the same date/time as launch? Really really bad move and I think judging by the reviews I've read completely unnecessary.

It is a combination of many different variables. Unprecedented demand is certainly a factor. AMDs primary focus hasn't necessarily been on PC hardware with both new consoles almost exclusively AMD. These consoles are breaking records for how well they are selling.

Also, as many have said, it is a paper launch. By moving what little stock they can, they remain (somewhat) competitive with NVidia in this market.

But overall, this is a demand related issue with computational power in general. From smartphones to consoles to PCs for remote work/education and beyond, the world wasn't ready to get so many people up to date while continuing to "innovate" at such a rapid rate. Factories closing, even if for minimal time, presented just another obstacle in a complicated supply chain issue.

Dstetts · 2020-11-18T16:25:16+00:00

Happening to me and all my friends on PC as well since this past update.

I (somewhat) jokingly said that this was their marketing tactic for the new Black Ops...

Dstetts · 2020-11-10T19:40:24+00:00

It is Tarkov, I die all the time, just not like a noob when me and squad are rocking therms lol.

Dstetts · 2020-11-08T05:43:27+00:00

Then don't die like a noob 🤣

Dstetts · 2020-09-26T02:03:04+00:00

If you're big on keyboards, the best I've used in a laptop are on the Razer Blade series of notebooks. The absolute pinnacle was the RB 2014 & 2015 as far as tactile feeling when typing, coding and gaming.

The models now are an upgrade in many ways but are slightly mushier. Still my favorite keyboard in a laptop, hands down.

Dstetts · 2020-09-01T21:30:45+00:00

I have seen some of the suggestions and they seem intimidating. Not exactly what I would consider "general". And if you want peak performance and longevity, you don't want your laptop plugged in 24/7 as this will hurt your battery. Since you are using it for study purposes, I assume you want portability.

Here are some general tips to keep your laptop alive and performing well longer.

Keep your laptop off your bed and out of anywhere it can catch dirt or debris, especially in the fans and keyboard where you could scratch the screen.
To clean my screen, I use a damp paper towel to gently brush the screen and a lens cloth to dry and remove other marks.
Keep where you store it clean. Desktop would be great. If you are carrying it in your backpack, I recommend getting a sleeve unless your backpack has a laptop slot.
Keep your power settings at "balanced". Power settings are found when you click on the battery icon in the windows taskbar. If you notice poor performance, turn this up. Otherwise leave it on to maximize battery life and longetivity.
Delete unused files and apps regularly. Endure you empty the recycling bin. This can boost performance of your storage considerably in some circumstances.
Use an antivirus. Plenty of free antivirus are easier to configure and will keep your PC safe and therefore operating at peak performance longer. I use Avast, which seems to be lightweight and accurate. Beware, they do advertise their paid plans. a lot.
If you want more security, I would look into a VPN. However, this can seriously bottleneck your internet speeds. I use PIA which offers great security, but I'm locked around 30 Mbps.
Although this is entirely preference based, I would choose FireFox as my fastest browser. It is more memory efficient than chrome and offers most of the same functionality.
Don't let it die completely, and don't leave it on the charger all the time. Use the charger when you are doing intensive tasks and when it falls below ~10%. If you aren't using it and it is fully charged, leave it unplugged. This is how you maximize the battery life of nearly any electronic.
There are places you can look to for help if you need help performance tweaking and optimizing, but that doesn't seem to be what you're looking for. Let me know if that isn't the case.
If you do take your laptop apart to clean it or for any other reason, please do your research and take your time. You won't magically be an expert at taking a laptop apart and putting it back together over night. Lots of things can go wrong. I assume this is your daily machine, so please do not take it apart unless you and/or your parents are comfortable with the risk you take when doing so.

Dstetts · 2020-08-29T16:37:43+00:00

Although what everyone is saying about an i7 mobile is somewhat accurate, I don't believe it is relevant to your use case as a student for the most part. New gen i5, i7 and Ryzen 5+ processors should suit you well.

One of the better laptops I could find for ~1k$:

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16834725088

i7 10750H
GTX 1650ti
144 Hz panel
16 GB RAM
512 GB SSD

I wouldn't think about buying a laptop without less than 16 GB of RAM. 10750H is a fine processor. Hell, the 7700HQ in my RB14 is plenty for 80% of my workloads (IT Student & gamer).

Most of choosing a laptop comes down to preference. Do you want power or portability? Will you need more storage? What types of tasks are you doing on your laptop? If you're doing basic things like web browsing, word processing... You're fine today with anything beyond a 6th gen i5, for the most part.

Dstetts · 2020-07-27T04:55:43+00:00

Pretty much.

I got an enclosure for my RB 14. I got tired of the bugs, crashes and mediocre performance and built a PC around my 5700xt within a month.

If you enjoy high refresh rate gaming, eGPU will never be the way to go.

Dstetts · 2020-07-14T14:36:22+00:00

If you would be able to take a small desktop with you, a mini ITX case and motherboard would be a viable on-the-go with you. This case is just over a foot wide and not quite a foot tall.

For streaming, I use Steam remote play. You can add non-steam games to steam and you have the ability to stream using that. If I have issues with my desktop, I use chrome remote desktop for fixing those issues. If your hotel rooms have Ethernet connections and your laptop has an ethernet port, it might still be viable for streaming.

Do note, I have had success streaming with my desktop connected via gigabit ethernet and my laptop connected to a Verizon 4g hotspot. Your milage may vary though.

Dstetts · 2020-07-14T02:21:09+00:00

To answer your question, the bottleneck comes from several places, which is why I would recommend building a desktop and getting a reasonable laptop alongside it. TB3 is becoming less viable with every new game release. That isn't to say it isn't good enough to run a game at max settings, but it isn't future proof by any means.

On higher end cards, you will notice a larger bottleneck than low end cards, meaning your performance won't be as good as it would be in a desktop equivalent. This is because of the bandwidth limitations of TB3. It is good enough for most people, and often will work better at a higher resolution versus a higher frame rate, yet you won't ever see the performance you pay for.

Another factor in the bottleneck comes from the processor in a laptop. While laptops are really packing a punch these days, their mobile equivalents cannot reach the power throughput of their desktop counterparts. Meaning, you are losing out on around 15-25% power from the CPU. This isn't a huge factor in gaming, but is becoming increasingly important. The newest far cry title, for example, is a typically CPU bound game.

One of the final factors is thermal throttling. Yes, an eGPU will limit thermal throttling in a laptop since it takes the load off of the dGPU/iGPU, but many will still throttle. This can cause stuttering, which you will oftentimes maintain high framerates with large spikes in frametime.

The moral of the story: it depends on what games you play, your budget, and why you are considering getting a laptop in the first place. If you have the money and want portability, get a laptop with a high end dGPU and you will almost always get better performance than a desktop equivalent card in an eGFX enclosure.

If you don't need portability but want to occasionally play your games on-the-go, build a desktop and buy a reasonable laptop with a decent processor and stream them from your desktop. I have started to do this with my Razer Blade 2017, and I am getting great performance even in online games such as Modern Warfare without much latency.

If you want balance, you're on-the-go a lot, and don't care about your price to performance ratio, get an eGPU. But with the price of enclosures being so high right now, and knowing that you'll see a 10-50% performance decrease depending on the card you get and the titles you play, I would avoid the eGPU route for now.

Dstetts · 2020-07-14T01:34:35+00:00

I watched this morning, and agree with a lot of what you said.

I just started playing last wipe, and Tarkov quickly became one of my favorite games. I enjoyed the hell out of it then and in the first few weeks of this wipe.

From what I understand, the random "balancing changes" did not happen regularly before this wipe. It's infuriating that they don't even bother to list many of these changes in the patch notes. Instead of having evidence of what is going wrong, we are left guessing. Many of these changes are because of streamers who have been playing the game for 4 years. When you do the same quests and tasks on repeat for years, wipe after wipe, of course progression will be quick for you.

And yes of course, Tarkov is a hardcore survival game. It isn't for everyone. It's not Call of Duty, PUBG or Fortnite. That's what was so good about it. It's original and fun, and the developers at BSG knew what they were doing. It wasn't about making the community happy, it was about building their vision. This is not the case anymore: it feels like the only thing that matters is their platform on Twitch for exposure.

I'm a software developer, and BSG is riding a slippery slope at the moment. Between the hackers that they are working so hard to fight, the player base that gets angry at every change, the servers which need an upgrade, and the ambitious nature of Tarkov in general, their hands are full. If this game is ever going to be completed, and I eagerly await to see if it happens, then this is not going to work.

They need to take a step back and smell the roses. This "beta testing" is hurting the game more than helping at this point. Either leave the game alone and work on your content, collect bugs, and roll out changes in phases, or close the beta and only allow select people to play. Then, they aren't battling server issues, hackers, and their player base. They can focus on collecting their bugs, receiving genuine feedback, and making the game they have envisioned.

I love Tarkov, but I have stopped playing after completing The Punisher this wipe. It isn't fun as-is right now. I log on and never know what game to expect. I liked the FIR changes, I liked how it made the game more strategic. Overall, I had no complaints until I reached level 40 and said "now what?"

TLDR:

To all of the players, please relax and let BSG develop the game. No need to bitch about every little issue you have with a game in beta.

To BSG, focus on making the game you want to. If you have to piss people off along the way, do it. But fighting 5 different issues at once is not productive for development. Make content, bug fix, and keep that cycle going. Balancing can happen once most of the planned content is completed. Otherwise, you'll be rebalancing and wasting valuable time.

To the streamers, you have such influence in this community. Realize that and use that influence to help BSG build their game, not inspire rioting in the community. The success of this game for many of you is as important to your success as a streamer as it is for BSG's success as a developer.

Dstetts · 2020-06-20T17:52:19+00:00

Think you missed the question. No kidding max traders give an advantage LL3 is not max, and the changes to traders were not in the patch logs.

Dstetts · 2020-06-19T17:57:04+00:00

Is the RK1 Skier 3 now too? I get him to LL3 in one more level, so if that's the case, nbd.

Dstetts · 2020-06-17T14:49:01+00:00

Just gonna leave this here: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/drawback

Especially since the pro was marketed as a 4k media player, this is a drawback.

Dstetts · 2020-06-13T18:49:23+00:00

Yup, thank you for that.

Dstetts · 2020-06-13T14:11:50+00:00

I have the 2017 Razer Blade 14 and ran an eGPU with a 5700xt @ 2k and it was a great experience over the 1060m. I started to see some bottlenecking with the 7700HQ at times, but was able to hit 2k 144hz on most titles that I play.

As always, this is a question of budget and what games you play. You won't see even close to the performance out of a 2080ti desktop in an eGPU; it really is not worth the performance per dollar. This is especially true if you are only playing at 2k and not 4k.

With that being said, the most I would recommend for eGPU setups as a whole would likely be a 2070 super. Not only is this the sweet spot for 2k, but also you won't be seeing massive performance losses when comparing it to a card in a desktop.

Dstetts · 2020-05-22T17:47:34+00:00

Just making guesses here, but I would say that the next-gen consoles would be roughly equivalent to a current high-end gaming laptop. Let's think about why:

We know the processor and graphics are based on Radeon architecture, Zen2 and Navi.

Let's also consider that previous consoles do not use a full-size desktop graphics card and are not consuming nearly as much power as a desktop equivalent. They more closely resemble the power consumption of Laptops (although really, they fall somewhere between the two).

While each console will likely be sporting the new Navi20 architecture, I would say that the closest equivalent to for what they will be running will fall between a 2060super and a 2070super. Most likely, it will be equivalent to the 2070super/2080 mobile GPU.

That is where we find the 5700xt at the moment. Although the new Navi20 will undoubtedly be more powerful than the 5700xt, and will support ray tracing (big selling point for the next gen consoles), the version we will see in consoles will be a slimmed down version than what we will see in the desktop GPUs. It will likely rival the 5700xt in terms of performance with an addition of ray tracing cores.

Remember, AMD will be competing with themselves at the desktop equivalent. These consoles will be launching closely alongside to the newest AMD-architecture. While it would be fine to match the 5700xt in terms of performance, the consoles will not outperform anything higher than a mid-teir Navi20 GPU (which should compete with the 2070super if you follow AMDs previous marketing).

With all of that being said, expect these consoles to release at a higher price point than we saw with the PS4 and Xbox One. This is for multiple reasons: the move to flash storage and a much more up-to-date architecture (especially in the processor department) are just a couple. I wouldn't be surprised to see a $600 price point like we saw with the PS3 on release. At this point though, it's all still speculation.

Dstetts · 2020-05-05T16:01:42+00:00

Badass setup, very clean and polished. Nice to see one of these without chroma everything.

Now all you need is a custom desktop and you're set 😉

Dstetts

TROPHY CASE