Recent content by Copernicus

Why? I mean really, how does that make any sense? As a manufacturer, I am holding the most powerful graphics card available for a certain range of machines. There is nothing better, there has been nothing better in three years, and there will likely be nothing better for another three years...

Gotta ask, as compared to what? If you're looking to put a graphics card into a machine that only fits low-profile cards, this is the fastest available. Bar none. I'll complain about the 1650 LP when someone releases a faster LP card. This card represents the ONLY improvement in the LP...

So far, in my experience my Zotac is quite usable at 80% speed (which is as far as I've driven it so far). It creates an audible whine, but fades into the background.

Amazon in the US now anticipates they will have the Gigabyte card in stock by the 16th, and are taking pre-orders at $160. BLT's Zotac cards are a better deal, but they still have to work through a backlog of at least 21 more preorders of their own...

I've been using the Zotac almost a month now, fairly intensively. No problems to report here. I don't find the noise level significant at 80% fan speed. (The card has yet to require more than 80% to stay cool.) I doubt any of these cards are going to be whisper-quiet when they need to shed...

I think you might be surprised; if all you are worried about is noise level when idle, I have found that the Zotac card is fine. The ambient noise level in my computer room is at least as high as the card's fans put out at 40% speed.

So long as you're prepared to pay the shipping fees and deal with international communications for any problems with damage or manufacturing defects. There are advantages to having a local retailer.

The embargo of the US has ended! (Maybe.) Newegg has managed to acquire some of the MSI cards, and is selling them at $170. I haven't seen any other brands yet, or other stores selling the cards locally, but hopefully this means that things are finally starting to move...

I haven't been keeping up as much with the gtx 1650 situation lately, but I have noticed that Newegg now offers US customers a choice in low profile cards: you can choose the Zotac card, imported from Canada, or the MSI card, also apparently imported from Canada. The embargo of the US drags on...

Over here, I've got a classic Lenovo m83 SFF, i5-4590, 16 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, consuming something like 110 watts total with the 1650 running full out in Skyrim. The CPU isn't heavily loaded down in this case; it'd probably use more power with both CPU & GPU fully engaged.

Actually, does that case support a dual-slot gpu?

Ok, it turns out that Skyrim SE is capped at 60 FPS. And, the GTX 1650 laughs at all graphics settings below "ultra" -- at anything less, it hits 60 FPS without the GPU utilization even getting close to 100% (this is at 1080p resolution). At "ultra" settings, it will hover around 57-59 FPS...

Yes! I get most of my games on Steam these days, so I'm most familiar with Proton, but I've heard that we are entering an age of useful front-ends to Wine. I should probably check out Lutris. :) I will have to do some analysis. :) It's been forever since I did anything Skyrim-oriented, so...

Yeah, Proton is Valve's latest effort to emphasize multi-platform capability. It is based on top of Wine (similar to Crossover), and designed to integrate with Steam (so is very hard to use with non-steam games, so far as I know), but emphasizes push-button simplicity: in theory, you get...

I got sick enough of Windows that I left it completely more than 10 years ago. I've been using Linux as well for, well, most of my life, but back then the combo of OS X and the new Mac Mini led me to be an Apple fan for a while. But Apple has pretty much given up on the Mini over the years...