Looks like the Asus 6950 also has a dual BIOS switch and a better power subsystem. From what I can tell the Asus 6950 either equals or exceeds the reference 6950 board too, though I can't get good detail on what the reference is (4 or 7 phases for the GPU)
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
In the case of my 570 GTX the Asus card actually has better power than the reference design (8 phase, uses 1 8 pin and 1 six pin vs 6 phase and 2 six pin), and it does allow some voltage control (though not a huge amount, some people are modding the BIOS to allow for more room and a dual bios switch would certainly be desirable there).
This is getting unreasonably nerdy and unnecessary for everyone () but more phases does not necessarily mean better. More phases actually allows manufacturers to use more cheaper rated mosfets and marketing phases is really more of a marketing ploy unless they also use high quality mosfets with high thermal limits. This was the case with certain ASUS cards (of which I own several anyway because of other features that are good) in the past (sorry can't find the articles/reviews right now) and they definitely have their own power regulation scheme for VRM design that is pretty uniform across all their cards that vary markedly from reference designs. That said, only the smallest fraction of 1% of consumers will care about this unless they are very concerned about overclocking with extreme voltage adjustments. I've personally given up on major videocard overclocking because dealing with the immense heat that VRMs will generate is just not worth the headache without dedicated VRM cooling. It's gotten to the point where it's more important to cool the VRMs than to actually cool anything else (core or memory) when overclocking.
Looks like the Asus 6950 also has a dual BIOS switch and a better power subsystem. From what I can tell the Asus 6950 either equals or exceeds the reference 6950 board too, though I can't get good detail on what the reference is (4 or 7 phases for the GPU)
As far as the dual bios switch is concerned, my primary objective for a 6950 would be unlockability to a 6790. That's when the bios switch comes in handy. Right now, only the MSI Frozr II (not III) and Sapphire Toxic 6950s seem most reliable for that as reference cards (90% could be unlocked) are long out of stock everywhere. Sadly Memory Express carries neither because their selection sucks as usual. The bios switch itself is not necessary for unlocking, but it will protect you from bricking your card with a bad bios flash.
Very true about significant overclocking, I mean I can buy a $100 cooler (there are some!) for a card that'll cool the VRMs better, or I could spend $100 more and simply get a faster card I'd rather play games than spend time trying to eek out that last few MHz, but I appreciate that it's important for some people.
I didn't read anything about 570's with their "Super Alloy Power" components (just marketing speak for what they think are superior components?) having big problems (at least not ones that are involved in significant overclocking), and I did try to look before I purchased.
In fact the Asus one (and the Palit and Gainward) didn't seem to have any failures at all when the reference ones were having issues early on (from an overclock.net thread dedicated to 570 GTX failures), they were saying the Asus card had "Furmark approved VRMs"
So while different doesn't always mean better or inferior, I think in this case Asus does have something good with their current VRM setups.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
They both have the same cores and memory. There is absolutely no reason for better performance unless the ASUS card has higher stock clocks in it's bios.
Better cooling design is part of better performance, it will run cooler and stay quieter. The Direct CU design has gotten good reviews in that regard. Plus ASUS's warranty is better than the dodgy things surrounding Diamond, which we are in agreement.
Quote:
Furthermore, the Diamond card looks like a reference card manufactured by Flextronics and just rebranded with a Diamond sticker. Reference cards are usually the better performers and higher overclockers with voltage control and even have the potential to be unlocked to 6790s. The 6950 reference cards even have a dual bios switch. The ASUS lacks all these. ASUS cards tend to use their own cheaper power regulation system to save cost on more expensive VRM modules and VRM cooling as well which reference cards usually have. The reality is that most non-reference cards are manufactured once reference stocks are depleted so that the 3rd party manufacturers can skimp and cut costs by building cut down, cheaper models. That goes for everything from PCB components to cooling system. The loud blower style assembly with the full metal casing with backplate is actually more expensive to manufacture than just sticking on a regular heatsink and two axial fans to blow down on it.
The reason the ASUS model costs more is that is an Eyefinity 6 edition card that supports 6 monitors but that comes with the price of 4 displayports and no HDMIs. If you want to use those displayports and don't have a displayport supported monitor (the majority still do not), you will have to shell out $30-$50 per port for an active displayport adapter. That said, I would still avoid Diamond as their warranty service is non-existent under Best Data. I would not personally buy either of those. The Diamond I would avoid for obvious reasons and the ASUS because it takes up 3 slots and has unnecessary features that you are paying for.
Maybe the Diamond does have that potential, but a quick google of the asus shows some glowing reviews http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/391...ew/index1.html . But there is nothing to be found on the Diamond and I would stay away because of that.
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Futureshop items are not inferior or old, just they may not have the most current stocks or up to date pricing but in the end, it's basically the same thing. I purchase many things from FS such as monitors that I have never bought from MemEx simply because MemEx doesn't always have the best pricing and MemEx has a different (and sometimes inferior) brand selection and you almost always have to price match them.
Maybe I should've been more specific. For the same price ($300), Futureshop will provide a product that is older, thus inferior, compared to what you could get for your money somewhere else. They give you less bang for your buck. $300 elsewhere would get you a better video card if that was the case. It's understandable, as people who go computer shopping at futureshop generally aren't looking for the best money can buy and futureshop preys on that to turn a better profit.
I notice that a lot of people have said this game is easy, but I'm having trouble in some areas. Maybe I'm just playing the game wrong.
I went to one of the Word of Power locations (or whatever they're called, the one north of the two towers), dragon came, killed it without trouble, but when I go to the glyphs to learn the new word, this flying skeleton magician pops out and and destroys me every time, even with my companion and as a werewolf (spoiler). It's a unique, named skeleton, I think. I literally can't bring the guys health below 80%.
I also hate those giant spiders.
I'm level 18 or so. Is this just me being too low of a level? I've never really had a problem like this in Fallout or Oblivion.
There's a cool review of Skyrim on TC, interesting because it talks about a cool place I'd never heard of before and haven't been to yet that seems to be massive, and it's not even in a main quest.
Do yourself a favor if you haven’t done this yet. Go to Winterhold and travel north until nearly the end of the map, where there will be a “cave” icon indicating a door in an iceberg. Inside is a guy who will send you on the most insanely huge side quest I’ve ever seen in a game.
Picture this: At the top of a mountain, buried by snow, are the tops of some towers. Entering the towers, you must decent through a dungeon (in the generic sense) of machinery and ice. At the bottom of this dungeon is another dungeon, the actual ruins of the Dwemer buildings, which are better-maintained and more full of mechanical monsters. At the bottom of this dungeon, you will find the entrance (only accessible via the quest, as I found out) to Blackreach:
Blackreach is one of the most astonishing pieces of world design I’ve ever seen. And within this massive and incredibly beautiful underground world larger than any of the game’s cities by far, there are further sub-dungeons, and dungeons within those! I remind you that to my knowledge this quest is not only optional, but hidden in an obscure location at the very edge of the map!
Pretty cool.
I was also in a cave that looked like other ice type caves, but they had these blue glowy thingies that just followed you around. Didn't actually do anything except look neat, but added to the diversity since I'd never seen them in any other cave of that type.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
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And Re: Future Shop, I'll buy major components there no problem if I can pricematch, if only because sometimes they'll have a better return policy than Memory Express or I don't want to buy online because I need to be able to return it. Like for my video card, I could have had to go through 3-4 cards before finding one that was as quiet as I'd wanted, and having to pay shipping or just the hassle of returning it would be annoying.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
And Re: Future Shop, I'll buy major components there no problem if I can pricematch, if only because sometimes they'll have a better return policy than Memory Express or I don't want to buy online because I need to be able to return it. Like for my video card, I could have had to go through 3-4 cards before finding one that was as quiet as I'd wanted, and having to pay shipping or just the hassle of returning it would be annoying.
There's a cool review of Skyrim on TC, interesting because it talks about a cool place I'd never heard of before and haven't been to yet that seems to be massive, and it's not even in a main quest.
Do yourself a favor if you haven’t done this yet. Go to Winterhold and travel north until nearly the end of the map, where there will be a “cave” icon indicating a door in an iceberg. Inside is a guy who will send you on the most insanely huge side quest I’ve ever seen in a game.
Picture this: At the top of a mountain, buried by snow, are the tops of some towers. Entering the towers, you must decent through a dungeon (in the generic sense) of machinery and ice. At the bottom of this dungeon is another dungeon, the actual ruins of the Dwemer buildings, which are better-maintained and more full of mechanical monsters. At the bottom of this dungeon, you will find the entrance (only accessible via the quest, as I found out) to Blackreach:
Blackreach is one of the most astonishing pieces of world design I’ve ever seen. And within this massive and incredibly beautiful underground world larger than any of the game’s cities by far, there are further sub-dungeons, and dungeons within those! I remind you that to my knowledge this quest is not only optional, but hidden in an obscure location at the very edge of the map!
Pretty cool.
I was also in a cave that looked like other ice type caves, but they had these blue glowy thingies that just followed you around. Didn't actually do anything except look neat, but added to the diversity since I'd never seen them in any other cave of that type.
Spoiler!
I already did that, and it is related to the main part of the quest.
But asides that, that quest is awesome.
For the Pc users, are you installing mods manually or is there a installer system you can use to debug and figure out which mods are crashing the game?
So getting Pickpocketing (And other skills) and stealing your money back is a good way to hit lvl 20+ without killing anything. The amount of xp you get each level training and pickpocketing is enough to level you easily.
For the Pc users, are you installing mods manually or is there a installer system you can use to debug and figure out which mods are crashing the game?
If you give it time, a more organized and unified moding system will come out, just like with Oblivion and there will be various tools and applications to do this. I remember playing Oblivion and installing mods manually for months and then suddenly everything switched over to the new system and I had to start over again.
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SIGN UP TO SKYRIM NEXUS. Opps, my "always running" all caps were on. They have most major mods and the SMM (Skyrim Mod Manager) will be uploaded to the site AND when you load a mod it will either automatically update it for you or notify you that an update is there. It will depend on the mod'er. Give it a month as the frame work is already built they just need to tailor it to Skyrim.
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I notice that a lot of people have said this game is easy, but I'm having trouble in some areas. Maybe I'm just playing the game wrong.
I went to one of the Word of Power locations (or whatever they're called, the one north of the two towers), dragon came, killed it without trouble, but when I go to the glyphs to learn the new word, this flying skeleton magician pops out and and destroys me every time, even with my companion and as a werewolf (spoiler). It's a unique, named skeleton, I think. I literally can't bring the guys health below 80%.
I also hate those giant spiders.
I'm level 18 or so. Is this just me being too low of a level? I've never really had a problem like this in Fallout or Oblivion.
I find that when I run into something that's too hard I have to dip into my big backpack full of tricks to get by (scrolls, potions, whatever I have).
If I still can't, then I see if there's something in the environment that helps (traps I can use to my advantage, oil on the floor, whatever)
I'm level 18 or so. Is this just me being too low of a level? I've never really had a problem like this in Fallout or Oblivion.
Frostbite Spiders are kind of a pain. I basically just throw down magic on it. It seems to work better as you can casually heal with Restoration spells if you need to.
So far, I'm finding the scaling mechanic is much closer to a regular RPG...if you're going it at too low a level, you're going to struggle.
Frostbite Spiders are kind of a pain. I basically just throw down magic on it. It seems to work better as you can casually heal with Restoration spells if you need to.
So far, I'm finding the scaling mechanic is much closer to a regular RPG...if you're going it at too low a level, you're going to struggle.
I found this great alternative to spending hundreds of dollars on PC components and worrying about how well they'll work and affect your game's performance and how much money you'll spend.
) but more phases does not necessarily mean better. More phases actually allows manufacturers to use more cheaper rated mosfets and marketing phases is really more of a marketing ploy unless they also use high quality mosfets with high thermal limits. This was the case with certain ASUS cards (of which I own several anyway because of other features that are good) in the past (sorry can't find the articles/reviews right now) and they definitely have their own power regulation scheme for VRM design that is pretty uniform across all their cards that vary markedly from reference designs. That said, only the smallest fraction of 1% of consumers will care about this unless they are very concerned about overclocking with extreme voltage adjustments. I've personally given up on major videocard overclocking because dealing with the immense heat that VRMs will generate is just not worth the headache without dedicated VRM cooling. It's gotten to the point where it's more important to cool the VRMs than to actually cool anything else (core or memory) when overclocking.
I'd rather play games than spend time trying to eek out that last few MHz, but I appreciate that it's important for some people.
