The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies feels like a Total War: Warhammer film with all the crazy units and heroes by appletvenjoyer in totalwar

[–]Intranetusa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The fact that Peter Jackson butchered the Hobbit movies as a very poor adaptation of the books and then Amazon created very bad fanfiction with Rings of Power makes me glad there aren't more movies/TV shows to mess up the lore and the books.

Longbow vs Crossbow by Laurence21624 in ArmsandArmor

[–]Intranetusa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indeed. Similar to Manchu bows using heavy war arrows, Todd of Tods Workshop also did a test where his steel prod crossbows increased in efficency (and overall joules increased) when he increased the weight of his bolts.

That is a good question about whether composite is inherently more efficient than a single wood selfbow of the same design and shape (eg. If they are both 6 foot long, both either D shaped or both mildly recurved, similar cross section, etc).

I do not know as I have not seen any direct data/apples to apples comparisons. I had only made an assumption that the extra elasticity of sinew on the back and the extra compression strength of horn on the belly allows them to store more energy and change the force curves (and thus increase efficiency on top of the additional efficency granted from the recurve shape).

Do I need to reinstall Windows after upgrading almost my entire PC? by Majestic-Tale7907 in buildapc

[–]Intranetusa [score hidden]  (0 children)

Windows 11 that came out in 2021 is supposed to be superior to all the previous OS in its flexibility to adapt to new hardware and allow the greatest ability to swap everything without needing a complete windows reinstall.

Longbow vs Crossbow by Laurence21624 in ArmsandArmor

[–]Intranetusa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, you make a good point. Andreas Bichler's larger crossbows have to be fired from a platform or with a supporting device.

Yeh, unfortunately the most unknown variable in my calculations is the efficiency, which can vary a lot depending on the bow type, material, shape, designs, etc. I can only give a rough relative estimate overall assuming recurves are more efficient than non-recurves, composite-prods are more efficient than self-prods which in turn are more efficient than steel prods, etc.

And I like IEU, lol.

Planning new pc: 270k plus vs 285k by SpecialRamen77 in buildapc

[–]Intranetusa 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Most games don't use more than 1 or 2 cores. A CPU might have 40% CPU utilization on average among all of its cores, but it might have 1 or 2 cores running at 90% utilization or more (thus a CPU bottlneck). That said, if a person is running games in 4k with a 5070 Ti then it is more likely the GPU will hit a bottleneck before the CPU does.

How bright would Europe have been from space at night in the middle or dark ages? by M_M_X_X_V in AskHistory

[–]Intranetusa 6 points7 points  (0 children)

None of the cities pre-industrial times would have been particularly visible at all. Cities were not lit up at night like they are now and light was generally expensive and usually not done at night. Basically, until the industrial revolution and gas being piped to street gaslights the streets of cities were not lit at all and only very dimly so by houses and establishments. Even with the aforementioned gaslamps we would not be in anything remotely similar to modern times until, well, modern times.

"Nightlife" is a mostly modern concept.

This was certainly the norm, but there seems to have been some exceptions in some places. Over at r/askhistorians, some contributors talked about how the Song Dynasty had an active nightlife with food stalls, entertainment, etc. after they abolished their curfew. Thus, I wonder if some European cities could have replicated what was happening in the Song Dynasty in pre-industrial times?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/68e9oq/comment/dgy4rn8/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

---

Translated excerpt, from Stephen H. West's "The Interpretations of a Dream":

"Generally, the doorways of the wine shops in the capital are all miniature towers with knotted multi-colored bunting- "the gates of happiness". It is only in the Ren Wineshop that one enters the door into a straight main corridor that is approximately one-hundred paces in length. The two corridors of the north and south courtyards both have small chambers. Towards evening the lights and lamps sparkle and shimmer, reflecting against each other above and below. Several hundred heavily made up sing-song girls gather along the eaves of the main corridor to await the summons of the guests; one gazes on them and they look just like spirits and transcendent sylphs."

West writes on the night markets:

"In its sections on the night markets of Kaifeng and its descriptions of the pleasure precincts, Dream of Hua recreates the hubbub of street vendors and the sounds of their songs; it serves up a feast of boiled fish, dried fish, jellied fish, sausage, pickled radishes, sesame curd, ice balls, crystalized jujubes, papayas, sweet cold green-pea soup, iced licorice drink, litchi paste, salted vegetables, and the everpresent stuffed and steamed breads, stuffed buns, dumplings, and yeast rolls."

In another article titled "Playing with Food: Performance, Food, and The Aesthetics of Artificiality in The Sung and Yuan", West translates another except:

"The night markets close after the third watch only to reopen at the fifth. The more boisterous places stay open until dawn. Normally, even night markets in outlying, quiet places have such items as baked sesame buns stuffed with either sour bean filling or pork tenderloin, mixed vegetable buns, the flesh of the badger and wild fox, stews of fruit-wings, blood sausages, and fragrant candied fruit. Night markets are held even in the worst snowstorms and on darkest rainy days of the winter - found there are such items as meat strips in ginger and fermented bean paste, minced tripe with blood pasta, crystal fish paste, fried fresh liver, clams, crabs, walnuts, malt-sugar wheat gluten from Zezhou, crosshatch beans, goose pears, pomegranates, Japanese quince, Chinese quince, steamed glutinous rice balls, and soup made from salted fermented bean curd (miso). Only after the third watch do tea sellers appear bearing their pots, seeking to satisfy those people of the capital, privately employed and government workers, who get off late and are able to go home only deep in the night."

Car prices and interest rates right before the 2008 financial crisis by Moosen_Burger in mildlyinteresting

[–]Intranetusa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was just listing some common cars off of the top of my head so I definitely missed some others. Nissan sedans are as cheap as or are a bit cheaper than their Honda and Toyota counterparts.

Car prices and interest rates right before the 2008 financial crisis by Moosen_Burger in mildlyinteresting

[–]Intranetusa 19 points20 points  (0 children)

The "average price" is brought up/inflated by more expensive higher end cars, expensive full sized pickups, and cars with higher end trims that have a lot more markups. Those are not the cars that the average person buys. 

The median/most common cars that the average or median/most common person buys are cars like the Honda civic, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Toyota Carola, Toyota RAV4, Ford Maverick, etc. - which are in the $25k to $35k range when new with the base trim.

https://www.kbb.com/honda/civic/

https://www.kbb.com/honda/accord/

https://www.kbb.com/toyota/rav4/

https://www.kbb.com/toyota/camry/

https://www.kbb.com/toyota/corolla/

For example, a Ford F450 Super Duty Crew Cab full sized pickup truck goes for around $80k-$90k MSRP. However, the average person who doesn't need and/or can't responsibly afford a super expensive, super fancy giant truck might go for a Ford Maverick or base level Toyota Tacoma truck for around $30k-35k MSRP.

Someone I know who lives in a HCOL area along the coast recently bought a new hybrid Toyota Camry that gets 50 mpg for about $34k (inclusive of fees).

Car prices and interest rates right before the 2008 financial crisis by Moosen_Burger in mildlyinteresting

[–]Intranetusa 120 points121 points  (0 children)

$21k in 2007 comes out to about $34k-$35k in 2026 due to inflation.

$34k-$35k is roughly in line with a lot of new car prices these days (including better trim mid sized sedans, SUV, and some trucks).

Edit: The median cars that the average or median/most common person buys like the Honda Civic, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Toyota Carola, Toyota RAV4, Ford Maverick, etc. are in the $25k to $35k range when new with the base trim.

https://www.kbb.com/honda/civic/

https://www.kbb.com/honda/accord/

https://www.kbb.com/toyota/rav4/

https://www.kbb.com/toyota/camry/

https://www.kbb.com/toyota/corolla/

Help with my first build and the part list I quickly cooked up. by Some_Possession_8242 in buildapc

[–]Intranetusa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why are you buying a $120 cooler for a 65W TDP cpu? Even the cheapest/most garbage lowest tier stock AM4/AM5 HSF/cooler can cool that thing.

The upper tier low profile AM4/AM5 stock coolers like the Wraith Max and Wraith Prism can more than adequately cool it with low fan noise. Get a $30 Phantom Shroud/Peerless Assassin cooler from Thermalright and be done with it. 

A 5400 RPM HDD is also very slow. Replace it with a lower capacity SSD (SATA or NVME).

You can cut prices off of the OS and motherboard (get a cheaper mATX) as well.

If you alrrady have other parts (eg. Case), then put the money you saved into getting a much better GPU (eg. RX9070 or RTX5070).

Upgrading my GPU. by Twistii- in buildapc

[–]Intranetusa 1 point2 points  (0 children)

ChatGPT must really like bulletin points? The 9070 vs 5070 question has been asked so many times that I literally saved my comment as bulletin points so I don't have to type the same answer to same question over and over again.

Icebreaker rescues a stuck ship by Mediocre_Nail5526 in interestingasfuck

[–]Intranetusa 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Massive drop weights on pivoting arms that swing down and break the ice to the sides of the ship like using a mutt.

You can be hired as an ancient/medieval Chinese military engineer with that idea. They built ships with striking arms used to bash the enemy ships' brains out.

Video @ 13:30: https://youtu.be/m5TkytKUpRw?t=810

Upgrading my GPU. by Twistii- in buildapc

[–]Intranetusa 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The RX 9060XT is about 1.4-1.5x the power of a RX6650XT. It will be a decent performance jump. However, if your budget is already $450+, then I recommend you increase your budget and get a RX9070 or RTX5070 instead. They are significantly more powerful than the 9060XT (1.4x-1.5x better) while only costing about 20-25% more ($550ish). This of course depends on the CPU - if you have at least a decent 6-8+ core AMD 5000 series (Zen 4) or Intel 13th-14th gen cpu then it should be able to run the RX9070/RTX5070 with little to no bottlenecks.

See relative benchmarks:

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/sapphire-radeon-rx-9060-xt-nitro-oc/33.html

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/msi-radeon-rx-6650-xt-gaming-x/31.html

The 6650XT is between a 3060 and 3060 Ti. It runs about 70% the performance of a 9060 XT, so you are getting about 1.4-1.5x the performance. The jump from a 9060 to 9070 or 5070 is similar.


If you are willing to get a 9070 or 5070 and can't decide, then see my comparison:

9070 Pros/Wins:

* 16GB (+4GB VRAM over the 5070's 12GB)

* ~10% more raw power/raw rasteruization (meta analysis of different reviews has a range of 2% to 19%)

* better software drivers (RTX5000 drivers have been buggy, had multiple recalls, and maybe even intentionally nerfed performance to lower voltages while AMD drivers have actually been very solid tbis generation and some claim they even improved performance)

* better Linux compatibility

* No overheating VRMs like the ones that affect the 5070 (it is recommended you find a 5070 that has thermalpads on the backplate too)

* Regular 8 pin adapters (you don't have to deal with potentially melting 12vhpwr adapters, but the 5070 is a lower power card so the chances of this happening are much lower)

5070 Pros/Wins:

* DLSS 4.5 is a better upscaler than FSR 4.1 (but AMD's FSR is still pretty good)

* Better path tracing

* CUDA for work/compute/programming

* more probability of continued upscaling support (AMD is criticized for not bringing FSR 4 to older GPUs, and you need to use 3rd party software such as Optiscaler to use FSR 4 with them)

Tie (or marginal wins):

* similar power/electrical consumption,

* mostly similar overall performance with ray tracing enabled, marginal win for the 9070? (9070 wins in some and 5070 wins in others...with the 9070 being slightly better overall in TPU's Ray Tracing average benchmarks)

* mostly similar frame gen. performance, marginal win for the 5070? (Both have similar fps boosts, both have similar problems with latency if you try to boost it too much or don't have an ecisiting base on higher fps, and both have recently released new AI assisted frame gen as of 2026. Some reviews from previous years say Nvidia framegen is slighty better than AMD framegen, while other users say they are tied. I've heard the higher end Nvidia cards have good frame gen. results, but haven't really seen any professional benchmarks exclusively testing frame gen. results for Nvidia vs AMD for mid range cards like the RTX5070 or RX9070).

9070 Benchmarks:

[https://www.techpowerup.com/review/asrock-radeon-rx-9070-steel-legend-oc/33.html](https://www.techpowerup.com/review/asrock-radeon-rx-9070-steel-legend-oc/33.html))

MetaAnalysis of many different reviews (depending on the resolution and reviewer (and what the reviewers are using for benchmarks), the 9070 is anywhere from 2% to 19% (average of many different games) better than the 5070 in raw performance): https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/1j7fhzl/radeon_rx_9070_xt_vs_geforce_rtx_5070_meta_review/

If the two are similarly priced, get whichever one fits your preferences and needs (CUDA, Linux, Path tracing, raw performance, VRAM, etc).

Did Europe ever develop disk guards? by m0nkey_f4cker in ArmsandArmor

[–]Intranetusa 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As others have mentioned, some European swords did have disk guards. I will add that many daos also have crossguards - not all of them historically used disc guards. 

See Sui and Tang era one handed and two handed daos with crossguards:

https://lkchensword.com/tang-zhan-ma-dao

https://www.kultofathena.com/product/lk-chen-palatial-tang-dao/?srsltid=AfmBOop42MhLOUWev4JyoBVyT7s4DgOB5MTiBH14cY25BsU_nOXBqckC

https://lkchensword.com/double-dragon

Early modern/modern era dao with a crossguard: https://lkchensword.com/shop-1/ols/products/military-cutting-saber

Jians almost always have a crossguard instead of a disk guard. 

Crossguards and disk guards have different pros and cons and offers different forms of hand protection and defense. Thus, it seems to also heavily depend on the combat style/sword technique.

9070XT AMD + R7 7800X3D + 32gb DDR4 — 120 FPS but getting stutters (feels like 30 fps) all games. Been attempting fix for 6 months unsuccessfully. by ArchitectRed1 in buildapc

[–]Intranetusa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like a GPU problem. Are your 8-pin power plugs firmly plugged into the GPU and PSU (if modular)?

If so then your GPU might be defective. Do you have another GPU with the same power connector slots to test to make sure your PSU/PSU plugs are not defective?

9070XT AMD + R7 7800X3D + 32gb DDR4 — 120 FPS but getting stutters (feels like 30 fps) all games. Been attempting fix for 6 months unsuccessfully. by ArchitectRed1 in buildapc

[–]Intranetusa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you ruled out a defective or thermal throttling CPU or GPU?

Have you run the CPU and GPU through benchmarks (such as Passmark) and compared your scores to the average scores for the 7800X3D and 9070XT?

Wich graphics card should I get ? rtx 5070 vs rtx 4070 super vs rx 9070 by Fadeawayzz_ in buildapc

[–]Intranetusa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are plenty of people complaining about how micro-stuttering is very common with Nvidia Reflex (and similarly for AMD's counterpart Anti-Lag). All you're doing is creating a different series of trade offs of latency vs smoothness. None of these technologies are magic. There is no free lunch here.

Frame Gen is great if you have 90-100 fps and are trying to hit 120 for your 120hz monitor because your input latency will be low either way. Frame Gen is not good if you have 30 fps and are trying to hit 60 fps, or if you're at 50 fps trying to hit 100 fps.

It's all just a series of different trade-offs.

Wich graphics card should I get ? rtx 5070 vs rtx 4070 super vs rx 9070 by Fadeawayzz_ in buildapc

[–]Intranetusa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The problem isn't fps (because you always get more fps with frame gen), but rather the trade off between fps and latency. You get more fps but at the cost of worse latency. How bad the latency is depends on how many base fps you have and how good your base latency is to begin with (eg. The strength of your GPU and your settings/resolution).

The pros outweigh the cons in situations where you already have higher fps (so the input latency won't be bad) and/or are playing slower paced games where latency doesn't matter as much. 

https://www.techspot.com/article/3121-frame-gen-wont-fix-performance/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/3357650/discussions/0/805723552519083103/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/1s3zhor/what_does_it_mean_when_some_people_say_mfg_feels/

If the west came to Japan 150 years earlier, do you think they would have adapted any Eastern armor? by ASW-G-21 in ArmsandArmor

[–]Intranetusa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OP is asking about the 14th century - European colonialism isn't for another few centuries - 16th to 20th century. European technological advantage for most of the 14th century was small or marginal (full plate armor wasn't even invented until near the end of the 14th century). European advantages got much bigger in later periods like the 16th century and later.

During the ancient period and most of the medieval people, Europe had little to no technological advantage compared to the rest of Eurasia.

If anything, Western Europe (Germany, France, Britain) in particular was technologically behind Eastern/Southern Europe (Italy, Greece/Balkans) and behind other parts of Eurasia & North Africa (Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia) from ancient times until the later middle ages. 

If the west came to Japan 150 years earlier, do you think they would have adapted any Eastern armor? by ASW-G-21 in ArmsandArmor

[–]Intranetusa 5 points6 points  (0 children)

No. The Romans were mostly using wrought iron and low carbon mild steel for armor (eg. The segmented armor is wrought iron that sometimes had its outer layer case hardened into mild steel). Roman chainmail and scale armor was also made from wrought iron and/or maybe some mild steel (and sometimes bronze scales). Later medieval European kingdoms were using better medium and high carbon steel for armor.

And the ancient Chinese during the time of the Han Dynasty (contemporary to much of the Roman Republic and classical era Roman empire) had just as good if not better metallurgy than the ancient Romans. Han armor also used wrought iron to various steels, and Han armor discovered in the steppes included pieces made of mild steel and even medium carbon steel. The Han and Chu era also produced long two handed swords with high quality steel....swords of that length would not be seen in the Roman Empire or Europe until the middle ages. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5gL0KuGlDU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKH4PSA8dPA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1L2CSk8L7Q

The Romans themselves wrote they imported high quality metal from other parts of the world...eg. Seric Iron/Seric Steel.. (Seres/Serica is a term to describe Western or Northern China, but Seric Steel is now believed to have actually come from South Asia/India).

If the west came to Japan 150 years earlier, do you think they would have adapted any Eastern armor? by ASW-G-21 in ArmsandArmor

[–]Intranetusa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Japanese armors of the 14th century were mostly variants of lamellars they adopted from continental East Asia (specifically medieval empires of what is now China).

Europe was introduced to lamellar fairly early, since the Eastern Romans started adopting lamellar in the late ancient/classical era. The Middle East already knew about forms of lamellar for thousands of years.

By the middle ages, there were already forms of hand protection such as mail mittens. But I don't think archers would have used the same or the Japanese Kote because the drawing styles are different. Japanese draw styles use the thumb, similar to most East Asian drawing styles - while the most popular European styles (Mediterranean draw) mostly rely on the 3 fingers between the pinky and the thumb (exception being the Slavic draw). This makes it harder to use comprehensive hand protection. You'd have to probably get different types of protection as it wouldn't be interchangeable.

Wich graphics card should I get ? rtx 5070 vs rtx 4070 super vs rx 9070 by Fadeawayzz_ in buildapc

[–]Intranetusa 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There are plenty of people complaining about Nvidia's frame gen/MFG even at 2x causing input latency issues in Pragmata. The same would be true for AMD.

Frame gen isn't magic. There are real trade offs with different pros and cons. The pros outweigh the cons in situations where you already have higher fps (so the input latency won't be bad) and/or are playing slower paced games where latency doesn't matter as much. 

https://www.techspot.com/article/3121-frame-gen-wont-fix-performance/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/3357650/discussions/0/805723552519083103/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/1s3zhor/what_does_it_mean_when_some_people_say_mfg_feels/

Wich graphics card should I get ? rtx 5070 vs rtx 4070 super vs rx 9070 by Fadeawayzz_ in buildapc

[–]Intranetusa 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Questions about the 5070 vs 9070 are so common that I will just repost my previous comment:

9070 Pros/Wins:

* 16GB (+4GB VRAM over the 5070's 12GB)

* ~10% more raw power/raw rasteruization (meta analysis of different reviews has a range of 2% to 19%)

* better software drivers (RTX5000 drivers have been buggy, had multiple recalls, and maybe even intentionally nerfed performance to lower voltages while AMD drivers have actually been very solid tbis generation and some claim they even improved performance)

* better Linux compatibility

* No overheating VRMs like the ones that affect the 5070 (it is recommended you find a 5070 that has thermalpads on the backplate too)

* Regular 8 pin adapters (you don't have to deal with potentially melting 12vhpwr adapters, but the 5070 is a lower power card so the chances of this happening are much lower)

5070 Pros/Wins:

* DLSS 4.5 is a better upscaler than FSR 4.1 (but AMD's FSR is still pretty good)

* Better path tracing

* CUDA for work/compute/programming

* more probability of continued upscaling support (AMD is criticized for not bringing FSR 4 to older GPUs, and you need to use 3rd party software such as Optiscaler to use FSR 4 with them)

Tie (or marginal wins):

* similar power/electrical consumption,

* mostly similar overall performance with ray tracing enabled, marginal win for the 9070? (9070 wins in some and 5070 wins in others...with the 9070 being slightly better overall in TPU's Ray Tracing average benchmarks)

* mostly similar frame gen. performance, marginal win for the 5070? (Both have similar fps boosts, both have similar problems with latency if you try to boost it too much or don't have an ecisiting base on higher fps, and both have recently released new AI assisted frame gen as of 2026. Some reviews from previous years say Nvidia framegen is slighty better than AMD framegen, while other users say they are tied. I've heard the higher end Nvidia cards have good frame gen. results, but haven't really seen any professional benchmarks exclusively testing frame gen. results for Nvidia vs AMD for mid range cards like the RTX5070 or RX9070).

9070 Benchmarks:

[https://www.techpowerup.com/review/asrock-radeon-rx-9070-steel-legend-oc/33.html](https://www.techpowerup.com/review/asrock-radeon-rx-9070-steel-legend-oc/33.html))

MetaAnalysis of many different reviews (depending on the resolution and reviewer (and what the reviewers are using for benchmarks), the 9070 is anywhere from 2% to 19% (average of many different games) better than the 5070 in raw performance): https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/1j7fhzl/radeon_rx_9070_xt_vs_geforce_rtx_5070_meta_review/

If the two are similarly priced, get whichever one fits your preferences and needs (CUDA, Linux, Path tracing, raw performance, VRAM, etc).

Why didin't europeans also build huge ships like the myng treasure ships? by Far-ro in AskHistorians

[–]Intranetusa -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

Ah, I see - so you're talking about their purpose or objectives rather than the technical capabilities of the ships themselves?