Does Vtune for nVidia drops out from market?

[Last Updated Dec 27, 2012]
I have updated my graphics driver and when I try to update the Vtune overclocker; no newer version was found. All searches regarding Vtune results in vain instead it is redirected to Intel-Vtune always. Even the Palit Microsystems, Inc. stops distributing this tool since it is discontinued by the developer but a new tool was released naming ThunderMaster. It was such an disappointment to all nVidia Vtune users. Either way I have a backup of Vtune tool which saves my all work.

Download Vtune v7.21.0.0  [compatible for XP, Vista and 7]

ThunderMaster Vs Vtune:

Tools Used : ThunderMaster, Vtune

Platform: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

CPU: Intel Pentium D @ 3.00GHz

GPU: nVidia GeForce 8400GS 512MB DDR2

RAM: 1.5 GB Dual channel

HardDisk: Western Digital Caviar 160GB SATA

At the first, the Thunder Master overclocker tool gives only little information about the graphics chip whereas the Vtune overclocker gives all the information including graphics card, current monitor resolution, keyboard driver, USB driver and the computer. This is not an important factor now but anyhow it is an useful factor.

 

Secondly the most important factor is the overclocking procedure. Thunder Master tool has only two adjustments; one for graphics clock with negative and positive values; another for memory clock with negative and positive values. I don't know why they are giving this negative values for overclocking may be it is for underclocking the GPU speed.

If this is meant for OverClocking

What for this zero values? (Reset or Neutral)

What for this negative values will do? (Underclocking)

Also ThunderMaster lacks the adjustment for shader clock settings whereas the Vtune has all the three adjustments with safe mode settings.

Overclock settings

Safe Mode or default clock Settings

Factory Settings (Minimum and Maximum values are fixed)

In actual, the minimum and maximum clock value settings are fixed for the graphics cards while manufacturing itself. So that we can tweak in-between values for overclocking and underclocking while running multimedia applications, games etc which needs high parallel processing power. But the options given in Thunder Master is unacceptable negative values that cannot be tweaked which may results in a hardware failure in future. Since both overclocking tools were tested on same graphics card with same platform, choosing the right tool is necessary in this case for the graphics card life.

Steam update problems

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I. Steam update is slow or stuck at some percentage

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Fix:
1] Cancel the steam update if it was updating.
2] Open C:\Program Files\Steam and move ClientRegistry.blob file to desktop.
3] Now run Steam.exe.

Note1: If problem still exist try moving both ClientRegistry.blob and AppUpdateStats.blob files.
Note2: Add Steam in firewall to run with administrator privileges.


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II. Steam updates every time when starting it
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[Last Updated on 26th June, 2013] 
Fix:
In order to prevent updating Steam every time when it was loading, follow the simple steps below.
1] Exit Steam if it was running.
2] End AppUpdater.exe process from Task Manager if it was running.
3] Download Undead Patch v3.33
4] Now Extract UnDeadPatch333.rar and copy UnDeadPatch333.exe to C:\Program Files\Steam folder.
5] Run UnDeadPatch333.exe file from the Steam folder.

6] Type y for Qn: Backup "Steam.dll" before patching? and hit Enter to proceed next cmd.
7] Type y for Qn: Prevent Steam from updating patched files? and hit Enter for the process to be done.

Note1: This patch keeps Steam disconnects from internet permanently and so you cannot login but still you can play games with Steam logon box left open.
Note2: To revert changes made by this patch delete Steam.cfg file from the Steam folder.

Windows 8 download

Windows 8 Preview download English 

32-bit - Download (2.8GB)
64-bit - Download (3.6GB)

System Requirements:

• Free space - 16GB (32bit) and 20GB (64bit)

• RAM - 1GB (32bit) and 2GB (64bit)

• Screen Resolution - 1024x768 or higher for metro style apps

• Multi touch screen for touch input 

Note: You can upgrade Windows XP, Vista and 7 (or) perform a clean install if you want to build with developer tools 

Source: Microsoft

Deleting folder contents without deleting the folder

Some people feels irritating by deleting all the folders and creating New folders with the same name and adding different contents, makes them time consuming. So why can't we delete the contents alone but not the folder which remains the same, yes there is an option.

Follow these simple steps to add a context menu entry.

1] Open Start Menu > Run > type regedit.exe and hit enter.

2] In the Registry Editor navigate to the path

    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell

3] In the left pane, Right click on the Shell folder > select New > Key, name the key as Delete Folder Contents.

4] Now Right click on the Delete Folder Contents > select New > Key and name the key as command.

5] In the right pane, Right click the default string value > Modify.

6] Now type (or) copy/paste the exact command below.

    cmd /c "cd /d %1 && del /s /q *.*

7] Click OK and close the Registry Editor.
 
Now whenever you want to delete the folder contents but not the folder, just right click on the folder which you want to delete and select Delete Folder Contents.

Windows crashes frequently while playing games online via browser

Follow these simple steps to save windows from crash.

1] Click Start > Run > type msconfig > hit enter.
2] Now System Configuration Utility opens up.
3] Select Services tab > click Hide all Microsoft Services > click Disable all.

4] Select Startup tab > click Disable all (or) Remove all the tick marks.

5] Click Apply and OK.
6] Click Restart to take changes immediately.

Mainstream Graphics Card with Best Performance

ASUS EAH5670

CHIPSET : RADEON HD 5670

GPU 
FABRICATION PROCESS : 45 nm
CORE SPEED : 775 MHz
STREAM PROCESSORS : 400

MEMORY 
SPEED : 1 GHz
SIZE : 1GB GDDR5
BUS WIDTH : 128-bit 

VIDEO OUTPUTS : HDMI, VGA and DVI 

POWER CONSUMPTION
IDLE : 15 Watts
FULL LOAD : 70 Watts 

PERFORMANCE  
3D MARK VANTAGE : 4648 

Crysis Warhead
17.5 fps @ 1680x1050

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ATI RADEON HD 5750

CHIPSET : RADEON HD 5750 

GPU

FABRICATION PROCESS : 40nm
CORE SPEED : 740 MHz
STREAM PROCESSORS : 720

MEMORY 
SPEED : 1200 MHz
SIZE : 1GB DDR5
BUS WIDTH : 128-bit
DATA RATE : 4.6 Gbps

VIDEO OUTPUTS : Display Port, HDMI and DVI (dual link ports)

POWER CONSUMPTION
IDLE : 16 Watts
FULL LOAD : 86 Watts

PERFORMANCE

3D MARK VANTAGE :3449 @ Extreme Preset

Crysis
31 fps @ 1680x1050 in 2xAA (Mainstream mode)
Left 4 Dead
55 fps @ 1680x1050 in 8xAA (Mainstream mode)


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XFX RADEON HD 5750 XXX ED

CHIPSET : RADEON HD 5750 

GPU

FABRICATION PROCESS : 40nm
CORE SPEED : 740 MHz
STREAM PROCESSORS : 720

MEMORY 
SPEED : 1200 MHz
SIZE : 1GB DDR5
BUS WIDTH : 128-bit

VIDEO OUTPUTS : HDMI, DVI (dual link ports)

POWER CONSUMPTION
IDLE : 16 Watts
FULL LOAD : 86 Watts

PERFORMANCE

3D MARK VANTAGE : 7956

Crysis Warhead
52 fps @ 1920x1080 in 8xAA (Mainstream mode)

58 fps @ 1680x1050 in 8xAA (Mainstream mode)

39 fps @ 1400x900 (Gamer Mode)

==================================================

ATI RADEON HD 5770

CHIPSET : RADEON HD 5770

GPU

FABRICATION PROCESS : 40nm
CORE SPEED : 850 MHz
STREAM PROCESSORS : 800

MEMORY 
SPEED : 1200 MHz
SIZE : 1GB DDR5
BUS WIDTH : 128-bit
DATA RATE : 4.8 Gbps

VIDEO OUTPUTS : Display Port, HDMI and DVI (dual link ports)

POWER CONSUMPTION
IDLE : 18 Watts
FULL LOAD : 108 Watts

PERFORMANCE

3D MARK VANTAGE :4295 @ Extreme Preset

Crysis
31 fps @ 1680x1050 in 2xAA (Mainstream mode)
Left 4 Dead
55 fps @ 1680x1050 in 8xAA (Mainstream mode)




 

Difference between CPU and GPU speed

• For the longest time you were forced to spend on most powerful CPUs to get better performance. Now the GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) found on your graphics card, can now offload that work.

• Four years ago Nvidia developed a programming environment called CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) through which some program processes can be run on the graphics chip. Only Nvidia chips starting from GeForce 8000 series onwards supported this.

• AMD also supports the general standard OpenCL, pioneered by a company called the khronos group (which Nvidia also supports) using which you can share your programs workloads on OpenCLs compatible processors (CPU and GPU). 

• Even Microsoft approved of this development, equipping the new DirectX 11 instructions set with a new interface (Direct Compute) using which you can run program processes on the GPU. 

 

• In an operation such as counting the no. of times a particular word in a book, CPU starts from page 1, go through the text word by word and ends at the last page but the GPU divides the book into many small parts, distributes them to all its stream cores, and then simply count the appearance of the word in a fraction of time.

 

 

• Based on the GPU core design, a software must be divided into 240 parts ( 240 threads) to be able to use 240 stream cores as in GeForce GTX 295 but it is not as easy since many software programs cannot be parallelized or it is extremely difficult to do so, now even the current CPUs experience the same problem for dividing into 8 threads to use 8 virtual cores as in Core i7.

• The actual real-world processes that best use this capability are found in video and scientific editing work where there are no book pages but instead repeated addition and multiplications of floating point numbers in big matrices that are carried out for thousands of numbers for the exact same operation.

• In future, In order to run a software program at a lightning speed, each and every program line must be divided into several threads while creating and every processing step does not depends on the result of the previous process and thus it makes the program a complete parellelized one.

So the processing speed not only depends on the hardware but also the compatible software.

Reference :  CHIP Magazine April 2010

PCI Simple Communication driver for windows 7 in Dell

In some DELL computers you could notice this missing driver in your device manager. PCI simple communication controller is marked with yellow mark.

To solve this issue, download this driver from the Dell website which is about 5MB in size and install it.
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=ie&cs=iebsdt1&l=en&s=bsd&releaseid=R243176&formatcnt=0&libid=0&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&fileid=351790

Now your PCI simple communication controller must be installed along with the dell engine interface driver.

Difference between x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) architecture

Difference Between 64 and 32 bit processors:

HISTORY:

 Both 32-bit and 64-bit architecture setups have been around for decades, but were mostly used in complicated enterprise computers like the IBM 7030 Stretch, built in 1961. 32-bit architecture was available to consumers in the 1980s, and the Intel 386 was one example.

 

ARCHITECTURE:

A 32 bit processor can represent numbers from 0 to 4,294,967,295  (32-bits wide) while a 64-bit processor can represent numbers from 0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 (64-bits wide). Obviously this means your computer can do math with larger numbers, and be more efficient with smaller numbers. A 64-bit processor is made with more advanced silicon processes, have more transistors, and faster speeds. This is currently where the true benefit of switching to a 64-bit processor lays. 

  

Difference Between 32-bit and 64-bit OS:

In order to create a platform that is capable of running in 32 bit processors, 32 bit based operating systems and softwares were developed and similarly for 64-bit processors, 64-bit based operating systems were developed.

However, Windows did not become a 32-bit operating system until Windows 95. Windows XP was the first consumer version of Windows to receive a 32-bit edition and now in 64-bit edition.

RAM:

A 32-bit version of windows can access upto 4GB of RAM when paired with a 32-bit or 64-bit processor.

A 64-bit version of windows can access larger than 128GB of RAM when paired with a 64-bit processor.

File size:

A 32-bit version of windows can make use of Hard Drive upto 8TB and a single file size of upto 4GB.

A 64-bit version of windows can make use of Hard Drive larger than 8TB and a file size larger than 4GB.

 

Compatibility:

A 32-bit version of windows can be installed in computers having either 32-bit or 64-bit processor.

A 64-bit version of windows can only be installed in computers having 64-bit processor.
 

Compatibility Issues in Installing software:

Attempting to run a software program that was built for 32-bit version on a 64-bit version of windows may sometimes cause the program to crash and compatibility error occurs.

A program that was built for 64-bit version cannot be installed on 32-bit versions of windows.

 

 

As you can see, a sound argument can be made for both the cases and you'll have to determine if the differences will benefit your situation and computing future and I'll leave the ultimate decision up to you.