Analyse This: Does RAM speed and latency make a difference for gaming...? (Part 2)

Bear with me...

Last time I took a look at the effect of memory tuning and frequency scaling on playing games on a Ryzen 5 56600X system in response to naysayers questioning the benchmarking methodology of various hardware reviewers. I essentially found no benefit for doing so much work on it and, in fact, under my test conditions, found that performance was worse at higher frequencies - even when operating at a 1:1 Infinity Fabric/memory controller frequency. 

That was only half of the equation though, these complaints have also been levied at reviewers for Intel systems, with people criticising them for not pairing Intel 12th gen systems with 4000 MHz or higher Samsung B-die kits.

Well, today we're going to take a look into that...

Analyse This: Does RAM speed and latency make a difference for gaming...? (Part 1)

I've seen increasing numbers of people commenting on various youtuber videos and hardware/game performance reviews complaining about how the reviewer got it wrong and that they're not even using the "best" RAM for the benchmarks. This is especially rampant now, during the cross-gen benchmarking period where there are some systems using DDR4 and some using DDR5.

You might have seen this behaviour, yourself. Especially if you follow bigger techtubers like HardwareUnboxed or PCWorld - but I'm sure it happens on a wider scale, I just haven't seen every instance of it.

So, what is driving this slowly mounting pressure on the tech review sphere and is it really pushing for better testing or are there misconceptions about the importance of RAM speed and latency?

I figured I'd take a look. Please feel free to skip the first two sections where I ramble a lot and get to the actual data!

Analyse This: Performance of Spider-man: Remastered on PC... [Updated]

Released on PS5 a few years ago, Marvel's Spider-man: Remastered made its way to the PC sphere recently and, surprisingly, granted the opportunity to look at the hardware side of things more closely due to the way the engine works and how Nixxes chose to port that engine to the PC. 

Looking into this is especially important, from my point of view,  because the performance of this game on various hardware appears to be poorly understood by many... Additionally, it may provide an indication of where, in the PC hardware, future games may require more brute strength. 

Spider-man is also the third game released on PC with the inclusion of both FSR and DLSS, allowing for us to actually compare different implementations in different game engines to get a handle on how the two stack up in terms of performance increases, as well as power savings. 

[Update]

I've now updated the article with the data from the 12400 system...

[Update 2]

Updated Resizeable BAR results for the 5600X...

An ITX Build experience...

I'm pretty sure this is a combination of a Space Marine chapter's colours and a USA college fraternity... i.e. an inauspicious start!

I've been building PCs on my own since the early 2000s and with my father since the early 90s but I've always built in half-size ATX tower cases (and once for my dad in his full-sized behemoth!). Mainly because I like the form factor, space, and options available... plus, the prices for these builds are more standard and thus cheaper because they are produced in larger volumes.

However, over the last couple of years I have had some longing looks at various small form factor (SFF) cases and because of various reasons*, I decided to take the plunge and dip my toes into the now very mature SFF sector... As part of that, I decided to give some feedback on how this sort of experience is in the here and now in 2022, amid semi**-shortages and with a backdrop of huge shipping price increases.

*I was tired of using a 2007-era laptop to watch Netflix and other video content on TV (slowdowns, lack of repsonsiveness were the main complaints)... and I have been working incredibly hard over the last few months and had an itch to build a new PC as a way to reward myself... and my PS4 broke and there are ZERO PS5's to be had in my country below €1000 (still) so I would really like to be able to play games in the living room once again instead of always being at a desk and monitor.

**Not "semiconductor"...

Inflation... (A reality check)

Is that centered? Well, guess what?! Inflation isn't balanced either! ;)

The rumour mill has been highly productive this last week*, especially with regards to the next gen GPU output of both Nvidia and AMD, and as we near the release window of those products, we are likely to see more and more said about them. However, there is something that's concerning me a little and it might not quite be what you think:

I'm worried about performance inflation...

*Yes, I know all those links are to RedGamingTech... but I'm tired and don't feel like searching across multiple youtube channels and websites for the same information...