GTX 780M Benchmarks (Laptop, not desktop GPU)

Some leaked benchmarks can be seen.  Not too shabby for a laptop GK104 modified chip.  These would be the same as the 6xx family in nVidia.


Battlefield 3 for example:


Source: http://www.game-debate.com/news/?news=5440&graphics

Xbox 3/720 Durango is going to potentially have Offline support.

"Durango [the codename for the next Xbox] is designed to deliver the future of entertainment while engineered to be tolerant of today's Internet." It continues, "There are a number of scenarios that our users expect to work without an Internet connection, and those should 'just work' regardless of their current connection status. Those include, but are not limited to: playing a Blu-ray disc, watching live TV, and yes playing a single player game."

It is very similar in idea to Steams activation and offline play modes.  It is good for everyone, however, I would love to not be connected and still have games work right out of the box.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/05/microsoft-next-xbox-will-work-even-when-your-internet-doesnt/

The funny thing I noticed was first, pointed out by ArsTechnica, was that this was distributed in an internal email at Microsoft.  If it is to be believed, they are sending out a mass email confirming that things have not changed (i.e. there is an offline mode.)  Is it just me or is it odd you would send an email update stating that nothing has changed and to re-iterate the offline mode?  I do think its odd, and honestly, the amount of backlash Microsoft would get for this is pretty harsh.  With the less than enthusiastic reception of Windows 8, it seems Microsoft may have lost touch with its consumer base.

Tie this in with the firing of Adam Orth after his comments pissed off the majority of the gaming community (even ones that don't mind always online devices) by telling them to "#dealwithit" on Twitter.  His main contention that having internet is like having electricity and running water. Which it isn't, and when the economy is in the state it is, some people have forgone home internet.  To be honest, if they chose this route for a console, that is their prerogative, and I can understand it (not necessarily like it or desire it, but understand it for sure.) The way Adam came off though to me this sounded like a spoiled brat who should know better. It also makes me wonder if his opinion is shared at Microsoft, if just not publicly.  This wasn't some lowly Microsoft peon after all, it was Microsoft's Game Director.

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/10/4210870/adam-orth-leaves-microsoft

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/5/4185938/adam-orth-speaks-on-required-internet-connection-for-durango-rumors

Nexus 5 Image Leak? Leak suggests LG will be making the next Nexus.

Looks like Google maybe sticking with LG for the Nexus 5!  Which is good because the Nexus 4 was a killer phone with very few issues.

Source: http://hexus.net/mobile/news/android/54893-lg-now-working-google-nexus-5-smartphone/

This also is interesting because if true, this earlier prototype of Nexus 5 maybe incorrect.  It is something only time will tell.

Source: http://hexus.net/mobile/news/android/53049-google-lg-nexus-5-prototype-leaked-specs-images/

LucasArts revived by... EA?

EA's Frank Gibeau (President of EA Label): "the games will be entirely original with all new stories and gameplay....   may borrow from films"

Engine to be used: Frostbite 3 (ala BF4).

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/6/4306040/electronic-arts-gets-exclusive-deal-to-develop-star-wars-video-games

Source: http://www.ea.com/news/ea-and-disney-team-up-on-new-star-wars-games

GTX 760M Specifications Leaked/Rumored

Judging by the specs and fabrication (looking to be GK106/107) I would anticipate the performance to be pretty impressive for a laptop GPU but more than that, its going to run a lot cooler (assuming their is some not crummy cooling system in the laptop.)

Image courtesy of ChipHell forums.

Other specs include the 750M, 745M, 740M.  The 780M and 770M should already be out, but also mentioned in the article is some love for Team Red, the HD8970M is expected later this year.  No specs other than it may be a rebrand of the HD7970M which would be a little lame if true.

Source: http://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-gtx-760m-gpuz-revealed-features-gk106-768-cores/

GTX 780 is possibly Titan LE and releasing the 23rd, according to leaks.

The Geforce GTX Titan is based off the K20 Tesla units of nVidia's high end computing cards.  Titan is in fact slightly slower than a Tesla due to few key laser cuts to die.  More than likely, these chips did not qualify as full Tesla cards, but were not complete failures.  Not broken but not fully yielding Teslas.  The GK110 is a powerful chip and frankly it looks like the GTX 780 is going to be the Titan LE, also a  GK110, but again a little weaker than a Titan.

GTX 780 also is rumored to release May 23rd, followed in one week by the GTX 770 which is a rehash of the GTX 680 design.




http://videocardz.com/41239/nvidia-geforce-gtx-780-to-be-released-on-may-23rd
http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/31265-geforce-gtx-780-coming-on-may-23rd
http://www.sweclockers.com/nyhet/16955-geforce-gtx-780-for-1080p-120-hz-gaming

i7 4770k at 7 GHz? Look out Sandy Bridge, Haswell might be aiming to be the overclocking enthusiasts replacement.

Not just the frequency, check out that voltage! Ouch! Don't try that at home kids.

Source: http://wccftech.com/intel-core-i7-4770k-overclocked-7-ghz-z87-motherboards-including-asus-maximus-vi-extreme-spotted/

In other Haswell overclocking news, the i5 4670K hit 6.2 GHz at an amazing 1.256v!



Source: http://www.overclock.net/t/1387728/ocaholic-wccf-intel-core-i7-4770k-overclocked-to-7-ghz-several-z87-motherboards-including-asus-maximus-vi-extreme-spotted/0_50#post_19881544

AMD Radeon HD 7990, CrossfireX, and Stutter? AMD may have a solution soon.

Unfortunately, every once in awhile, something will divide the community of the tech world and enthusiasts, much like the polarization of congress, this time it is AMD microstuttering. Most recently it has been the "confirmation" of microstutter, that has been ignored, much like Global Warming. Some AMD users have continually denied its existence despite AMD admitting to it, somewhat in a casual manner, and then showing its users they can fix it.  When you remove the nVidia GPUs completely out of the equation, in my mind you have a slam dunk case of, this is not a fanboy issue, this is an AMD issue.

An example of AMD vs. AMD Fixed vs. nVidia.  Ideally, you would want to be the green line (Geforce GTX Titan):

Jesus H. Jones.  Look at that orange microstutter!

I am not going into the details of the full story, it literally causes me a headache, both the idiots and the actual microstutter.  The point of this was that I wanted to leave a piece of good news. AMD has promised at least to give users an option to enable smoother frame rates (ala frame metering) to significantly increase image cohesion during transition.  In other words, they remove the majority of runt frames which seems to make the screen stutter for fractions of a second, and has been noticeable since about 58xx generation of AMD Radeon HDs.

Anticipate, the drivers will be made public around June/July time frame.  So.... September.
http://techreport.com/news/24748/amd-says-frame-pacing-beta-driver-due-in-june-july-timeframe

Here is a link to the site at the forefront of bringing a metric to observe the difference in AMD and nVidia single/multi GPU setups so that there is a "scientific" way to present to AMD and request it to be addressed.
http://www.pcper.com/

Specifically:
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/AMD-Radeon-HD-7990-6GB-Review-Malta-Gets-Frame-Rated

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Frame-Rating-AMD-Improves-CrossFire-Prototype-Driver

And for you numb nuts saying that nVidia GPUs are no different, or cheating because they have "hardware" to enable frame metering, or whatever retarded excuse you have, here is AMD showing you they can fix it on AMD cards!  To me the difference is day and night on an AMD setup vs. nVidia setup.

Geforce GTX 780/7xx & Radeon HD 8970 and DirectX 12? That is what this leak is showing.

These screenshots are not guaranteed and are pure unverified at this point.  Especially with the level Photoshopping skills on the internet (ala 4chan and reddit.)  We have also had to note, there were no plans with DX12, possibly in the wild (ala Windows Blue this September), these two GPU vendors would most assuredly know better than us.

No leak yet on launch date with AMDs cards, but the rumors for nVidia have been estimated this month, some as early as May 21st.





Original sources of information:
http://videocardz.com/41250/nvidia-geforce-gtx-780-and-amd-radeon-hd-8970-spotted-cpuz-database

http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/news/article.php?storyid=6786

Update:  Upon further investigation myself, I really believe this display of DX12 makes no sense, and should be considered at best a potential hiccup of CPU-z.  In fact, the leak of the HD8970 with only DX11.0 seems odd, as I would have predicted both cards taking advantage of the Win8 release of DX11.1.

Although I haven't seen the white paper of DX11.1, it is possible that the DX11.1 is a versioning only on the software side.  If that was the case then all cards retroactively could support it if it is infact DX11.0 branding.

Ready to Overclock your Radeon HD 7950 / 7970 but the tools don't seem to be working? I got this.

Getting started was a little bit tricky, coming in late to the 7970 game around April 2012 instead of February 2012.  This little write up shows, using just Afterburner and a couple of DLLs, how to get into overclocking the 79xxs, and removing some of the limits imposed by the drivers/registry.

There are a few ways to go about doing this, one or two patches floating around etc, but this is just the what I used to get things rolling.

Software I Used:

Using the latest Afterburner 2.2.0 Beta 15, 12.4 Beta Catalyst, 12.3 CAP1.  Works up to the modern drivers (I verified).

Best Way To Start:

Clean uninstall using AtiMan.  Then Install of your choice of drivers and CAP profile.

Downloaded the missing atipdl64 / atipdlxx.dll.  Link & Source: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=359671

Place the .dlls in the MSI Afterburner folder.

Note: You can also place them in their corresponding System32 & SysWow64 folders, but its not necessary.  It works here.

Launch Afterburner, edited these settings below, some users report this is not necessary, but for me to have Voltage control it was.  Try it without, and if you still don't have access, try enabling low-level access as I had to.

Important, follow these instructions exactly:

Edit Afterburner's shortcut and change the Target line: "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner\MSIAfterburner.exe" /XCL

Start Afterburner one time (it may pop up with a window asking you to reboot) and it will not start.

Go back in, delete the /XCL part of the target line.

Reboot machine now, and then re-launch Afterburner.

End Result:

Conflicting Clock Settings / BSODs:

If you have enabled the Catalyst's own Overclocking menus, be careful changing anything as there have been reports of some users BSOD with Afterburner or other Utilities running.  Even 2.2 Beta 15 does have a few glitches, its not 100% perfect.

BSOD While Idle:

CFX users may want to (probably have to) disable ULPS to prevent random BSOD while idling or starting games.  Atypical stop codes of 37, 7E and even 116 have been seen without disabling Ultra-Low Power State / ZeroCore modes.  Simply open up Registry using Regedit, and search for multiple instances of "enableulps" and switch it from 1 to 0.  I am told the enableulps_NA doesn't matter but I just change them all to 0.  There are about 8 cases of it in registry, not all of them are 1, but just get them all changed and don't forget to reboot for it to take affect.

Power Draw Limit:

You can change PDL in Afterburner, by clicking on Settings.  Once in settings you can see on the main tab towards the bottom and see PDL is there.  To make changes you must slide it to where you want, click Okay, and ONCE you are looking back at the main tuning of AB you will see that the Apply button has lit up.  You must click APPLY to apply the changes of PDL you just made, they are not effective till you do.

Memory OC:

We are getting a little bit of evidence showing that the memory clocks up to 350~400 MHz overclocks are achievable, some even higher, and they are equating to gains of 5% to 10% gains in performance (average FPS.)  Now any higher I am sure it will either crash, or ECC will begin correcting so frequently that performance is lost.  Find a sweet spot, that requires no extra voltage and if you can, keep an eye on memory temps.  I noticed that the thermal padding that XFX used is relatively thick (>2mm) and may trap more heat in then transfers to the heat sink.

GPU OC:

Pretty easy to overclock once the controls are back in our hands.  Higher clocks = more performance.  One small catch, a lot of users on air have noticed that as temps rise, stability declines.  Temperatures we consider normal for a GPU (70~85c) range.  Consider this when overclocking, stability may require additional cooling and what not.  I am currently on water and I am 100% limited by the silicone, not temperature, so I have not personally witnessed this.

ASUS OC BIOS:

There is an ASUS OC BIOS, which unlocks the voltage to 1.400v.  The only OC tool that can use it, I believe, is the ASUS GPU-TWEAK, the latest version at the moment is 2.0.83, and it is really buggy for me (CrossfireX) when it comes to synchronizing both Cards.  Switching back and forth between both GPUs, causes me to lose my max voltage and forces me to be stuck at 1125v.  It also doesn't apply overclocks to the second GPU unless I manually do it, causing me to lose the voltage.  I recommend not using this at the moment if you are benching multiple cards.

You can get it here: 

Asus.HD7970.3072.120104.zip41k .zip file

ASUS GPU-z Tweak: http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?2624-GPU-Tweak-(Beta)

You will also need the latest ATi Winflash: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2107/ATI_Winflash_2.0.1.18.html

Make sure to get a backup of the original ROM before continuing! You can simply do this by grabbing the VBIOS with GPU-z.  DON'T FORGET!

Make sure you are running as Admin when you try, if it fails try the command to force flash if vendor-id warning appears:

atiwinflash -f -p 0 ASUSOC.bin

Multicards should be:

atiwinflash -f -p 0 ASUSOC.bin

atiwinflash -f -p 1 ASUSOC.bin

atiwinflash -f -p 2 ASUSOC.bin  etc.

WARNING: Flashing is risky, no one, including myself, take responsibility for whatever you do to your cards.  That applies to all the aforementioned overclocking as well.

Voltage Fluctuation:

It doesn't hurt to keep an eye on voltages from a few utilities, but the only way to be 100% sure what voltage you are seeing is with a voltmeter.  Many users have reported spiking in voltage sensors, in Afterburner, GPU-z, and HWinfo32.  HW Monitor and AIDA 64 also provide voltage readings to I believe.  Use your best judgement in reading the sensors, and trust your gut.  I usually play it safe, but I am also on water, so I have more wiggle room regarding voltage fluctuations.  Being careful is the resounding message I am trying to push across.

One Final Thing:

Different Benchmarks and Games can and probably will have different Max overclocks.  Don't be disappointed if your Max overclock crashes in BF3 but nothing else, be flexible with the overclocks.  Don't forget, just because a game crashes, does not prove you or your overclocks are fully at fault.  Could be nothing more than a game bug or more likely a driver issue.  Keep chugging a way and have fun!

Other Resources:

OCN - 79xx Owner's Club

OCN - Battle Royale Part II - GTX 680s vs. HD 7970s

I am RagingCain at Overclock.net ^.^

Right click context menu missing on the Windows 7/Vista/XP Start-Menu? Try this!

Really simple fix, its just a setting change internal to the Start Menu, and yes it CAN get turned on itself as I discovered amazingly one Saturday morn!

A lot of suggestions said do a system restore, scan the hard-disk, but this is where you should go to first before deciding Windows has packed in and needs a reformat/repair.

Problem / Symptoms:

Unable to Right Click icons in the Start-Menu.

Unable to Drag/Drop icons in the Start-Menu.

Unable to perform all secondary actions associated with the previous two, such as pinning or deleting.

Cause:

User/System changed settings on Start-Menu Properties.

How To Fix:

Right-Click the Start-Menu button or ORB if you have Aero Basic/Aero running, and select Properties.

Go to Customize... Button on the Start Menu tab, it should take you to this tab automatically.

Once open, scroll down about halfway, and re-enable Context Menus and Dragging and Dropping. IF it is already enabled but still not working, try disabling, apply, close this all out, and go all the way back in and re-enable it to confirm it changed.

'

If yours is in fact already enabled yet the context menu is still not working, then I would take heed and investigate further. It may be signs of much larger problems overall, such as scareware, malware, virii, adware, Grumpy Cat, bad Windows etc.

When it doubt, scan for it all and "sfc /scannow" in CMD prompt!

AppV Console Manager Crashing after Startup? I might have a fix for you!

One source I recently learned was the fact that it was caching too many icons on the x64 snap-in go figure.

Symptoms:

AppV (App-V) management console begins crashing post startup, after selecting an individual package/software (for example: Photoshop.)  Type of error is a runtime exception and no matter what you do, seems unable to be fixed.  Re-installing has been reported to work (why it works is related to the fix) but the issue reappears soon after that.

System & Version:

Windows 7 (x64) - All Versions
AppV Management Server 4.5 SP1 - Management Console specifically.

Note: Client is 4.6 SP1 and this should work for all 64-bit versions of Windows, might be in a slightly different registry address for WinXP x64

Reason:

A known bug in MS AppV Console Management x64 module, I have discovered as have others with known known fix from Microsoft.

Solution:

This is a fix to stop caching icons and, thus stopping the crashing.  The downside to this fix are that all icons in the console are replaced with a generic AppV symbol.  Doesn't affect end-user icons though (thank Buddha!)

Open up a CMD Prompt / Console as Administrator and execute this (x64 fix only):

REG ADD "HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\SoftGrid\4.5\Management Console" /v LoadConsoleIcons /d 0 /t REG_DWORD /f

How to capture and apply an image with WinPE 4 and Windows ADK.

How To Capture and Apply an Image With WinPE 4 and Windows ADK

To begin with, you need downloaded and installed: Windows ADK.

WinPE4 & DISM make this sooo much easier now, and support such a large variety of machines out of the box that it made me less Raging for the first time in a very long time.  No need for 3rd party tools or guides (unless you get extremely fancy), straight from Microsoft (all of this material is straight from MS infact.)

Guide to WinPE USB Creation: TechNet WinPE USB Drive Creation

Once ADK is also installed, you will want those deployment tools from its folder on the External.
They are found here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools

Copy the Deployment Tools folder to your external drive and name it something you will remember, since this is the core of WADK tools, I named my copied folder WADK.

Recommended Tools Before Beginning:

• An OS that has already been Sysprepped/Unattend prepared!
• 2~4GB Flash Drive (Since it is usually fat32, you don't want to store your 4GB+ file sized image here so just use it for booting PE4.)
• External Drive (or another Internal Drive for storing the image to be ripped.)

Boot to the USB WinPE4.0 after your OS has been sysprepped.  If you have successfully created a bootable flash drive via the first guide, you should be sitting at a pretty CMD in fast and sexy WinPE4.0.

This should be the default directory you are looking at after it is finished loading:

X:\Windows\System32

From here, we need to see what WinPE has done about labeling your drives and partitions, as well as assigning easily rememberable drive letters.

diskpart 

list disk 

select disk 0 // or which disk has your Windows pre-capture 

list partition 

select partition 0 //only if you use a system partition 

assign letter="S" //S for System 

select partition 1 //again, would be 0 if there is no partition ahead of this .

assign letter="W" //W for Windows 

list volume // Look for you external HDD and remember the Drive letter assigned or change it yourself 

exit

Now that we have labeled your drives something recognizable  we then navigate to the WADK folder on your external drive, using the drive letter you just looked up.  Mine was assigned to L.

Change root to the external drive:

L:

Navigate to DISM folder inside of the WADK copy you made:

L:\WADK\AMD64\DISM\ 

Capturing The Image

Since your OS is already sysprepped and ready to go, you simply capture the correct partition / drive mount

Dism /Capture-Image /ImageFile:L:\WinImg.wim /CaptureDir:W:\ /Name:"Windows"

Alternatively using UNC and Domain:

net use Z: \\ServerName\SharedFolder /user:domain\user PASSWORD 

Dism /Capture-Image /ImageFile:Z:\MyImages\WinImg.wim /CaptureDir:W:\ /Name:"Windows"

 Applying a Captured Image:

The following will completely erase all information on said drive so be careful, or take additional steps to customize it per your system.

Disk Preparation:

diskpart 

select disk 0 

clean 

create partition primary size=100

format quick fs=ntfs label="System" 

assign letter="S" 

active 

create partition primary 

format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"assign letter="W"exit

S:\ Is the 100mb system partition which stores boot info.
W:\ Is the Windows partition.

Important note:  If you are unable to boot into your OS, when everything is said and done, you probably forgot the Active command.  This marks the partition as an active and valid system partition both inside the WinPE but also outside (boot time).  Meaning, if you failed to mark it active, this is 99% of the reason there is No Boot Media message or Boot Manager is Missing.  Don't fret, simply redo the whole process, and properly apply BCDBOOT afterward applying the image.

Whatever drive the Ext HDD is (L:\ for example), navigate to the DISM folder.

L:
cd L:\WADK\AMD64\DISM

(If you need to find out what drive letter the external hard drive is use DISKPART followed by the "List Volume" command, the "L:" is just the standard way of changing the root drive letter you are working for.  You don't CD L: or CD Q: to change drives, you simply type the drive letter with a colon.)

Apply Windows Image

dism /apply-image /imagefile:L:\WinImg.wim /index:1 /ApplyDir:W:\

L:\Directory to Image\ImageFile.WIM, the above Images were just stored on the root of the drive.

Upon fully imaging the drive, you want to create correct boot drive options. Return to RAM DISK X:\ by typing:

X:

Should return you to X:\Windows\System32.  If not navigate there with CD.  Then run BCDBOOT as such:

bcdboot W:\Windows /l en-US

It will automatically apply to S:\ because we made it active after partitioning.  (If it fails for whatever reason you may force application to S drive by using /S S: )

After this it should be good to go and boot the OS.


Sources of Information & Other seriously useful DISM links

• Capturing images with DISM: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825072.aspx
• Applying images with DISM: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824910.aspx
• BCBOOT Command Line Options: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824874.aspx
• Mounting an image and editing files inside it: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff794887(v=winembedded.60).aspx

Note all of this use to be done with a combination of DISM before and ImageX.  ImageX is officially deprecated and DISM now retains all functionality and more.

Fresh start again.

New job, postponing college temporary, new idea for a startup business.

Going to be epic.

-T