New to buying computer, a few questions

[carefreewill]

I'm buying a new computer for myself for the first time, and I have a few questions that have come up. I've researched a bit, but I either get "depends what you want to do with it" with a technical explination of differences that I get lost in, or a vague "can have problems". I'm looking to get a good, mid-level gaming PC that'll last me a few years. I don't need it to run anything new at top spec (I'm not aiming to run the new metal gear for example), but I'd like it to be fairly future proof (I've got my eye on XCOM 2, though there's no system requirements out yet)

Thus far, based on my own research and some friends advice I'm getting 8GB of RAM, and I'm aiming to get a 1920 x 1080 resolution monitor. I've got an idea of what level of processor and graphics card to get.

First, for the processor, Intel or AMD? What I've read seems to say AMD is better value in the range I'm looking at, but doesn't work as well with a dedicated graphics card as Intel. I'm leaning more towards Intel in this, but I'd appriciate knowing exactly what is meant by "doesn't work as well with dedicated graphics cards".

Second, nvidia geforce or AMD radeon? My friends have said get nvidia, citing problems with AMD cards, and the online advice is fairly the same as above; radeon is cheaper for equivalent, but "something something" get nvidia. My current system has a radeon card, but I never had any say in that purchase, and I've got no context to understand if a different card would have been better. It's worked fine so far, but based on the current advice I've got I'm leaning towards an nvidia geforce, am I wrong?

Third, is 1GB of RAM on the graphics card going to be enough? I can't spring much beyond to 2GB, and what I've read suggests that less RAM in a better card is prefferable. What is the measure of a "better card" in this regard? I'm looking at the graphics clock and the memory clock right now, but I'm not sure how big a difference between the numbers needs to be for it to outweigh the difference in RAM. Is the GPU cores number listed useful?

Finally, what to do about the hard drive. I've been looking at the options and I've narrowed it down to three options within my budget. I can just get a HDD, the cheapest option, I can get a hybrid SSHD, or I can get a smaller 120GB SSD and a bigger HDD to hold my games. I can't find much on the hybrid drive that isn't marketing fluff, so I'm not sure if it's worth it. Two drives, one solid state and one hard disc is an option I've seen a couple times along with justification, has anyone got that setup. If either of those options is good, I'll do that rather than just a hard disc.

[Spyder]

TabrisDarkPeace の投稿を引用：

Typical NOOB mistake: Games do not use 'cores' they use 'thread pools'.

If you don't understand programming you're a lost cause.

Long story short:
A game is not 'limited' to 2 cores unless its thread pool is very poorly implemented.

A given thread (e.g. sound) might only require 3% of a CPU core to process, leaving 97% of the TIME-SLICES available on that CPU core for other work. Which the Operating System Task Scheduler can take advantage of.

Do you want the noble peace prize too? Or does my HW monitor not lie and tell me how much of my CPu is being used in a app or game and know how to do professional benchmarkls? Please
I dont dont need to know programming juswt you have noo clue about hardware so

[Spyder]

In the end softwqare guru, when you can program a game that will runn on 2 cores like a pentium dual core and get 100 fps, then you willl be bigger then bill gates, but till then in case you didnt know all the next gen big titles are being 8 or more cpu core usage, heck new unreal has potentital to use hundrededs, dont deny this cause if you really are a programmer you would know this is possible.

[[AU] Tabris:DarkPeace]

FACT: Your hardware is either 100% utilized for a given clock cycle or instruction duration, or 0% utilized.

The 'in between' area where apps report '50% CPU usage' just means that only half the clock cycles available or instruction durations available got used and that the HALT instruction was 'played' during idle time-slices on that core (or cores).

So yes, your hardware monitor IS lying to you. It lies to everyone for the sake of simplicity so that 'lay users' (such as yourself) can converse with more hardware and software engineering technicians (such as myself) and that there is 'some' common ground between us.

Sadly this leads to all sorts of misinformation at the 'user land' level of such conversations where people say 'my hardware is only 50% utilized' --- which is easy to prove as a lie if you understand the most fundamental parts of the x86 micro processor architecture. :-)

Now, are you a hardware expert, or a software expert?, Because you claimed above to be more hardware leaning... but you don't appear to understand how an x86 processor fetches decodes, etc...

[Spyder]

TabrisDarkPeace の投稿を引用：

FACT: Your hardware is either 100% utilized for a given clock cycle or instruction duration, or 0% utilized.

The 'in between' area where apps report '50% CPU usage' just means that only half the clock cycles available or instruction durations available got used and that the HALT instruction was 'played' during idle time-slices on that core (or cores).

So yes, your hardware monitor IS lying to you. It lies to everyone for the sake of simplicity so that 'lay users' (such as yourself) can converse with more hardware and software engineering technicians (such as myself) and that there is 'some' common ground between us.

Sadly this leads to all sorts of misinformation at the 'user land' level of such conversations where people say 'my hardware is only 50% utilized' --- which is easy to prove as a lie if you understand the most fundamental parts of the x86 micro processor architecture. :-)

Its ok dude I helped programmers like u build a rig they didnt even know a HDD screwe from a mobo screw lol

Nah I know how many cores of my cpu are being used when games have commands to say how many threads are active, comea gain

[[AU] Tabris:DarkPeace]

I build my own PCs, unless I am feeling rich then I pay some pleb $80 to build it for me.
You're talking about 'building PC hardware' which is completely different to 'understanding PC hardware'.

Have you ever read any books on the x86 micro processor architecture in your life?, or are you just some 14 year old kid who likes to talk big on the Internet to 'ever so slightly' help AMDs share price?

[Spyder]

TabrisDarkPeace の投稿を引用：

I build my own PCs, unless I am feeling rich then I pay some pleb $80 to build it for me.

Software programmers, you know us hardware Pros laugh at you right?

Yeah im 13 and was unlocking tbirds as a spermcell.
lol software gurus,

[[AU] Tabris:DarkPeace]

I am 'both' a Software Developer, Hardware Technician (and a former Network Analyst).
- I 'specialised' in three areas.
- I have 20 years and a few months experience with x86/x64 hardware alone.

[Spyder]

TabrisDarkPeace の投稿を引用：

I am 'both' a Software Developer, Hardware Technician (and a former Network Analyst).
- I 'specialised' in three areas.

Nah nothardware

[Spyder]

I dont care about your B rate credentials nor do I have to brag about mine, your not on my level and you do not grasp what I have been trying to say from the begining, you relaly have no idea who your talking too

[[AU] Tabris:DarkPeace]

You're the one trying to devolve the converstation into Hard Disk Drives and Screws, the simple building blocks that any 12 year old can assemble to build a PC.

Building a PC and knowing what actually goes on inside the x86 micro processor architecture are two very different things, as you have continued to prove again and again in this thread.

I take it you build PCs on the side, and 'sometimes' get paid for it but that you are NOT a professional PC or system builder by trade?

P.S. I am so far beyond your level it isn't even funny. I have coded a SINGLE THREADED game that runs at 12,000fps on a Radeon HD6870 (1GB) using C++ and I know a heck of a lot more about hardware than you do.

Can you please explain to me the difference between AMD CMT and Intel SMT?

[Spyder]

TabrisDarkPeace の投稿を引用：

You're the one trying to devolve the converstation into Hard Disk Drives and Screws, the simple building blocks that any 12 year old can assemble to build a PC.

Building a PC and knowing what actually goes on inside the x86 micro processor architecture are two very different things, as you have continued to prove again and again in this thread.

I take it you build PCs on the side, and 'sometimes' get paid for it but that you are NOT a professional PC or system builder by trade?

lol to mee thats all your software ppl know are not even what screw is which rofl

My trade is of no concern, was I in the it industry yes,am i still in it technically yes but refuse to employ myself in it, simple as tjat

Ill answer your stupid gimmick question when you tell me how many threads skyrim uses

[[AU] Tabris:DarkPeace]

The fact you're talking about screws for the second time somewhat concerns me?
Do you have an unusual likeness for the tiniest bit of PC hardware?

Can you please explain to me the difference between AMD CMT and Intel SMT and how this would impact a systems performance at the hardware level?

[Spyder]

TabrisDarkPeace の投稿を引用：

The fact you're talking about screws for the second time somewhat concerns me?
Do you have an unusual likeness for the tiniest bit of PC hardware?

Can you please explain to me the difference between AMD CMT and Intel SMT and how this would impact a systems performance at the hardware level?

Ill answer your stupid gimmick question when you tell me how many threads skyrim uses

[[AU] Tabris:DarkPeace]

Between 16 and 40 threads, but they are not all able to be executed concurrently (as is the norm with most high thread count applications that are not EPIC-ly parallel).

EDIT: You know that Steam and Call of Duty 4: MW both use about 28 threads when running?, and they also are not EPIC-ly parallel, so they are not all able to be executed concurrently.

This is 100% normal in highly threaded software, you rarely, if ever, get perfect scaling with concurrency.

Your turn...

[Spyder]

TabrisDarkPeace の投稿を引用：

Between 16 and 40 threads, but they are not all able to be executed concurrently (as is the norm with most high thread count applications that are not EPIC-ly parallel).

Your turn...

So before i ANSWER YOUR TO WHAT TO ME IS TRIVIAL QUESTION

Please tell me how many threads the one game u can fine skyrim uses :)