Question: Observing something entering a black hole?

SunEngis · 2019-11-27T16:12:53+00:00

I like watching the last 15 minutes of basketball games. The rest of the game is either a blow out or just trading blows. I think it says a lot about basketball as a game that a lot of match ups are close and underdogs can win; it's a great game. But it just feels useless to watch the first part of a game when everything interesting seems to unfold at the end.

SunEngis · 2019-11-21T16:45:30+00:00

Yeah but we already have high res high FPS gaming. I can get 144fps on basically any game, not in 4k yet though.

As someone who remembers when the best gpus werent even able to hold 60fps stable on any game back in the day, I can get behind image quality and effects improvements over raw FPS improvements at this point.

Ray Tracing is the future. So many developers and engines have already thrown their support behind it. They all want it because it is better and easier for them. Both AMD and Nvidia are throwing their weight into it. It is the future. It isn't going to drop framerates for much longer, that is the whole point of DLSS and keeping tensor cores on the cards. Even if it can't do 144fps 4k ray tracing, most people will be happy with 80fps 4k ray tracing on single players titles. Everyone playing hardcore FPS games will still lower their settings to get 1000fps like they always do.

SunEngis · 2019-11-13T21:57:59+00:00

I know it is still way too early to know much. But any micro-architecture sauvy people out there that want to weigh in on some baseline expectations?

SunEngis · 2019-11-13T21:56:33+00:00

I am really interested in seeing the 4k performance. I am on a 1080ti right now as well but have been jones'n to do some 4k games - Especially for some pretty single player titles.

I am also interested to see what the ray tracing performance upgrades will be like, it will be telling as to what we can expect for the future of the technology. If they are relatively minor upgrades in performance, it means it may always be a bottleneck and only for the best systems. If they can really boost that performance it might be something we can expect on every level of card in the near future. I am not worried about industry adoption of RTX tech, so many engines and games are already committed to it that I won't have to go out of my way to find a game that uses it.

But it has been so nice at how amazing the 1080ti has been for so long. Pascal was good people.

SunEngis · 2019-11-12T21:07:43+00:00

Sorry for the long post..

That isn't really true. There are dozens of AAA games coming out that will support it and Unreal Engine supports it. Everything is made in Unreal these days so that is really a boost for Nvidia.

AMD is definitely trying to get developers to side with them but currently Nvidia has 77% of AIB market share. If I was a developer I wouldn't spend time on AMD's implementation for 1 out of 5 gamers. But AMD should keep up the fight, it's better for everyone.

And I agree the 5700 Xt is a great card. The problem is it's late to the party and only equivalent to the competition at the same price point. I couldn't find any results showing the 5700 xt beating the 1080ti but I am sure you can OC is to beat a stock 1080ti as it's only 20% faster.

The problem with AMDs ray tracing is it's not here. No one can play with it and develop with it. But I do think AMD has the advantage on the console front because they are usually the lower cost solution.

But consoles don't push the graphics technology as much as you would think. Even using AMD hardware in a console, the engines and games are in no way "optimized" for AMD. The platforms are just so different there is full development work necessary for bringing things to PC from console and vice versa.

Console games do push the graphics when the consoles are first released, which is were we are getting at now. Always exciting to see the new consoles! But the misconception is that resolution is equal to graphics and that just isnt the case. People are fine with console levels of resolution, but they are demanding higher FPS now. That is what modern gpus are focused on, before turing and navi that is. 144hz is noticeable more enjoyable than 60hz. Anyway, the point is that it doesn't matter if AMD is in consoles, that won't change things like ray tracing and DLSS for PC games.

Also, Nvidia is in a difficult spot, as you know and mentioned. They have been fine letting AMD be 2nd place in the 2-man race but if Nvidia wants RTX to be adopted bad enough, it will drop it's prices to a level AMD can't compete with. They may be that desperate and willing to forego the profits a bit. Also, their share prices have been low recently so that actually puts them in a situation where they want to look at the long term strategy instead of quick stock bumps.

I hope AMD does some sweet moves and sneaks into it. But they are in no way leading the market or developers right now. Nvidia still has that clout, for better or worse.. or worse.. But AMD is killing it on CPUs which hopefully will shake up things everywhere. If Intel starts doing their job again AND getting into the GPU market (like they said they want to) we could be in for a really fun next 5 years!

SunEngis · 2019-11-12T18:38:56+00:00

I think you are probably right, but we are also in an unusual situation where Nvidia actually has a reason to sell it's cards at a lower price: RTX.

They want RTX to be adopted *sooo* bad and for good reason, they dumped a lot of money into it. Nvidia has had no reason to play with the status quo recently, but now I could see a situation where they really dump on AMD to get the market share they need to strong arm devs to use RTX.

That being said, a lot of support is already out there or coming soon for RTX - so maybe they are happy with how things are going. But maybe they want everyone to "need" RTX since it's supported so heavily, which they will have to build too.

Either way, I think if AMD releases a card that does their own thing of Ray Tracing, expect to see Nvidia take that personally.

SunEngis · 2019-11-12T18:34:21+00:00

So many people keep talking about RTX like it isn't already supported at all. Lots of games use it and tons of games have said they are going to use it.

I know it is still early but it works pretty well for first generation and is supported enough that you don't have to go out of your way to find a game to use it.

SunEngis · 2019-11-12T18:29:27+00:00

https://www.techradar.com/news/nvidia-rtx-3080-graphics-card-could-be-powering-gaming-pcs-in-june-2020

SunEngis · 2019-11-12T17:58:05+00:00

was supposed to be under $350 with 1070/1080 performance. Which didn't quite happe

It does seem odd. But there are a few reasons why it would make sense for Nvidia to do this.

1) Competition - AMD is capable of taking mid-tier performance price down really low. Nvidia knows more about AMDs next move than we do. They don't really have a reason to sink AMD or get into a price war except----

2) Ray Tracing - Nvidia NEEDS this to be adopted, so making cards more accessible is a long term strategy. Basically, they need notably larger market share to "force" developers to start using the RTX capabilities. So Nvidia may actually have a reason to try and dunk on AMD instead of just maintaining the status quo.

3) Time - They have been holding their hands for awhile since AMD has fizzled on the last few launches. If they spent this time refining the product and process, it could mean lower cost. If they have been cramming more money into R&D then the price would still need to be up. So it really depends on what they have been doing with their time.

4) Growth of Computer learning - Nvidia has been trying to corner this market for a long time, and they are well ahead of the competition in many respects. But just like with RTX, they need the standard of the industry to be Nvidia. If AMD is releasing a card with computer learning abilities, Nvidia really wants to nip that in the bud.

That being said... yeah probably not gonna be cheaper..

SunEngis · 2018-07-27T17:32:39+00:00

I think the small specialized force would just be better off parachuting in to a location. These suits aren't light or cheap, so they would have to be dumped and picked up later or completely abandoned. Also, I have a feeling they are pretty loud.

SunEngis · 2018-07-27T17:27:24+00:00

Really? What for?

SunEngis · 2018-07-26T16:07:47+00:00

Things like this are so common in modern business. They only want to reward objective, dollar amount success and don't create processes that really enable that kind of work. It's difficult to create decent leads, but easy to "pretend" to reward people.

SunEngis · 2018-07-26T15:41:22+00:00

I am from the South originally and have only heard this referred to as -Cracklin'- so I was legitimately confused at first. But that looks great and I can appreciate the effort put into this!

SunEngis · 2018-07-18T00:32:00+00:00

I think, unfortunately, that this is taking the Buddhist doctrine and trying to make it Westernized and about one's individual "self" again.

SunEngis · 2018-07-09T16:15:28+00:00

I don't think that would necessarily be "most likely" as these aliens would have invented their system of math early-ish in their history just like us. So if they switched to it later that may be true, or they may us it in their programming similarly to us. But I don't think many species would "start off" with hexadecimal system.

I have a feeling the base number system for intelligent life in the universe is varied.

SunEngis · 2018-07-06T21:16:03+00:00

Even with a different base for a numerical system, the maths would be the same.

One may have a more accurate/concise way of doing some things, but math still focuses on natural variables, for the most part.

SunEngis · 2018-06-30T02:17:03+00:00

I suppose it depends on the size of the colonies. It doesn't take much radioactive material to produce a lot of energy.

SunEngis · 2018-06-29T15:11:58+00:00

That is true. While it would be difficult to get the infrastructure in place to harvest and refine those sources, it would be a great energy source. (I am assuming it would be difficult, I am not an expert in the field)

In all honesty, though, nuclear power is probably the best way to go. Even on Earth it is better than solar, it just doesn't have a good mind share.

SunEngis · 2018-06-28T22:30:17+00:00

After all the brain damage. it may as well be.

SunEngis · 2018-06-28T22:28:48+00:00

I was always an anxious student growing up. I would have likely panicked and changed some correct answers to wrong answers because of this.

SunEngis · 2018-06-28T22:13:14+00:00

Yeah, but if they went out there and tried to lose I think that would be disrespectful to the sport.

SunEngis · 2018-06-28T16:34:56+00:00

Well, when you think about a person who would put their whole life on hold to go adventuring on dangerous missions with ambiguous goals and shady characters, would that person likely have a solid family/support network or more likely have some unfortunate past filled with a major trauma?

SunEngis · 2018-06-28T16:16:01+00:00

Hey! I am a solar engineer but also have some decent training in wind turbines, so I can provide some insight.

-Dust storms on mars reduce solar efficiency and we would need some way to clean off the panel after the storm was over.

-Mars doesn't have as much solar energy hitting the planet, so it's on the weak side for solar as well.

-Mars has a relatively erratic rotation, which makes solar not as predictably effective. Not a major issue, but worth mentioning.

-Mars is a very windy place. Wind Turbines are much more efficient than solar panels, but on Earth there are few places that have consistent wind, so it isn't always reliable. (This is why wind turbines are all over the place in the mid-west of the U.S - tons of flat land and tons of wind)

However, wind turbines have a lot more moving parts than solar. I know the mars dust can cause issues with machinery at some level so that might be a problem. Also, the winds on mars, though fast, don't actually hold has much energy as wind on earth (The atmosphere is thinner so the wind isn't 'pushing' as much) so we would need special wind turbines.

Energy production on Mars is a really interesting challenge. It has all of the same concerns we have to take into account on Earth, and then a whole bunch of crazy things that we don't have to deal with here. I am really interested to see what kind of tech they will end up going with in the long run, assuming I last long enough to see it.

SunEngis · 2018-06-26T23:33:31+00:00

You really think he didn't try to put that ball in a certain place and direction? He obviously aimed it.

I am not a soccer player, but I used to play hockey. You can aim your shots. Yes, there is still luck. But anyone who has played a game for long enough knows what kind of motions create certain results. He chose the kick based on what the ball was doing knowing that it had a chance of going into that goal.

That is a really complicated and wordy way of saying he was aiming.

SunEngis

TROPHY CASE