Building a new PC for Elite: Dangerous Odyssey (hardware discussion)

Yeah I cannot on mine as it is native at 7680 x 2160 so max is 120HZ not enough bandwidth so monitor is ready for DP 2.1 but even the best NVidea card is not and the 7800XTX is the only card that can do it but heard it struggles too.

The only GPU that can currently do full UHBR20 (DP80) DP 2.1 bandwidth is the Radeon Pro W7900/7800, which has a single full bandwidth port. The entire consumer Radeon RX 7000 series, as well as Intel's new Battlemage Arc lineup are limited to UHBR13.5.

I looked again and the RTX 5000 series supposedly has DP 2.1 at the full UBHR20 bandwidth.

Thereafter I was playing on a 4k monitor, which is nice, but the small room I played in got terribly hot because of all the fans going like hair-dryers. Then I saw my electricity bill. I play a lot and running a PC at an average of 500w was starting to cost me serious money. I carried on for a bit, then I got a laptop with a mobile RTX 4070, which seems to use very little power. The screen is only 2560 x 1600, but it's OK. I have mounted my sticks on a board and the laptop sits between them. Now I can sit in the armchair and play with the arrangement sitting on my lap, while watching films or Youtube on my tablet. It's not perfect, but I'm much happier.

While the Dell setup probably didn't have the best cooling configuration, there is much one can do to reduce power, generally with only modest impact on performance.

I have three profiles I switch between on my main GPU (an RTX 4090 with a custom loop). The profile I use most often (because I live next to a hydroelectric plant in the North Eastern US where electricity is cheap and the weather not prohibitively hot for most of the year) when playing graphically intensive games is a no-holds-barred ~3.1GHz@1100mV config that uses about 600W for the card alone in ED. However, I also have a maximum efficiency profile which uses sub-250W (a ~60% power reduction) by undervolting the card to ~850mV@~2.5GHz at the cost of 20-25% off peak performance, and an intermediate profile, which keeps to reference (450W) power limits and voltage (1050mV) while being tuned to within 7% of the 600W profile's performance.

Of course, the lower-end the die flavor on the card (and the less complex the board) the lower you can go on power before hitting diminishing returns, but a good rule of thumb is that you can cut listed TDP/TGP in half before efficiency plateaus and performance per watt starts to decline. Laptops are simply tuned this way, with whatever hardware they're equipped with, from the get go, due to power and cooling constraints implicit in the form factor.
 
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I bought a top spec Dell PC for playing ED in VR, but now I regret it. The VR was great for a couple of days, but then several things happened. The wow factor wore off, the discomfort started to become annoying, the shortcomings of the game became even more annoying. I got a stiff neck from having to look behind me every time I accessed the left panel on my Corvette. I got annoyed because I missed phone calls and visitors' doorbell rings. I decided that it was better to play on a normal monitor. I guess VR isn't for everyone.

Thereafter I was playing on a 4k monitor, which is nice, but the small room I played in got terribly hot because of all the fans going like hair-dryers. Then I saw my electricity bill. I play a lot and running a PC at an average of 500w was starting to cost me serious money. I carried on for a bit, then I got a laptop with a mobile RTX 4070, which seems to use very little power. The screen is only 2560 x 1600, but it's OK. I have mounted my sticks on a board and the laptop sits between them. Now I can sit in the armchair and play with the arrangement sitting on my lap, while watching films or Youtube on my tablet. It's not perfect, but I'm much happier.
Yup, I think being comfortable with your setup is the most important thing. I still believe VR is absolutely incredible and love playing things like Beat Saber, Robo Recall, Walkabout mini golf and Half Life Alyx but I play a LOT of Elite and, while there’s always a wow factor if I do have a go in VR, find I’m much more comfortable without the headset. Head tracking definitely helps make up for losing some of what VR gives you, but the graphics are indisputably crisper on my screen (something I personally value a lot) and although I know I'm losing out on the 3D aspect of being IN the world rather than looking at it, somehow my imagination deals with that and I quickly forget.
 
Interesting pricing. $1k difference between th '80 and '90. I know what one I'd go for!

Still, I suppose the '90 will have its place although I have heard rumours of a Ti/Titan version.

The 5090 has twice the VRAM, nearly twice the memory bandwidth (33% wider bus, plus a significantly higher memory clock), and twice the number of functional units. It's clocked a bit lower, but it's still going to be dramatically faster than the 5080. Gap in performance, while still large, was much smaller between the 4080 and 4090.

Edit: corrected my memory statement.
 
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At least that finally answers the DP 2.1 question as it has 3 of them but wow on the power draw that is immense. There will be breakers tripping with this bad boy.
 
twice the memory bus width
Yeah the 5090's memory bandwidth increase is unreal (not far off 2x the 4090). That will bring some disproportionate changes, including (I fear) the attractiveness for certain kinds of computational work.
I will console myself by remembering that I was never ever going to be in the market for one of them anyway :)
 
Yeah the 5090's memory bandwidth increase is unreal (not far off 2x the 4090). That will bring some disproportionate changes, including (I fear) the attractiveness for certain kinds of computational work.
I will console myself by remembering that I was never ever going to be in the market for one of them anyway :)

The increase in memory capacity will also mark the card as a budget workstation part and demand from those who otherwise would have spent 6-8k on RTX 6000 Ada (or upcoming Blackwell) parts will be significant.

I expect the street price of the 5090 to be quite a bit higher than 2k USD, except for small batches of FEs and some cost cut AIB models that won't stay in stock long.

Availability for the rest of the stack should be much better, but the performance jump is also much more mild...excepting DLSS4 which isn't really an apples to apples comparison.
 
Hi All :)

Subject:- Logitech G19 LCD Software on a computer with a clean install of Windows 11.
Here's the thing, I've a Logitech G19 keyboard that works fine with windows 10 on one of my computers, it still does even when I installed the Windows 11 'free' upgrade that came with one of the normal updates from Microsoft on that computer. So no problem on that computer.

I've another computer that I built up last year with a clean install of windows 11 (Home Premium). The keyboard for that computer was just a standard cheapo version which naturally worked ok.
Over Christmas I acquired another G19 keyboard, one which I had originally bought for my Son a few years back but for various reasons he no longer wanted, and was going to dispose of it. Rather than 'let it go' I brought it back home and spent a few hours cleaning it up (it was caked up with dust and generally scruffy!). It now looks just as good as my own which I've kept in very good condition.
I've connected it up to the newer computer, downloaded the Logitech software, everything working fine (led backlights, volume control etc etc.) except for the LCD functions, the screen lights up but I couldn't program anything on it, so certain aspects of the newer software is not there for the G19's LCD functions.

Okay, I'm well aware of the software for this keyboard is now no longer fully supported by Logitech, at least as far as I know under Windows 11 but I am intrigued why it works with the upgraded 1st computer that had the windows 10 OS upgraded to Windows 11 OS.
I presume that the 1st computer still has various files left over from the Win 10 OS, and the Logitech software, this does seems to be the case I should think.

I've browsed the web for workarounds to this problem with Win 11 and came up with two solutions. One solution suggested is to download the drivers etc. for the Windows 10 version of the Logitech software. This I found didn't work for me so I tried the other solution which I found on the Microsoft site which was...

"The solution to your problem is the following.

Settings - Privacy & Security - Windows Security - Device Security - Core Isolation Details -

Memory Identity = ----->Off <-------

Restart the computer.

Then it will be recognized and work normally."

So Yeah, it now seems to work, the LCD 'clock' now shows up and other various functions show up in the Logitech software program, though I haven't tried out the various G key stuff to see if they all work yet.
I've got a couple of niggling thoughts though...With this second 'workaround', am I compromising my computer security with the above solution?
WHY is that Logitech software I installed originally on the 1st computer (which was upgraded from Win 10 to Win 11) working with no 'workarounds'. As I've said, it's gotta be something to do with some files still being present from the Win 10 OS, but as I'm no expert in computer software I just don't know! 😖...and it's really niggling me! :D

Any comments appreciated, as I suspect there might be a few other Logitech G19 owners who frequent these forums. ;)
I've got quite attached to my G19. Acquiring another one was fortunate as I've not seen any modern 'Gaming keyboards' that I've liked. Both these keyboards I've got now have seen a lot of use but are still working great. I'd imagine that to get a 'comparable' keyboard today would be quite expensive, they weren't exactly cheap when I originally bought them! :D

Jack :)
 
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I have a conversation to put to anyone who knows and I would love some feedback on. I was looking to change my PC this year as it is over 4 years old now. I was considering a 5080 card. The issue I have is after detail investigations is that the 5080 is not that much faster than the 4080 series. I will obviously accept the 5090 is faster but the price is too scary for me. My current system is a 3080 liquid cooled set up that is widely acknowledged as running like an absolute animal for such a machine. While a 5080 machine will certainly be quicker, my current machine easily runs Elite at 4k and almost permanently over 100 fps ( I do not use many other games either). Should I wait for the 6 series, the new AMD offerings or just upgrade anyway? I am at an impasse you see. Currently I am intel and Nvidia but not over concerned either way. I will be spending in the plus £3000 bracket too. Not for a couple or three months yet but am curious as to thoughts.

RTX 3080
i9 10900kf 10core
3.7ghz - 5.3 ghz DDR4 3600MHz 32 gb
 
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Agreed, if you are running ED at 4K @ 100fps whats the point? You won't see any inprovement unless you want to run in VR.
But if you are desperate to spend money a 4090 is all you will need, the 50 series is not much better in performance than the 40 series and are stupid money.
AMD 3d CPU's do give very good game performance + AMD upgrade path is more predictable and longer term.
 
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If I had my Amiga I would keep it too lol.
My PC is in pretty sound order at the moment, in fact in the years I have had it is has never actually had a single issue and crashed just twice, of which one was Elites fault.
I have always generally kept a new pc for 4 - 5 years and updated it but this time I am unsure of the gains as when I bought this it really was high end. Now it is still doing all I ask and I am questioning my need.
 
Heyo Alec.

So loooovely choice of case, I went from the somewhat overdone Lian Li O11 Dynamic (big oul' desk hog) to that same Fractal North and really like it. I rebuilt my PC before I made the move back to Ireland from the US, where I had access to cheaper tech prices (and better funding since I was still employed!) so have a bit of recent experience in this...

Few opinions on your build:

I've been a lifelong Intel person as well, but switched to AMD for the processor and have to say they're phenomenal. I had the 5900X and recently upgraded to the 7800x3D and its an absolute lunatic. Other than the increase in performance and decrease in power usage, I haven't noticed a single issue since switching to AMD. Would recommend you have a think about it.

GPU - I went with a 4080 and its fantastic. Laughs at everything I throw at it. Mind you, I got mine for a great deal on Amazon, less than a grand (yeah, I know, that's considered a great deal these days) but the extra memory is almost a have to have versus a nice to have going forward. Again lunacy, but in this day and age it seems that 12gb is the "minimum" to have on a new card. ETA: I have a similar "I'd rather have NVIDIA over AMD, although some of their business dealings are shady" outlook, but I know @Rat Catcher uses AMD GPUs without any issue in Elite, so perhaps he can offer better insight here as they do seem to give more "bang for their buck" but if you want raytracing in Cyberpunk (which is looooooovely!) then NVIDIA it is.

Cooling - mine is a Corsair H100i (of some sort) with a 240mm radiator. Does the job nicely. Has a spiffy LCD screen you can upload an animated GIF to if you're into that sort of thing for an extra premium.

You'll also want fans. I used to have an RGB monstrosity (but ironically all set to white) but swapped them all out for Noctua fans. They're top of the line, ultra quiet, and efficient. Cost a couple of quid more than a standard fan but they keep the PC running VERY quietly rather than the noisier fans I used to have on there. I have three in the front pulling air in, and then the two at the top (with the cooler radiator) pushing air out, and one at the back also pushing air out.

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I have the XL version of that case (black) and really like it. I'm running AMD CPU and GPU with no issues. My old Ryzen 7 Alienware liked to overheat and shut the system down in the summer here in S.E. Arizona so we'll see how this one does this year.
 
if the games demands hardware wise are fully met then anything beyond that is inxs methinks
kinda like running space invaders on quantum computer🤷‍♂️
 
thats why i said games and not elite specifically........
if ya gona be running ultra high end simulations then upgrading should always be considered
 
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