GRcade

Fez is like 70p on steam. It would be rude not to.

Do we still have a thread for PC Hardware? Came into a bit of cash just before Christmas and a new PC is calling my name. Looking to get some ideas for what's a decent build these days.

Dick Thornburg wrote:Do we still have a thread for PC Hardware? Came into a bit of cash just before Christmas and a new PC is calling my name. Looking to get some ideas for what's a decent build these days.

I think the hardware thread is in off topic.

Just be aware that hardware prices are pretty bloated at the moment when it comes to RAM and GPUs

I've just started playing Snakebird and my god is it ridiculously hard, six levels in and I'm stuck already, the LocoRoco style visuals lure you into a false sense of security.

This could get stressful.

Yulehide wrote:I've just started playing Snakebird and my god is it ridiculously hard, six levels in and I'm stuck already, the LocoRoco style visuals lure you into a false sense of security.

This could get stressful.

Probably the biggest juxtaposition of cutesy graphics to difficulty I've ever experienced. Think I only finished like a dozen levels

Pedz wrote:

Dick Thornburg wrote:Do we still have a thread for PC Hardware? Came into a bit of cash just before Christmas and a new PC is calling my name. Looking to get some ideas for what's a decent build these days.

I think the hardware thread is in off topic.

Found it. Cheers man.

Lastpostamorph wrote:Just be aware that hardware prices are pretty bloated at the moment when it comes to RAM and GPUs

Yeah I'd been hearing that. Seems bitcoin miners have been pushing the prices of GPUs up. Wankers.

All Gold, Frankenstein and Grrr wrote:

Yulehide wrote:I've just started playing Snakebird and my god is it ridiculously hard, six levels in and I'm stuck already, the LocoRoco style visuals lure you into a false sense of security.

This could get stressful.

Probably the biggest juxtaposition of cutesy graphics to difficulty I've ever experienced. Think I only finished like a dozen levels

Toki Tori is the same, almost disgustingly cute but hard as strawberry float.

Lastpostamorph wrote:Just be aware that hardware prices are pretty bloated at the moment when it comes to RAM and GPUs

What with GPU prices being driven up by bitcoin, what are the odds of them actually coming back down, or are we doomed to overpay until the bitcoin bubble busts?

EberKneesUp wrote:

Lastpostamorph wrote:Just be aware that hardware prices are pretty bloated at the moment when it comes to RAM and GPUs

What with GPU prices being driven up by bitcoin, what are the odds of them actually coming back down, or are we doomed to overpay until the bitcoin bubble busts?

It's only AMD cards that are any good for Bitcoin mining, though it seems some people aren't realising that. When they do it should start bringing Nvidia prices down a little bit, though some of it is probably just Nvidia taking advantage of the hype and pushing up their prices themselves to make sure they're still seen as a more 'premium' investment than AMD cards, whos prices have been driven up by actual increased demand.

What's the deal with M.2 SSD drives, are they worth it? I'm currently running a "normal" SSD and obviously on paper the speeds from an M.2 drive look much faster but does anyone know if they actually make much discernable difference in real scenarios?

Getting tempted as the prices seem to be getting a lot more reasonable recently...

You will probably not notice anything.
I've had a few different SSD's over the last few years and they have all been much the same different brands, SATA 2/3 etc

Yulehide wrote:

All Gold, Frankenstein and Grrr wrote:

Yulehide wrote:I've just started playing Snakebird and my god is it ridiculously hard, six levels in and I'm stuck already, the LocoRoco style visuals lure you into a false sense of security.

This could get stressful.

Probably the biggest juxtaposition of cutesy graphics to difficulty I've ever experienced. Think I only finished like a dozen levels

Toki Tori is the same, almost disgustingly cute but hard as strawberry float.

Beat this one, couldn't get anywhere in the sequel. I had literally no idea what I was meant to be doing.

Civilization VI is the early unlock game in the latest Humble Monthly for $12

Think I'll pick this up, that's worth it even without the later games to be revealed.

I've been using my Steam Link pretty much fine for the past year. I started off with the host machine using WiFi and the Steam Link wired to the router, but now have the PC connected with Homeplugs. I've played Portal 2, a bit of Metal Slug, Civ V, and various other games, all with virtually no problem. It was running so well I bought another Link when it was cheap! However, towards the end of last year I installed a GPU, and now the streaming quality has plummeted. Before my GPU Tony Hawk HD used to run perfectly (no slowdown or anything), just with psychedelic corrupted textures. Now it looks great but it's unplayable! When I run the Steam Link with the stats overlay it says I have a slow connection and the ping was massively spiking. The connection hasn't changed. I've downgraded my streaming quality to balanced but haven't really noticed any difference. I'm playing games perfectly well on the host machine so as far as I can see it's a streaming issue.

Is the problem because I'm now streaming a better quality picture which places higher demands on the connection? Or is there something else going on? At around this time last year the connection did go screwy for a couple of weeks (I assumed it was just the fact that my PC was without a GPU), but there's no logical reason why the time of year should affect it in the same way bad weather can affect internet connectivity sometimes. I assume it also wouldn't tell me my connection is poor in the overlay if the problem was hardware related.

Really at a loss for this and it's destroying my gaming time. I sometimes only get to fire up the Steam Link when my son's having a nap, and I spend the whole time either janking around some game or trying to troubleshoot the issue with a baby in my arms.

A GPU is a graphics card right? If so, can you try putting your old one back in so you can isolate it to that being the issue? What is unplayable about it? Is there bad input lag or do the graphics look really gooseberry fool? Make sure you have hardware encoding switched on, and check the Link isn't using Wifi despite an ethernet cable being plugged in.

I love the Steam Link but I fear my new Switch is going to put it out of commission.

smurphy wrote:A GPU is a graphics card right? If so, can you try putting your old one back in so you can isolate it to that being the issue? What is unplayable about it? Is there bad input lag or do the graphics look really gooseberry fool? Make sure you have hardware encoding switched on, and check the Link isn't using Wifi despite an ethernet cable being plugged in.

I love the Steam Link but I fear my new Switch is going to put it out of commission.

Yeah, it's a graphics card. I didn't have a graphics card at all for a little while, that's why I surmised that the problem may be simply more data being churned out by the host PC now I've put one in. The stream goes all blocky and pixelated, like watching Freeview in bad weather, although when it's not doing that the graphics are spot on. That's coupled with severe input lag.

I saw the hardware encoding option and I'm pretty sure that's on. I also checked to ensure the connection was wired as well. I was hoping to avoid taking the card out as it'll be a right faff, but I'm running out of options. Cheers for the advice

Instead of taking it out, can you disable the card in the hardware bit and go back to your on-board graphics?

Have you always been running at the same resolution, too? Graphics quality wouldn't affect the performance of the stream, but if you've upped your resolution it certainly would (whether in the game, or the maximum steaming resolution in this settings. If it's on 'Automatic' this may be the case).

Advent7 wrote:Instead of taking it out, can you disable the card in the hardware bit and go back to your on-board graphics?

That would be a lot easier! My last card was a Voodoo 3 and I never had to troubleshoot that. I just really want to avoid taking bits out if I can avoid it because I don't have time and don't want to rush it.

smurphy wrote:Have you always been running at the same resolution, too? Graphics quality wouldn't affect the performance of the stream, but if you've upped your resolution it certainly would (whether in the game, or the maximum steaming resolution in this settings. If it's on 'Automatic' this may be the case).

My resolution did go up, and I do have it set to automatic. I streamed an episode of Taskmaster via the Link and the desktop froze a couple of times so that could well be the same thing. I will explore both these options when I get a chance...