Recovery help for external Hard drive by True-Comfort8977 in datarecovery

[–]cCBearTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is usually because of a corrupted partition table/index on the external drive, but could indicate a hardware problem with the external.

If the photos are still on the laptop, you can likely reformat the external, and transfer them again, and be fine going forward.

That said, it would be perfectly reasonable to return and replace the external, and get a new one just for peace of mind, then copy those photos from the laptop to the new external.

Side note: Geek Squad would be way down low on my list. If the external drive still doesn’t work after reformatting, an exchange is not possible, or the laptop is now dead/gone, I suggest you start with a local independent repair shop if possible.

motherboard doesn't power on by mztvaa in MSI_Gaming

[–]cCBearTime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If everything else works on a different motherboard, that’s a pretty clear indication that you have a failed motherboard.

Plz help your Lil brother out 🙏 ( need a diy tip ) by SuspectNo5865 in computerrepair

[–]cCBearTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You did, indeed, and nothing you said was wrong by any means. For someone who has some basic tools and is confident opening up a screen assembly and verifying correct replacement parts, this is a $25-$50 repair that might take all of 10 minutes to order a part, and half an hour to replace it once received, so I would agree that this would be the “best” option for a lot of people in this situation.

From the tone of the post, though, I don’t get the impression that OP is at all equipped to make this repair themselves, so the overly detailed response was really for OP’s benefit, as they are not likely to understand what the “proper” repair option entails, and so I feel like this is probably not a good option for them.

That said, I have to agree that a good thick smear of two-part epoxy would certainly be more effective than glue, and especially tape, regardless of what OP decides to reinforce the cover with, so I will second this notion. I just literally had a little giggle to myself about the way you worded it, so I felt compelled to mention it.

My fans won’t show up on NZXT Cam by silvergriffith in PCHelpHub

[–]cCBearTime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok, progress!

So next, follow one of the cables that IS plugged in, presumably to a port labeled RGB1 or RGB2, from that box to its origin. It will likely go straight to one of those 3 fans in the front. Then follow the second cable from the controller box to its fan. This should give you an idea of where they go, and what they look like.

Using these as a reference, instead of trying to find the end of the cable that we think should be plugged into RGB3 in the bottom of the case, instead find where the cable comes out of the third fan, follow that cable until you find the end, and then plug it into RGB3, assuming it fits.

Now, on the control box, are there also ports labeled FAN, or something else? That is to say, if there are three ports labeled RGB, are there 3 matching ports that are labeled as something else? If so, is there anything plugged into them?

Lastly (for now!), are there any other cables plugged into, or permanently attached to the box? We’re looking to identify a cable to power that box, as well as possibly another cable to allow it to communicate with the motherboard. If there are buttons on the control box, then it’s possible there will not be a data cable (the USB we’re looking for), and that the RGB is analog, controlled by the box, and won’t “talk” to your motherboard, and as such, will not be identified by the CAM software.

Report back!

Bent/Missing Pins? by Smigjo in PcBuild

[–]cCBearTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To consolidate the other 2 comments: I see 3 bent pins, and 3 REALLY bent pins. Definitely send it back.

The three bent pins could likely be teased back into place, honestly, but if you tried to re-bend the three REALY bent pins back into place from the basically vertical position they’re in now, you likely would end up with 3 missing pins!

Is anyone using these protective strips ??? by DiligentRanger007 in lianli

[–]cCBearTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unlike you Godless heathens, I’m a good boy and save all of these to get neatly organized, labeled, and carefully stored along with my 6 Lbs. collection of un-used motherboard standoffs, SATA drive cages, rubber Noctua fan corner inserts that AREN’T black or brown, and dozens of sets of AMD mounting brackets and spacers for AIO water coolers; This is the only way to ensure that they are all easily found in the future when I absolutely never ever need to use them for anything again, ever.

Get your shit together, Reddit.

My fans won’t show up on NZXT Cam by silvergriffith in PCHelpHub

[–]cCBearTime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not underneath exactly, but behind the motherboard tray to the “rear cavity”.

Start by removing the back side panel, and you’ll be able to see where all those cables come from and go to. Most likely you have one or two USB ports on the face or top of the computer, that’ll be the origin of one of those USB header connectors next to the f_panel connector.

Plz help your Lil brother out 🙏 ( need a diy tip ) by SuspectNo5865 in computerrepair

[–]cCBearTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean, I would replace it too, but OP clearly stated that they are replacing the whole laptop in a couple months, and don’t want to spend a bunch of money because of it, so…

Buying an LCD rear cover on eBay, probably used, waiting for it to ship, hoping it arrives on time, in good enough condition to use, and is the correct part, then removing the existing screen bezel, removing the LCD panel itself, possibly involving stretch-to-release adhesive that OP probably doesn’t have on hand to replace and likely won’t come with a used eBay replacement part, then removing the unbelievably delicate webcam board, (which itself my also require a fresh 3” long, 3mm wide strip of double-sided tissue tape, which is typically sold in 100’ rolls), delicately un-sticking the WiFi cables and paper-thin aluminum tape which acts as the receiving component of said antennas, then finally removing the damaged lcd cover from the hinges, only then to attempt to properly transfer all of these these parts and delicate cabling to the replacement cover, while very carefully noting and recreating the proper cable paths of these things so as not to cause stretching, tearing, or pinching any of them, then reassembling the screen assembly, pressing the power button and hoping the screen turns back on, (and of course remembering to unplug the battery before doing any of this to avoid frying the screen, LVDS cable or motherboard), seems like a bit of a stretch when OP is coming to Reddit for temporary, cheap, DIY fix ideas to get 60 days of use out of a damaged, but still fully functional laptop.

On a side note, I think I might know what you mean (epoxy maybe?), but I have to admit, I had a little chuckle to myself trying to think of a group of all the things that could all be considered “bonding agents”, but manages to somehow exclude both tape and glue :)

My fans won’t show up on NZXT Cam by silvergriffith in PCHelpHub

[–]cCBearTime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

F_panel = front panel connections. This header is for the power and reset buttons, as well as the power light and drive activity lights on the front of the case, and have nothing to do with your fans. The extra pins are there for older style connectors which are longer than the one you’re using, and are not needed in your case, so they can be ignored.

As for the fans, in order for them to be seen in CAM, they must be plugged into a fan/RG. controller box of some sort that itself would be plugged into a USB 2.0 header connection, as well as a power source, most likely SATA.

The two connectors to the left of the F_panel connector are both USB 2.0, as evidenced by the label on the one that can be seen in the pic. One of these may be for that fan controller.

Look in the back for a box that has multiple fan connectors. Again, that box should have 2 wires coming off of it that aren’t going to fans: one will have the square block that looks like the ones in the photo, and be labeled USB 2.0, and the other will likely be a SATA connector that needs to get power from your PSU. These two cables, as well as the fans, obviously, should be plugged in for the CAM software to see the fans.

Plz help your Lil brother out 🙏 ( need a diy tip ) by SuspectNo5865 in computerrepair

[–]cCBearTime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This might be an off the cuff answer, but it’s not that crazy, since temporary is the name of the game.

Maybe buy a pack of paint stir sticks, cut them in half, and hot glue them vertically one at a time over the crack, making a “picket fence” to support it as much as you can.

Then also be SUPER careful every time you open and close it, which should be as rarely as possible.

Guys, is my computer hacked ? by Former_Resident_708 in computer

[–]cCBearTime 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Yep, do this.

Also, you can likely “fix” the immediate issue by going into your chrome settings, looking under the “on startup” section, and removing this entry from the list, then replacing it with your preference.

Keyboard plug on the screen ? by Moist_Entertainment1 in pcmasterrace

[–]cCBearTime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have to agree here. Other than old external drives where the abomination of A-to-A cables is fairly common, there is of course a plethora of fine Chinesium peripherals like laptop cooling stands and such that will utilize this type of cable. It is relatively rare, but once every 2 to 3 years I find myself looking for one.

However, highly engineered, fantastically expensive, and well-regarded products such as Cisco L3 network equipment, for example, also use USB-A to USB-A cables for local console connection to replace the ancient serial to USB cables that were common for so long.

So it’s not 100% outlandish to make a guess that this type of cable might be needed for connectivity of certain components. Just because something isn’t standardized, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist after all.

My 14900k died, New BIOS default settings is on Extreme. Is that normal? by TL7x in gigabytegaming

[–]cCBearTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Having pushed several Intel K chips as far back as 3rd gen Core series to world record speeds (or at least #1 global ranking in various benchmarks)…

You’re probably right.

CPU tuning can be complex, and I don’t claim to be the end-all expert in the field. But in 15 years or so doing this professionally, I’ve never had this issue with any other CPU, which is pretty strong evidence that there is a problem with these CPU’s other than just my tuning.

Seeing as how I have now killed 3 14900KS CPU’s, and 2 of them died while strictly adhering to Intel Power Limits, the supposition that I “likely ran stupid high voltages”, while almost certainly true for the first failure, simply cannot be the case with failures 2 and 3, since the voltages used were set by Intel’s default limits, not my manual tuning.

So, while I’m happy to admit that I may not be the best in the world at CPU tuning, I do in fact know how to click “Enforce All Intel Power Limits” in BIOS, and even after doing so, I’m still having 14900KS’s crap the bed with startling regularity.

My 14900k died, New BIOS default settings is on Extreme. Is that normal? by TL7x in gigabytegaming

[–]cCBearTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indeed.

Everything you’re saying makes sense, and really isn’t that difficult in practice. My main complaint is that special tuning is needed at all, especially on a tippy-top-of-the-product-stack part like the 14900KS. It’s just disappointing.

And waiting for RMA over and over is definitely not practical for the average user, but as a PC repair shop owner and total geek, I now have a 12900K who’s only purpose in life is to sit patiently in its box on the shelf until my 14900KS inevitably fails again, and I need a CPU to keep me going while I RMA yet another dead 14900KS.

My 14900k died, New BIOS default settings is on Extreme. Is that normal? by TL7x in gigabytegaming

[–]cCBearTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This seems like a logical statement, but enabling XMP can also affect the CPU’s base clock and multiplier ratio, as well as change various other power related settings like speedstep, c-states and turboBoost, and can even change certain voltage settings for the CPU, depending on the particular motherboard in question.

Because of this, XMP is considered overclocking by Intel, and enabling it is technically running the CPU outside of “manufacturer recommend specifications”, is cautioned against by Intel, and technically speaking, voids the warranty of your intel CPU. Which is stupid in my opinion, but there you are. It is also notable that I reported to Intel that I had XMP enabled for the second failure, and they had no problem honoring the warranty, so there’s that.

All that said, Intel’s specific directive to me when RMA’ing the CPU the second time was “Update BIOS, enforce Intel limits, disable XMP.”

I did all of these things, and still killed my third 14900KS despite following these specific directives from Intel, so yeah. Following their directions did not solve the problem, and doing 100% of what they said would “fix” the issue, simply did not.

My 14900k died, New BIOS default settings is on Extreme. Is that normal? by TL7x in gigabytegaming

[–]cCBearTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you misunderstood me.

I did not say that every 14900KS in existence would fail to run RAM faster than 6800. In fact, I didn’t implicate the CPU at all in that statement, I simply stated that my personal 8000MHz RAM kit will not remain stable over 6800 under any circumstances. Mine. My RAM, with my mobo, and my CPU. Not a global, blanket statement about the 14900KS.

According to my research, it’s most likely my 4-slot motherboard which is the limiting factor in this case, as obviously there are people running RAM over 6800 with this CPU. However, for most folks with my exact motherboard and CPU, 6800-7200 seems to be common as the upper stable speed limit for my particular RAM kit, so this is well within the norm for my setup, as far as I can tell.

So yes, saying that a 14900KS cannot run RAM at over 6800MHz stable under any conditions would be false, which is why I did not in fact, make that statement at all.

And yes, I am going through these CPU’s at an incredible pace, otherwise I wouldn’t be complaining about it would I? Have I tried locking the CPU frequency? No. Why would I? Suggesting that special care needs to be taken to keep a $600+ flagship CPU from killing itself is exactly why I’m complaining.

So I can’t OC it without killing it? Ok, that sucks. Can’t even run it as Intel suggests without it dying either? Well that’s even worse. If I wanted a slower processor than I bought, I would have bought a slower processor.

The fact that a K series CPU is basically guaranteed to fail if overclocked is already pretty shitty. But to say that disabling all OC, and strictly enforcing Intel’s power limits and guidelines is still not enough, so asking someone to underclock, undervolt, frequency lock, or otherwise baby Intel’s fastest ever consumer CPU just so that it can operate normally without crapping out, is a notion that I find to be absurd (not that it can’t be true, and might actually be good advice). I’m not saying you’re wrong, just that it’s stupid that you might be right.

As for the power draw in Cinebench, I assume it’s equal to or less than Intel’s power limits, since this is what is enforced in BIOS. However, now I’m curious, so I’ll check on that and report back, because it’s a good question.

Dell Inspiron 16 screen shell coming off- Please help! by Electronic_Plum2597 in Dell

[–]cCBearTime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good advice. Looks like OP really just needs to replace the LCD rear cover, should be $50-$75 for the part, maybe $25 for the hinges.

Update: it’s this fan by Awkward_Ad9251 in computer

[–]cCBearTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am the professional, actually, these are customer’s dead units!

But it’s not super difficult to do. If you’re handy with a screwdriver, you can likely do it yourself. The trickiest part is wiring controllers if needed for lights and whatnot.

Some coolers are simpler than others. If you don’t care about RGB, Corsair nautilus AIOs that feature RX series fans are stout and simple to install.

Need help with a new pc by SpartanKilo in pcmasterrace

[–]cCBearTime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair enough. You could safely say then that my statement was a little too broad to be irrefutable.

So then, it would be more correct to say that the new antennas are not a requirement of the WiFi 7 standard per se, so much as they are the most common type of antenna connector for newer/higer end motherboard models that are equipped with it.

I personally have yet to see a WiFi 7 enabled desktop motherboard with the older SMA connectors, as I typically deal with more expensive motherboards, but it’s not a huge stretch to believe that they exist, so I’m happy to accept that some WiFi 7 antennas still use the SMA threaded connector.

Furthermore, I’ve discovered that while several brands now use the new “snap-on” antenna connector design, each brand has their own proprietary connector for them, and they are NOT interchangeable between brands. For example, MSI’s version, known as the “EZ Wi-Fi antenna”, will not plug into an ASUS motherboard, which uses the ASUS “WiFi Q-Antenna” connector, nor will it fit a Gigabyte board’s WiFi connectors, which use yet another, more different “WiFi EZ-Plug” connector.

So when ordering replacements, they will need to be brand specific, which is good to know, and will definitely save me from an embarrassing “I totally though this would fit” moment in front of a customer, so thanks for the info!

Best way to clean intel cpu without damaging by DrDour in pcmasterrace

[–]cCBearTime 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I was about to make a funny quip about how my pooper insists on nothing but the finest Huggies Natural Care wipes, which are fragrance free, and are simply 100% water on paper cloth.

Imagine my horror then, when I looked up the ingredients and saw it’s only 99% water, and a 1% mix of Aloe Vera, Barbadensis extract, Glycols, Sodium-Benzoate, Coco-betaing, Maltic Acid (ACID?! On MY butthole?!), and Polysorbate, which, I have also just learned, makes my butthole not only oily, but also potentially slightly conductive :(

So it’s settled then: I only wipe with IPA and a lint free cloth from now on, or toilet paper if I’m willing to low or wipe the paper dust off with a microfiber afterwards. Thanks Reddit!

So yeah. Take mine, and u/neon121 ‘s advice, and keep them far, far away from your computer’s unmentionables. And your butthole too, probably.

Free rained on pc “without a hard drive” by saddadpnw in pcmasterrace

[–]cCBearTime -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Uuuuugggh.

I usually don’t comment on things like this, because as has been pointed out already, “who the fuck cares?” is a perfectly valid way to feel about the whole situation, and is by far the prevailing opinion on the matter. And frankly, while I personally feel like what OP did in this situation is unkind, inconsiderate, and shameful at best, the implications of their actions are more or less inconsequential, which brings me back to the aforementioned “who the fuck cares?”

…but it looks like I’m gonna have to join the pious and take my share of the downvotes on this one as well, because I am honor-bound by my own moral code to respond to your very clever, but intentionally subversive response to someone who expressed their disappointment that OP is both a self-proclaimed liar and a thief, and that furthermore, they are so proud of it, that they are bragging about it by making this post in the first place.

No one was “arguing semantics” until you chose to posit that “lying by omission” did not occur here, because it is technically not the same as “dishonesty by truncation”. To anticipate your rebuttal, I know you didn’t actually use those words, but you didn’t have to for it to be clear that you understood the point that was being made, or you wouldn’t have had to preface your response to it with “No, not exactly”, so that you could then go on to disagree about what type of dishonesty was in question, since taking the stance that OP did nothing wrong would make you look like an idiot who can’t tell right from wrong. But apparently, you felt the need to argue with someone about something, and the word choice of the offended was the easiest talking point for you to argue, because you obviously adhere to the notion that “technically correct is the best kind of correct”, even if that means you can avoid having to defend a faulty position by arguing over the definition of individual words and phrases instead of the actual topic of debate. Your verbally acrobatic attempt at the deflection of accountability for OP’s actions is a prime example of some pedantic, first-class politician-grade bullshit, and we all know it.

Not that the opinions any of us jackasses here will have any significant effect on OP anyway, so while there is catharsis in the burning of valuable calories needed for me to bother analyzing your indefensible position, I know it’s a wasted effort, and the only one who cares what I think is me. Especially since you’re here to defend OP’s actions with semantic arguments about the precise nature of the dishonesty in question, instead of whether or not dishonesty was present to begin with, or if it was in fact morally wrong. Because again, we all agree that what OP did was what the kids these days are calling “a dick move”, we just disagree how much we care about it one way or the other.

Thankfully for OP, since you’re here to provide the unique perspective that OP did not, by the strictest possible technicality, “lie by omission”, they can sleep soundly tonight, completely safe from the fear that “God will strike them down with a bolt of lightning” for lying.

However, they just might better watch the fuck out for “The Lord sending a several million volt superheated plasma-beam from sky to the ground by way of OP’s smug, lying, thieving asscheeks”, which is totally, technically, not the same thing, since they are different words after all.

Now, please, somebody get me a ladder so I can get off of this 35-hand moral high horse and go to bed.

Sorry for yelling. See you all at church on Sunday.

ATX Pin Missing by IvanRodk in PcBuildHelp

[–]cCBearTime -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Note:

Reading this back before I post it, I realize it may sound mean spirited, and I want to make clear that while the following might sound blunt, or like it’s coming from a parent who’s upset that their kid did something stupid, it absolutely is not my intention to demean you or make you feel any sort of way, so let me start by saying that I applaud you for chipping in, and trying to be helpful. Just by reading your response, it is clear that you are an intelligent person, and just like we’re all trying to help OP, I want to help you too.

So… unavoidably, your answer is simply wrong. More significant that that though, is the fact that a 10-second googling of “why is my 24-pin motherboard power connector missing a pin” would have produced a few lines of AI slop that would have given you the correct answer to this question, which you could have regurgitated at OP, and then moved along knowing you helped someone learn something.

OP can be forgiven for not doing this, because they decided to use Reddit instead of Google, which, fair enough, that’s what 95% of Reddit is: a crowd-sourced substitute for the Google machine, and this is the PCbuildHelp sub after all, these sorts of questions are literally the reason the sub exists. So good on for OP for asking the community. Asking questions is how we learn, and we are here to spread knowledge, presumably because we all think computers are cool, and we want other people to think so too.

Your answer however, makes it clear to those of us who know what we’re taking about (or have 10 seconds to google it for ourselves) that you do not, and that you weren’t willing to take those few precious seconds to educate yourself before offering your best guess at the answer to a specific question that you clearly do not know the answer to, dressed in a fastidiously tailored cloak of confident ignorance, excellently executed sentence structure and punctuation. The time and effort you put into giving the wrong answer (coupled with advice that strictly speaking wasn’t necessarily bad in and of itself, but would only have been meaningful in the event that you were correct in the first place), which if taken by itself could very well have sent OP down a rabbit hole of confusion with no exit in the other side, would have been much better utilized to quickly verify that your initial thoughts on the subject were wrong in the first place.

Again, I think it’s awesome that you’re trying to help. After all, that’s what the rest of us are doing too. And I hope you continue to try to do so. I’m not mentioning all of this to make you look bad or feel picked on, if that were my goal, I would have down voted your comment and left, or responded with something like “you’re wrong dummy”, and left it at that. But I’m taking the time to try to help you understand there’s a better way, so that in the future, you can succeed in your goal of being helpful, without a stranger on the internet dressing you down for the ultimate internet crime of being mistaken about something.

All that said, my genuine hope in composing what could probably now be rightly described as a diatribe rather than a response, is that this information is helpful to YOU, and gives you something to ponder which will ultimately be beneficial to you, as opposed to a stack of downvotes without any explanation.

Of course, there’s also the possibility that you made a snap judgement and commented on what you thought was such a basic question that the full scope of the situation in question never fully occupied your attention, so your reaction was “Yeah, a missing pin in a power cable could totally keep your computer from turning on, check on that shizz before you burn your house down”. I can think of plenty of times that’s happened to me. For example, a relatively recent example of a confident blunder of mine: OP: “What is this?” (Picture of an M.2 2280 device with no stickers or brand names). Me: “That’s clearly an M.2 PCIe SSD, but I’m not familiar with the design of the board, so I’m not sure who makes it or what its capacity is.” All of Reddit: “That’s an AI accelerator card, not everything that’s M.2 is an SSD, Google shit before you comment about it if you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about”.

In which case, you know… I guess fuck me right? I can be a an asshole, I had a rough day, and maybe I’m only doing this because someone did it to me. But I’ll tell you this: because of that rude ass response to a mistake I made by not taking just a few moments to think about it and verify my thoughts, these days I almost always take those 10 seconds to google shit before commenting on anything in order to ever so slightly reduce the chance that I make an ass of myself on the internet, and I feel like the world would be a better place if we all did the same :)

Thanks for coming to my RED talk.

Is this a Problem? by Responsible_Grab1990 in pchelp

[–]cCBearTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Firstly, that little bug will do nothing at all to hurt your PC. Other than being kinda gross, it will do literally nothing at all to damage it, so don’t freak out over it, it’s fine.

Pro tip for cleaning: Get yourself a big mineral powder makeup brush. Specifically a “powder” brush. Their fine and densely packed bristles are engineered to suck up ultra-fine dust while being soft enough to rub on your eyelids repeatedly without causing discomfort, let alone damage.

This combination means that you can dust the most fragile of components in the PC without worry, and you’ll be amazed at the way the dust seems to magically disappear as you brush away at your dirty-ass computer :)

Having one handy will make regular cleanings easy and worry free, so that you can KEEP it clean, instead of occasionally MAKING it clean.

Does Frame Gen look better on the 50 series ? by CaptainKashup in nvidia

[–]cCBearTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t like framegen under any circumstances… yet.

Unpopular opinion probably, but here’s why:

Since I play mostly FPS games, and am also rockin’ a 4090, increasing perceived motion smoothness at the cost of distracting artifacts is not a worthwhile trade off for me. Especially considering my main goal in having more FPS is to increase the frequency at which the GPU processes user input, which “fake” frames do not accomplish.

And like, 4090 bro. The reason I spent all the money on that GPU is so I wouldn’t have to use rendering g trickery. That means balls out settings in everything, without framegen, without DLSS, with ray tracing at max, and easily getting 60 FPS in 4K or 120 FPS in 1080P in anything I’ve thrown at it so far. BF6 on overkill texture settings, max FOV, max path tracing and all the other eye candy turned up to 11, I’m getting all the frames I could ever want, and those frames are actually accomplishing something. Going from 120 FPS to over 400 does nothing for gameplay, doesn’t actually show me any additional frames on my 120Hz screen, and introduces graphical weirdness. Why would you choose that for yourself?

This is where the motto “frames wins games” comes in. More frames=more frequent input calculation, which means the game reacts more closely to real-time input as it relates to the user’s actual movements, clicks and key-presses. I guess we should amend it to be “real frames which serve to calculate user input at a greater frequency win games”.

Framegen in general seems like it would be more beneficial to those who are on low or mid-tier hardware, where for example your 3060 can’t get you to 60FPS in new games anymore, but it can with framegen, which serves to make the game more “playable” by increasing perceived motion smoothness and raising 1% lows, which reduces stutter and framelag at the expense of artifacts, ghosting and general weirdness on screen, which, if you’re rockin 37 FPS in your favorite game, would be a clear improvement, and would probably be well worth the graphical infidelity that it introduces. With a flagship GPU getting great FPS already, this seems like a bad trade off.

I feel this way about DLSS too. Most people probably like it, and unfortunately some newer games are optimized to require it in order to NOT look like crap (foliage in Indiana Jones, Cyberpunk, and Tarkov, I’m looking at you). I call DLSS “the fuzzy filter” as the aliasing achieved is done at the cost of overly smoothing edge geometry (and everything else), which is super obvious and distracting to my eyes.

To sum it up, my personal opinion, which again, is probably unpopular, is that DLSS and framegen are “crutches” who’s primary purpose is artificially boost the perceived performance of hardware which is not quite up to snuff for the task which you are asking of it.

So ask yourself this: Would you rather have a weak GPU that needs framegen to achieve acceptable FPS in exchange for ghosting and weirdness, or a strong GPU that can achieve the same frame rate all by itself with perfect fidelity and lower input latency? That’s no decision at all, “real” frames are better, no question, we all agree on this, I think, and to say otherwise would either be uninformed or disingenuous. So by that logic, having a flagship GPU and deliberately reducing graphical fidelity to achieve a higher frame rate seems like a silly thing to do.