#OS And Processor

[dogfogcoggg]

wooooo linux mint

[flying-potato2]

my phone broke and i had to downgrade to my galaxy s7 until i can get a replacement :(

[0ystercatcher]

is it me or microsoft teams has insane performance issues on intel macbook now

[awaredotin]

Processor & Process ?

Processor and process are two essential concepts in computing, but they represent different things: Processor (CPU): Hardware: The processor, also called the Central Processing Unit, is a physical chip within your computer. It’s the brain of the computer, responsible for executing instructions and performing calculations. Functionality: The processor fetches instructions from memory, decodes…

[foone]

A fun thing about computer skills is that as you have more of them, the number of computer problems you have doesn't go down.

This is because as a beginner, you have troubles because you don't have much knowledge.

But then you learn a bunch more, and now you've got the skills to do a bunch of stuff, so you run into a lot of problems because you're doing so much stuff, and only an expert could figure them out.

But then one day you are an expert. You can reprogram everything and build new hardware! You understand all the various layers of tech!

And your problems are now legendary. You are trying things no one else has ever tried. You Google them and get zero results, or at best one forum post from 1997. You discover bugs in the silicon of obscure processors. You crash your compiler. Your software gets cited in academic papers because you accidently discovered a new mathematical proof while trying to remote control a vibrator. You can't use the wifi on your main laptop because you wrote your own uefi implementation and Intel has a bug in their firmware that they haven't fixed yet, no matter how much you email them. You post on mastodon about your technical issue and the most common replies are names of psychiatric medications. You have written your own OS but there arent many programs for it because no one else understands how they have to write apps as a small federation of coroutine-based microservices. You ask for help and get Pagliacci'd, constantly.

But this is the natural of computer skills: as you know more, your problems don't get easier, they just get weirder.

[rashid92786]

Vivo Pad Air: मेटल बॉडी 11.5 इंच डिस्प्ले के साथ एंट्री, जाने इसके धांसू

Vivo Pad Air: मेटल बॉडी 11.5 इंच डिस्प्ले के साथ एंट्री, जाने इसके धांसू फ��चर्स Vivo Pad Air अब 11.5 इंच की मेटल बॉडी और प्रीमियम डिस्प्ले के साथ बाजार में! इस नए टैबलेट की धांसू फिचर्स और स्पेसिफिकेशन्स को जानने के लिए पढ़ें। विवो पैड एयर की बात की जाए तो यह एक ऐसा टैबलेट है जिसने टेक्नोलॉजी और डिज़ाइन की सीमाको एक नई ऊँचाई पर पहुँचाया है। इसकी सबसे बड़ी खासियत तो इसकी अद्भुत डिस्प्ले है,…

[hsmagazine254]

The Nokia T20 Tablet: Work, Learn, and Play with the Power-Packed Companion!

The Nokia T20 Tablet- A tablet designed to last The world of tablets just got a powerful addition with the Nokia T20 Tablet. Designed to last, this exceptional device brings together everything you need for work, learning, and entertainment. From its immersive 10.4″ 2K screen to its trusty 8200 mAh battery, the Nokia T20 is built to impress. Let’s dive into the features that make this tablet…

[felassan]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard PC requirements -

"Minimum Requirements - OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit - Processor: Intel Core i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 3 3300X* (see notes) - Memory: 16GB - Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 970/1650 / AMD Radeon R9 290X - DirectX: Version 12 - Storage: 100GB available space - Additional Notes: SSD Preferred, HDD Supported; AMD CPUs on Windows 11 require AGESA V2 1.2.0.7 --- Recommended Requirements - OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit - Processor: Intel Core i9-9900K / AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (see notes) - Memory: 16GB - Graphics: NVIDIA RTX 2070 / AMD Radeon RX 5700XT - DirectX: Version 12 - Storage: 100GB SSD available space - Additional Notes: SSD Required; AMD CPUs on Windows 11 require AGESA V2 1.2.0.7"

[source]

[wingedtyger]

How to Buy a Computer for Cheaper

Buy refurbished. And I'm going to show you how, and, in general, how to buy a better computer than you currently have. I'm fairly tech-knowledgeable, but not an expert. But this is how I've bought my last three computers for personal use and business (graphics). I'm writing this for people who barely know computers. If you have a techie friend or family member, having them help can do a lot for the stress of buying a new computer.

There are three numbers you want to know from your current computer: hard drive size, RAM, and processor speed (slightly less important, unless you're doing gaming or 3d rendering or something else like that)

We're going to assume you use Windows, because if you use Apple I can't help, sorry.

First is hard drive. This is how much space you have to put files. This is in bytes. These days all hard drives are in gigabytes or terabytes (1000 gigabytes = 1 terabyte). To get your hard drive size, open Windows Explorer, go to This PC (or My Computer if you have a really old OS).

To get more details, you can right-click on the drive. and open Properties. But now you know your hard drive size, 237 GB in this case. (this is rather small, but that's okay for this laptop). If you're planning on storing a lot of videos, big photos, have a lot of applications, etc, you want MINIMUM 500 GB. You can always have external drives as well.

While you've got this open, right-click on This PC (or My Computer). This'll give you a lot of information that can be useful if you're trying to get tech support.

I've underlined in red the two key things. Processor: it can help to know the whole bit (or at least the Intel i# bit) just so you don't buy one that's a bunch older, but processor models are confusing and beyond me. The absolutely important bit is the speed, in gigahertz (GHz). Bigger is faster. The processor speed is how fast your computer can run. In this case the processor is 2.60 GHz, which is just fine for most things.

The other bit is RAM. This is "random-access memory" aka memory, which is easy to confuse for, like how much space you have. No. RAM is basically how fast your computer can open stuff. This laptop has 16 GB RAM. Make sure you note that this is the RAM, because it and the hard drive use the same units.

If you're mostly writing, use spreadsheets, watching streaming, or doing light graphics work 16 GB is fine. If you have a lot of things open at a time or gaming or doing 3d modeling or digital art, get at least 32 GB or it's gonna lag a lot.

In general, if you find your current laptop slow, you want a new one with more RAM and a processor that's at least slightly faster. If you're getting a new computer to use new software, look at the system requirements and exceed them.

I'll show you an example of that. Let's say I wanted to start doing digital art on this computer, using ClipStudio Paint. Generally the easiest way to find the requirements is to search for 'program name system' in your search engine of choice. You can click around their website if you want, but just searching is a lot faster.

That gives me this page

(Clip Studio does not have very heavy requirements).

Under Computer Specs it tells you the processor types and your RAM requirements. You're basically going to be good for the processor, no matter what. That 2 GB minimum of memory is, again, the RAM.

Storage space is how much space on your hard drive it needs.

Actually for comparison, let's look at the current Photoshop requirements.

Photoshop wants LOTS of speed and space, greedy bastard that it is. (The Graphics card bit is somewhat beyond my expertise, sorry)

But now you have your three numbers: hard drive space, RAM (memory) and processor (CPU). Now we're going to find a computer that's better and cheaper than buying new!

We're going to buy ~refurbished~

A refurbished computer is one that was used and then returned and fixed up to sell again. It may have wear on the keyboard or case, but everything inside (aside from the battery) should be like new. (The battery may hold less charge.) A good dealer will note condition. And refurbished means any flaws in the hardware will be fixed. They have gone through individual quality control that new products don't usually.

I've bought four computers refurbished and only had one dud (Windows kept crashing during set-up). The dud has been returned and we're waiting for the new one.

You can buy refurbished computers from the manufacturers (Lenovo, Dell, Apple, etc) or from online computer stores (Best Buy and my favorite Newegg). You want to buy from a reputable store because they'll have warranties offered and a good return policy.

I'm going to show you how to find a refurbished computer on Newegg.

You're going to go to Newegg.com, you're gonna go to computer systems in their menu, and you're gonna find refurbished

Then, down the side there's a ton of checkboxes where you can select your specifications. If there's a brand you prefer, select that (I like Lenovos A LOT - they last a long time and have very few problems, in my experience. Yes, this is a recommendation).

Put in your memory (RAM), put in your hard drive, put in your CPU speed (processor), and any other preferences like monitor size or which version of Windows you want (I don't want Windows 11 any time soon). I generally just do RAM and hard drive and manually check the CPU, but that's a personal preference. Then hit apply and it'll filter down.

I'm going to say right now, if you are getting a laptop and you can afford to get a SSD, do it. SSD is a solid-state drive, vs a normal hard drive (HDD, hard disk-drive). They're less prone to breaking down and they're faster. But they're also more expensive.

Anyway, we have our filtered list of possible laptops. Now what?

Well, now comes the annoying part. Every model of computer can be different - it can have a better or worse display, it can have a crappy keyboard, or whatever. So you find a computer that looks okay, and you then look for reviews.

Here's our first row of results

Let's take a look at the Lenovo, because I like Lenovos and I loathe Dells (they're... fine...). That Thinkpad T460S is the part to Google (search for 'Lenovo Thinkpad T460s reviews'). Good websites that I trust include PCMag, LaptopMag.com, and Notebookcheck.com (which is VERY techie about displays). But every reviewer will probably be getting one with different specs than the thing you're looking at.

Here are key things that will be the same across all of them: keyboard (is it comfortable, etc), battery life, how good is the trackpad/nub mouse (nub mice are immensely superior to trackpads imho), weight, how many and what kind of ports does it have (for USB, an external monitor, etc). Monitors can vary depending on the specs, so you'll have to compare those. Mostly you're making sure it doesn't completely suck.

Let's go back to Newegg and look at the specs of that Lenovo. Newegg makes it easy, with tabs for whatever the seller wants to say, the specs, reviews, and Q&A (which is usually empty).

This is the start of the specs. This is actually a lesser model than the laptop we were getting the specs for. It's okay. What I don't like is that the seller gives very little other info, for example on condition. Here's a Dell with much better information - condition and warranty info.

One thing you'll want to do on Newegg is check the seller's reviews. Like on eBay or Etsy, you have to use some judgement. If you worry about that, going to the manufacturer's online outlet in a safer bet, but you won't quite get as good of deals. But they're still pretty damn good as this random computer on Lenovo's outlet shows.

Okay, so I think I've covered everything. I do recommend having a techie friend either help or double check things if you're not especially techie. But this can save you hundreds of dollars or allow you to get a better computer than you were thinking.

[piratesexmachine420]

I want to write an OS that uses a GPGPU as the primary processor and the CPU for graphics acceleration/framebuffer management. This would solve no problems, run up against numerous architectural constraints, and run horribly; but the willful inversion of technical norms tickles me.

[ms-demeanor]

If Firefox is ~so good~ then why does it eat half my CPU when all I have installed is an adblocker everyone says to install (Ublock or Adblock Plus) and run like shit

IDK if it's taking half your CPU maybe your OS is bad at distributing resources and you should try running linux.

Okay that was the shitty/snarky answer because anon's bad attitude warranted it.

Real answers:

Possibly your computer really does need an upgrade of some kind; Firefox works great on my computer with an i5-11th gen processor and 20GB of RAM, but it (and let's be real probably everything else) is going to run like shit on a computer with a Core 2 Duo and 4GB of RAM. If your computer is old or underpowered and *everything* is slow, legitimately installing a lightweight linux distro might seriously improve your computing experience. And if you're attempting to run any Windows or Mac OS released in the last 5 years 8GB is going to be the absolute minimum RAM you need to comfortably use the internet, so if you're using a 10-year old computer with 4GB in it, consider adding RAM.

It depends on what you're doing. If you look at comparisons of various browsers some have better performance in some tests than in others, and there's no 100% consensus on what is the fastest. Besides, the people yelling about firefox tend to be yelling about privacy and tracking MUCH more than they are yelling about performance, but you're the only one who can determine whether privacy or performance matters more to you. However, be aware that there's no clear winner between the two in terms of speed. Every other review you click on will have a different answer and different outcomes on speed tests, which indicates that their performance is probably pretty similar (notably, Edge can be faster than both, but you probably don't want to use Edge, right? Like does it actually matter if it's faster if it's not customizable and force-feeds you ads while sending data to Microsoft?).

Your performance might be significantly improved with an extension. Plenty of people complain that if it only works with extensions that it doesn't actually work, but those people are ignoring the fact that people like having control over their internet experience. You brought up Adblock Plus and Ublock Origin - I have a very strong preference for Ublock Origin over Adblock Plus and if Adblock Plus came with a browser but prevented me from using Ublock Origin I wouldn't want to use that browser. So I think that having and testing a variety of extensions to find what works for you is probably the best way of approaching any browser. If Firefox is eating all your CPU (weird; that is not the resource it tends to consume) or RAM (which is the resource it tends to consume) I'd say to try either OneTab, which saves your tabs as a list so you don't have ton of tabs open consuming resources, or try Auto Tab Discard, which sleeps tabs on a schedule that you set and makes exceptions for active media or unfilled forms as you choose.

You might have a bad install - it happens! Sometimes things are fucky and you're having problems and uninstalling then reinstalling the browser will fix it.

But Firefox works, and works well, for millions of people. It's really odd to decide that all of those people are making shit up (for some reason) and that firefox is bad actually instead of doing some troubleshooting with your environment to figure out what's going on - especially when there are *so many* resources out there to help you figure out where the problem might be.

[markatoto]

Have a silly guy!

not a joke: i miss this fuckin lil guy so much. for folks who dont know: this is the old android OS mascot... who is still technically on the official logo but they dont often show off this thing any more. this was back when android OS was a lil more silly and a little less uniform and clean. it was the true wild-west of smartphones back then during that early era that gave smartphones charm and personality. we didnt necessarily had the fastest processors, but man... it was such a cool time

dont get me wrong, smartphones still have a lil bit of that personality... it's just different now. cleaner, faster, a little more sterile and squeaky-shiny. not much of those rough edges you see now-a-days. all this to say that i freakin miss this little guy so much!!!

[spell-bloom]

What is considered both a reasonable and maximum polycount for custom content hair and other types of custom content in The Sims 2 and does it depend on gaming specs? Also your work is great!

Thank you for taking the time to read it.

I, personally, use hair that is under 25K polys unless it's unique and cute. Anything over that is overboard and should get decimated. Any furniture or clothing over 10K is extreme for me.

As for specs, I'm inclined to believe that it's a game limitation, how powerful your computer specs are, and a secret third and fourth thing, your OS, and if you're a laptop user.

This OS talk is a side tangent, so bear with me:

Big disclaimer that this is all my opinion, not a factual piece. Don't take this as gospel and I'm far from an expert on operating softwares, computers, and CC for that matter. I went a little bit insane with the OS talk because you mentioned specs and this has been on my mind for a while 🥴

Every single time I've heard that someone installed TS2 on Linux, they are able to play on maximum settings with a BUNCH of CC for a long time and experience no pink soup or pink soup related crashing. I want to do my own research and play the same heavily detailed lot for the same amount of time on Windows and Linux and compare the differences as well as compare how they use resources differently. If I already did not have an attachment to Photoshop CC 2017, I would have made the switch by now.

Okay so Windows... I've played TS2 on my Asus laptop from 2020 and on my new desktop. Here's the spec difference

Laptop: Intel Core i7-9750H 6 Core Processor, 8 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (Windows 10)

Desktop: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Six-Core Processor, 16 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Windows 11)

My laptop was really good for it's time (I bought it in March 2020), but it was pink soup galore for any cluttered CC lot, even with all of the fixes and GRM edits. My current setup is a mish mosh of my bf's and ex's computer parts and it runs perfectly fine, but I do not play long enough to encounter pink soup. (I have a job and I mainly play to get CC previews these days.) If you noticed, both my CPU and GPU were made before my laptop was sold, and yet it still performs way better. Laptops with top of the line hardware will never be more powerful than PCs with even mid to high level hardware from 5 years ago. Don't forget that laptops will throttle performance to protect itself from overheating and causing damage.

There is also no difference between installing and playing the game on Windows 10 and Windows 11, except that you should absolutely uninstall OneDrive if you haven't already. There might be some issue if you install with discs, but I don't own the discs.

And as for Mac, I truly believe that Mac is the worst way to experience Sims 2. Between the Super Collection crap, not being able to use third party tools (SimPE, Hair Binner, any other .exe files made to run for Windows), and the file limit that really hits you hard if you download a bunch of CC that you can't merge anyway because CCMerger can't run on Mac. I should say I have never played Sims 2 on a Mac, but this is my opinion after reading about the struggles of other MacOS users online.

The point of this OS tangent? None, really. I'm not trying to persuade you to use Linux or stop using Mac, this is simply what I've noticed and my opinions on the matter. There's millions of variables I did not cover such as DXVK, texture sizes, difference in specs between each OS and user and many other things I am forgetting.

Feel free to correct, add on, extrapolate or whatever. If you have any thoughts, please comment, add it in reblogs, or tag me in your post. I'm very interested in the current topics about high polys, pink soup and big textures for this game.

[doberbutts]

Like the whole "DOOM runs on anything" meme is funny sure but technically you can run any program on any machine that has the processor, memory, and storage space for it. You may need to tweak some thing here and there to get it fully operational but really that's mostly what it hinges on.

I turned my windows netbook into a Debian server and then turned *that* into cloud-based storage I could dump and share and run any files I wanted to off my internet connection when I was in college by tying an external hard drive to it using an always-on connection. I still technically have the hard drive but I sold the netbook a long time ago. I also turned my MacBook from college into an always-on minecraft server for my college friends before Microsoft decided to give us actual multi-player support.

I also turned my MacBook into a windows OS emulator when I wanted to game because I got annoyed that Mac ports are usually poopoobad quality. So I would turn my MacBook on and then load up my windows os inside of the Mac os and then actually load the game.

Like yeah I went to school for programming but I actually learned how to do most of that as a kid because my dad had a computer that had no GUI, it was all command prompt and DOS. There are times when my current windows computers are annoying me because they won't do the thing I told them to do so I load up dos and then effectively go "I wasn't asking" at it.

[apostaterevolutionary]

What are you computer specs? Mine is not the newest or the most powerful, I haven't started playing DAV yet but I'm not it'll run properly

So my computer is pretty old too (I think I bought it in 2019? Maybe even 2018?) and it's a laptop, so it's geriatric by computer standards lmao. But it was very good at the time I bought it, so it's hard to say what the case may be for you. I do think it's very likely that any remotely capable computer can run this if mine can, but I don't want to give guarantees and be wrong of course. Either way, I've listed my specs below. I have an ASUS Zephyrus M GM501

OS: still on windows 10 Processor: Intel Core i7-8750 (note that the can I run it website told me this processor wouldn't be able to pull it off, but it has basically the exact same performance as the i5-8400 listed in the minimum requirements so I figured I'd give it as try and it works fine 17 hours in) Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1070

The game even runs on medium graphics instead of low and the only somewhat issue I've had is occasionally the sound will get a bit distorted (unclear if this is actually an old computer issue, a regular bug, or has something to do with me using an external sound input/output manager device - it's not frequent enough to be a huge issue). It does recommend an SSD, which I have, so while it says it supports HDD too, I can't speak to any differences there

The only thing I found that was actually kind of annoying is on the very first boot, it has to compile shaders and for some people, this only takes a few minutes. For others, including me, this can be in the range of 30-60+ minutes. After it does this, it won't do it again, at least presuming nothing changes, and every subsequent launch will only take a few minutes while it verifies the shaders instead. So it's just the first time that sucks and while I don't know for sure if the time is correlated to older pcs or not, I wouldn't be surprised if it is. So be prepared for that

Also, if you're not sure, steam will give you only a 2 hour test run before you can't get a refund anymore (kind of an issue if you're affected by the above point), but if you buy it from EA, I heard they have a significantly more forgiving refund policy? So you could get it, see if it'll run, and then get a refund if it won't. If you have a free way to access it, such as via a steam family share or something else, you could also try that to see if it'll run before buying (I did this with jedi survivor a few months ago lmao)