GPU Megat[H]read - the cores of wrath grew heavy on the die that day

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > GPU Megat[H]read - the cores of wrath grew heavy on the die that day

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Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

I'm at the point where my current system is having a tough-ish time running some games like Watch Dogs 2 and I'm wondering if a video card upgrade could be in my future.

Right now I have an i5-4670 with 8 GB of RAM and a 970 GTX video card.

I'm not exactly sure what my upgrade path looks like. The 2070 looks quite a bit better than what I have but it doesn't seem to be different from the 1070, which is nearly as old as my 970.

What do you guys recommend? Or do I just buy more RAM and wait for different cards to come out?

# ¿ Feb 19, 2019 16:56

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 16:44

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

TheFluff posted:

The 2070 is about equal to the 1080. The 2060 is about equal to the 1070Ti, which in turn is almost twice as fast as the 970.

Thanks! To spell this out for me so its crystal clear - a 2070 would be a good upgrade?

I left out a crucial piece of information in my last post. I game in 1080p.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2019 17:15

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

sauer kraut posted:

Hunt around for a used 1070(ti) and get yourself into a mental place where you'll have to ditch that 4 CPU threads/DDR3 setup this year.

Thanks - I don't have a problem upgrading. For me (and I suspect most people) the big question is about timing.

I'll look for a used 1070 ti or 1080 and go from there. What's a good price for a 1070 ti or 1080? Is there a specific model to look for or avoid? I find shopping for video cards somewhat difficult as there are at least three different kinds for each model with pretty non-specific (to me anyway) differences that I can't figure out.

I know this is the GPU thread but when will it be a good time to actually upgrade my CPU/memory?

Edit: Is this a good card?

Vasler fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Feb 19, 2019

# ¿ Feb 19, 2019 20:35

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Thanks for all your help guys. I do have one more question (I hope this is the last one).

Looking at the 1070 Ti prices (used), they're very similar to what a new 2060 costs. What are the pros/cons of getting a used 1070 Ti vs a new 2060?

This sounds like a stupid question but there must be some reason why used cards are being recommended over new ones.

Is the 1070/2060 going to be a short-term solution until a new generation comes out or will it last for a while?

# ¿ Feb 19, 2019 22:14

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

priznat posted:

Just ordered an AW3418DW so I need a gpu to run that bad boy, thinking EVGA RTX 2070 Black. They�re around $700CAD (~$530USD) or less after rebate most places around here. Any better options?

Figure I�ll go for the 8GB vram instead of 6 for future proofing.

Where are you finding the 2070 black for $700 CAD? I've only been able to find that card for $800+ CAD.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2019 23:06

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

orcane posted:

TLDR: It's because the current Nvidia generation occupies about the same spot in price/performance as the old one, so you're not getting 1070 Ti performance out of a 2060 for 1060 pricing, you roughly get 1070 Ti performance out of a 2060 for 1070 Ti money.

Long answer: The RTX cards have less VRAM for the "same" price (except the 2070/1080, both of them have 8 GB) which has the potential to suck in the long run and people don't like that in a $350+ GPU. The new tensor cores mainly do two things for games: Enable raytracing effects (RTX) at playable framerates and increase performance at higher resolutions with deep learning supersampling (DLSS), a form of AA where a machine learning algorithm improves an faster, upscaled lower resolution to look closer to the native target resolution image. The caveat is that few games do RTX at this point and there might not be enough games for the feature to matter before refresh does RTX better/faster. And DLSS is very limited because Nvidia has to train the algorithm for every game and resolution, and apparently also target framerate.

Used GTX 1070 Ti: You're buying a used card, modern Nvidia GPUs have protections (eg. no critical overvolting or BIOS flashing), but it can still fail for other reasons. However, a 1070 Ti that had 3 years of (transferable!) warranty still has over 1.5 years left because the cards only came out in November 2017. It might still be a bigger hassle than a new card you bought yourself. The 1070 Ti comes with 2 GB more VRAM which may or may not matter in the card's lifetime in your system.

The RTX 2060-series has the tensor cores and has advantages in low-level APIs (DX12/Vulkan) and HDR over the 1070 Ti, along with shader improvements. Also, it's better at GPU compute if you do more than play games. And as a minor point, the RTX 2060 will get driver support for longer and possible optimizations in the future that the 1070 Ti will not get anymore.

Whether it's a short-term solution depends on your demands. Either card should play modern games at max details up to 1440p at 60fps (the longer you keep the card the more you'll have to turn down details or resolution), if you need more you need a faster card. The next big jump in performance requirements is probably another year+ out though (new console generation launches rumoured in 2020). In terms of the tensor features, I'll expect a die shrink to let Nvidia get cheaper or faster RTX products out of the door by the time RTX is more widely supported so I wouldn't specifically buy a 2060 for that. Whether this will happen soon is unknown, some people assume Nvidia will move the RTX line to a smaller process within a year or so.

This is fantastic. Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to post this. Its a shame that things shook out the way they did as I really liked how my 970 was reasonably priced for pretty great performance.

Since I game in 1080p and have no plans to upgrade in the near future, I wonder how much the 6 GB vs 8 GB VRAM will matter. If I stick with 1080p what would you recommend? Searching for a 1070 Ti or grabbing a 2060? Which specific one should I get?

Again, apologies for these basic questions. I really appreciate your response and everyone else's that has responded to me. Thank you so much!

# ¿ Feb 19, 2019 23:38

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

I'm looking to upgrade my 970 and I'm not really sure what to get. I'd like an Nvidia card but their recent naming conventions confuse the heck out of me.

I think I paid between $400-500 for this 970 when I got it many years ago (I'm in Canada). Is there anything in that price point that will give me a reasonable upgrade?

I primarily game in 1080p.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2019 16:11

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Arivia posted:

At just over 400 you're looking at a GeForce 1660Ti, which is a great upgrade (~40% improvement overall). Towards 500 you're getting a Geforce 2060, which is a 50% improvement and comes with the newfangled raytracing support, if you care about that for Control or other cutting-edge games (or just the Quake 2 eyecandy port!)

Thanks! Looking at the 2060 it does seem like a huge improvement over my current card. I'll wait to see what kind of sale there is for these cards around Black Friday. Hopefully by then, the free game will be something other than Call of Duty.

Edit: There are a million different 2060s!! Which one is the best combination of performance:price? Why are there so many variants...

Vasler fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Oct 19, 2019

# ¿ Oct 19, 2019 23:35

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Spiderdrake posted:

The price differences are mostly in improvements in the cooler and then slightly improved thermal headroom that might give you a little more gas.

The 5700/XT compete well with the 2060S but with black friday it's probably going to come down to the best deal you find and can actually buy.

I believe the current nvidia deal on COD ends on nov the 18th so they'll probably give away something else for black friday.

Thanks for this information, I appreciate it. Are you recommending I purchase an on-sale 2060 then? I wasn't sure.

Part of the reason I'm avoiding Radeon is because of the terrible experiences I had with ATI cards years ago. I suspect this is no longer the case but man, it was such a pain.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2019 23:51

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

BIG HEADLINE posted:

The 2060 Super's a weird card. It's $400-420, and a slightly cut down version of the original RTX 2070's chip, the TU106. The original 2070s still go for ~$440-460, and feature a non-cut-down version of the TU106.

If you buy a 6GB graphics card, be prepared to have to turn down graphical settings sooner rather than later. A lot of AAA titles are already getting close to or hitting 6GB required for the highest detail textures. 8GB will give you a bit more wiggle room.

So, to recap:

1660Ti: Available now, costs ~$260-280, can only do low-end RTX , and even then, it's not an ideal card since it wasn't ~designed~ for it.
1660 Super: Should be available next week, should cost ~$250, and is actually *faster* than the 1660Ti because nVidia wants to bully AMD. Expect 1660Ti prices to fall. Still 6GB of frame buffer.
2060: Available now, costs ~$320-340, only has 6GB of frame buffer, and doesn't really have the oomph for RTX even though nothing out now fully utilizes it anyway.
2060 Super: Available now, costs ~$399-429, has 8GB of frame buffer, still won't do all that well, but it's your first nVidia SKU with 8GB.
2070: Available now, costs ~$450, has 8GB of frame buffer, a full TU106 chip that isn't cut down, and probably is the first SKU that'll do without it turning your game into a slide show.

The cheap option? Snag a 1660Ti or 1660 Super now, beat the poo poo out of it for a few years, and then buy a better GPU once this raytracing bullshit's been standardized through Vulkan and nVidia's been forced to eat a dick over RTX.
The "want the best performance *now*" option? Snag a 2060 Super and forget about RTX.

Lastly, not that you should even be considering it in TYOOL 2019, but SLI/NVLink functionality isn't added to these cards until the 2070 Super. Just mentioning it because there are still some people who think "oh, I'll just buy one card and SLI later and get more performance!" It's not worth it. Get a single card that's good enough or slightly more than good enough for what you want to do with it and be happier in the long run.

Thanks for the breakdown, I really appreciate it! 2070 looks like the superior option though I'm not sure I want to spend 2070 prices. Perhaps Black Friday will bring some nice sales.

How much of a difference will there be in performance with the various options at 1080p? I was under the impression that a lot of the performance demand occurred when you increased resolutions to something like 1440p. It seems like I might not be understanding this correctly.

Looking at even the base 2060, it looks to be a sizeable upgrade from my 970.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2019 00:21

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

BIG HEADLINE posted:

The 2070 is a "legacy" product now that the Super cards are out, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that the "old" 2070s will go on closeout on BF/CM.

Not that it helps you up in Canuckistan, but Micro Center has the non-Super 2070 for $439 after rebate. It only bears mentioning because rebates - in addition to helping clear out stock - are another way makers test future price points through retailers, so the 2070 might get closer to 2060S pricing nearer to the holidays.

The 2070 is old now? Does that mean a 2070 Super card will come out at some point? My god NVIDIA makes this complicated. I think I recall doing the same thing when I was buying the 970, but I don't think there were this many options that seemed the same with minor differences at the time.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2019 00:29

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

I'm sorry for resurrecting the 2060/2060S/2070/2070S discussion here but I'm even more confused.

I think I'm seeing there's at least some consensus that either a 2060S or 2070 is a decent card to get and that the 2070S is too much money for the performance boost.

If this is correct, which card is the card to get? The 2060S or the 2070? Sorry for asking the same question multiple ways but...I'm confused.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2019 03:19

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

BIG HEADLINE posted:

If those are your choices and you need a card right now, the 2060S. If you're able to wait for BF/CM sales, *maybe* the 2070 because retailers will want to clear the non-Super cards out of inventory/off their shelves, and BF/CM is made for that.

The 1660 Super - when it finally goes up for sale - might cut or off the 2060S and 2070 simply because the $250 MSRP for the 1660S will upset the pricing of the entire nVidia stack. In either event, it's either "wait a week" or "wait a month."

I'm not in a super hurry so I can wait. Looking at benchmarks it seems that the 2070S is a 14% - 25% increase in performance relative to the 2060S and the 2070S costs $130 more.

It looks like the power requirements for the 2060S are similar to the 970 so that's good.

Which brands are good these days? I've had good luck with EVGA - are they still okay?

# ¿ Oct 23, 2019 04:14

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

I saw a great post a page ago about how to pick a card. There's one thing I didn't understand though. What is a "blower"? Is that a heatsink/fan combo or does it mean something else?

With black friday around the corner, I'm again looking at 2070s. I won't be water cooling and I'll be looking for an EVGA of some sort.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2019 14:33

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Thanks for the clarification on blowers everyone. Turns out I was confused because I've never purchased a blower card. I've always purchased the open style ones with two fans. I'll keep doing that!

# ¿ Nov 16, 2019 01:29

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Hi folks - with a (hopefully decent) sale around the corner, how does this card look? There's also "XC Gaming" and "XC Ultra Gaming" options for this card. Are either of these something I should consider instead of the basic "Black" model?

# ¿ Nov 22, 2019 03:21

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Lambert posted:

Check out the 5700 XT as well if you're price-sensitive.

I'm not price sensitive, but I don't want to waste money by buying something stupid. There are so many models with what seems like very marginal differences.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2019 15:30

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

I've got a new build priced out and ready to go. Just wondering about a video card.

I'm currently gaming at 1080p and would like to move up to 1440 at some point.

Do you guys recommend a 2060S or 2070S? The 2070S looks good but I can't really tell if the price difference is worth it.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2020 03:53

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Paul MaudDib posted:

if you're aiming for 1440p you probably want the 2070s, or a placeholder like 1080 or 1080 ti until new GPUs come out later this year

Wait, there's new video cards out this year? I have a 970 right now. If I stay at 1080p with my new build will it be able to manage with good settings? The major limitation with my current i5 definitely seems to be RAM and cpu.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2020 04:28

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

I'm looking at buying an EVGA 2700S as I've had good luck with EVGA in the past but what the heck is the difference (aside from a minor price one) between Black gaming, FTW3 ultra gaming, gaming, XC gaming, XC hybrid gaming and XC Ultra gaming?

These models are absurdly named and the descriptions are useless. Which one is the best value for money? I tried googling this but my google is weak today and got results that were even more confusing and spoke about model numbers (and there were, for example, four different types of "Black gaming", with only one apparently acceptable).

I'm looking at Newegg's site here for all the different models

# ¿ Apr 24, 2020 14:44

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Zarin posted:

Since all I buy anymore is EVGA , I can probably provide some EVGA-specific help. Yeah, their naming system is pretty dumb, but it does have the benefit of being relatively consistent: Watercooling is, well, what it says on the tin; FTW is almost always a more performance-oriented part with a 3-fan cooler on it (and probably RGB bling); XC Gaming is about the same as FTW but with a 2-fan cooler (and probably RGB bling); Gaming is the base model. There are other random designations sometimes that mean . . . something. Maybe.

When I'm shopping cards, the first thing I do is go to EVGA's site and look up the list of parts for whatever my target model is:

https://www.evga.com/products/productlist.aspx?type=0&family=GeForce+20+Series+Family&chipset=RTX+2070+Super

The nice thing about their site is that it's real easy to see all of what they offer and the specs on each on the same page. Their site usually runs a bit more expensive than retailers, though (although sometimes things are on sale for the same price as retail), so once I've settled on a card, I'll copy/paste the part number into Amazon/Newegg/wherever and go from there:

One thing I should really do is educate myself on how important the different metrics are (Boost Clock, Texture Fill Rate, Memory Clock, and Memory Bandwidth are). At least I understand what the "Memory" line means

Thanks for this! So would XC Gaming be a kind of "middle of the road" type of card? Not blower but not water cooled and sort of still good?

Also, I looked at the XC Gaming ones on EVGA's website and they had three separate models. It seems funny how "diversified" one model of card can be. 2070s are segmented into these nonsensical categories of "Black" and "XC Gaming" and then further segmented into what looks like things that are slightly overclocked and then more slightly overclocked?

Yowza.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2020 23:08

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Guh, I really want to upgrade my 970 to a 2070 to go with my new PC but the prices are ridiculous and stock appears to be nearly non-existent.

Guess I'll hobble along with this 970 until something changes.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2020 18:41

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Statutory Ape posted:

I think the 970 is remembered fondly because despite the fact it was kind of hosed, it kept people running games at decent enough settings on their 1080p screens. A minor amount of games and settings would challenge the cards available VRAM, and the card outside of VRAM is competitive with midrange pascal and low end turing for performance.

How was the 970 hosed? I guess it doesn't matter now as I've been using the card for something like 4 years. It has worked very well up until quite recently. It seemed to me like it hit a pretty amazing price and performance.

I can't recall the last time I've kept a video card as long as I have! Having said that, I'm quite excited to upgrade to a 3xxx.

Edit: I'm excited to finally play Metro and Control whenever these cards come out. I upgraded my PC in April and the video card is the final piece for a new system!

Vasler fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Aug 28, 2020

# ¿ Aug 28, 2020 15:46

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Question for you all:

I have a 970 right now and will upgrade to a 3xxx whenever they're in stock. I'm targeting to play at 1440p.

Do I get a 3070 or 3080? I'd like this card to last a long time, like my 970, so I will spend on the 3080 if it will help (and I can get one, hah).

Best of luck to us all - someday we will get a card!

# ¿ Sep 19, 2020 17:34

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Ugh, c'mon EVGA, get it together. This 970 needs replacing. I'm gonna be waiting until Jan/Feb before I can actually get a card, aren't I? What a release.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2020 20:46

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

What's this about a 3080ti now? There isn't enough supply for the 3080s and now there's a ti? What's in the ti? I can only imagine how limited the ti numbers are gonna be. We're never getting cards are we.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2020 02:14

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Where are the cards evga. Get your poo poo together, I want to buyyyy.

How long do we anticipate the discord lurking will need to continue to actually get one?

I'm getting to the point where I'm thinking of signing up, but I'm in Canada. Is there a way to get notifications for Canadian sellers?

# ¿ Nov 11, 2020 19:51

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Nice to see that 970s are retaining their value. I still have mine, since I can't get a better card. So many years, so much value.

Now, if only I could get a 3070/3080. Hah.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2021 14:49

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Okay so, here I am again, the guy in Canada with a 970. Do we think cards are going to be easier to get one of these months? Because drat. Someday I'd really like to upgrade (for a non-scalped price).

I've been on the EVGA waiting list since, oh, mid-September?

# ¿ Jun 4, 2021 14:40

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Count me as a member of the "stuck with a 970" crew.

I keep hoping that someday, I might be able to get a new video card. Somehow, every time I look, the situation (availability and price) is even worse than it was before.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2021 19:13

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

terrorist ambulance posted:

Memory express has a bunch of 3080tis bundled with power supplies if any Can goons are still looking

Can you share a link to this, please? I looked all over their site and I can't find the bundle you're talking about.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2021 03:39

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Oh god, hold on 970, just a couple more years...

# ¿ Aug 19, 2021 05:51

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Inept posted:

the 970 will be 7 years old in 2 weeks

I'm right there with you, friend. I've been on eVGA's waiting list since October, 2020.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2021 20:56

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Can we still do the "buy an old EVGA card and get in the step up queue" or did they remove that option? Getting antsy...

# ¿ Sep 17, 2021 05:54

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Alan Smithee posted:

yes

Great, thanks! What's the cheapest card to buy that can step up to a 3070 or 3080?

I've been on EVGA's non-step up list since something like late September of last year. I'm starting to doubt if I'll ever get a card, though I did get an email telling me I was shifted to the new model that isn't for mining.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2021 19:13

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Alan Smithee posted:

I wanna say the evga 210

If there�s a cheaper one idk but at 50-60 buxx can�t complain

Thanks! The only problem I'm facing is that I can't seem to find a reputable seller in Canada that actually has cards in stock.

Guess I'll keep looking.

# ¿ Sep 18, 2021 02:33

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

South posted:

Can confirm.

Registered for a 3080 ti FTW on 6/3/2021 at 8:35:23 am PT. Received my queue notification on 9/27/2021 at 12:16 pm PT.

Now I'm trying to decide if I should keep the 3070ti I already have or the new 3080ti.

My brother in law said he might buy whichever one I don't want. If he doesn't buy it, I'll put it up on SA-Mart.

What the heck? I registered in October of last year and I still haven't been selected! Congrats...

# ¿ Sep 29, 2021 05:17

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Hi folks, how the hell do I get an evga 3070/80 in Canada? I've been on the evga waitlist for forever, and I don't anticipate ever being contacted.

Best Buy gets next to no cards when they get them and there are no local computer stores thanks to covid. Parents went to their local Memory Express in Saskatoon and they were told to "check the website". I've never seen cards on the website at any point over the past year+.

I'm worried about the longevity of my 970!

Also, I don't think I'll ever get another video card that has given me as much value for money as this 970. I think I've had it for something like 6 years+ now. Incredible.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2021 03:49

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

I ought to add - I'm willing to buy a cheaper card and step up to a 3080, but I can't find any cheaper cards either!

# ¿ Dec 7, 2021 04:27

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 16:44

Vasler: Feb 17, 2004; Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

Alan Smithee posted:

What�s your evga queue

My "date entered" is November 7, 2020 for the 3080 and March 27, 2021 for the 3070Ti.

I think I'm probably gonna be in this queue until the end of time.

Is there a cheapo card to buy to get in the step-up queue?

# ¿ Dec 7, 2021 14:13

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > GPU Megat[H]read - the cores of wrath grew heavy on the die that day

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