This latest episode of Ask GN (#22) celebrates our achievement of 50,000 subscribers, thanks to viewers spreading the word, readers who've been with us for years, and years of hard work by our team. It's taken us a while, but our YouTube channel is now achieving parity in view count with the website, and we're finally getting into a good swing of things with video production. It's fun to add that extra content to the pipeline, produce, and find new ways to expand the website's hardware projects.
This episode answers why undervolting on an RX 480 can help sustain more stable frequencies and higher performance, talks the GTX 1080 VRM/phasing and why they're not all magical overclockers, and addresses a few other questions. All questions are in the timestamps below.
Timestamps
0:30 - General reader questions: Why does undervolting help with the RX 480?
4:20 - Leo DS: "Hey Steve, I have a question for Ask GN: We are seeing tons of custom Pascal cards with added power inputs and increased power delivery. Is there any point to that at all, or is that just something the manufacturers are doing to be able to check boxes on feature lists but ultimately give you no advantage? Of course historically better power delivery would give us better overclock, but that doesn't seem to be the case so far with any PAscal card we've seen. Am I right in thinking the best deal for Pascal is buying the cheapest card that has a decent cooler? - Reposted cause you asked me to."
7:40 - cryohellinc: "Hello GN! Questions regarding Hybrid GPU's. EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Hybrid / MSI GeForce GTX 1080 SEA HAWK / Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme WaterForce - Which one to pick cooling wise in future? Saw your Amazing DIY video for 1080 hybrid, and the results were impressive! Will you test those video cards mentioned above? What is your opinion on it? Will EVGA be the only pick or this year we will see improvements from MSI / Gigabyte? Looking forward to hear your answer, thank you. :)?"
10:04 - cy2087: "Hi Steve: Thanks for all the great info and reviews. I'm doing a first system build and I've waited for the release of the GTX 10 series of GPU's. Now that they're here, I've noticed that the "sweet spot" for gaming seems to have shifted from 1080p to 1440p. That's the direction I'm planning to go but, given the money, the monitors required have also gone up in price recently. Do you plan to do any reviews of monitors in the 27" to 35" range that features things like G-Sync or Free-Sync, 100-120-144-165mz refresh rates and IPS panels? I'm very hesitant to put my money down, especially with some of the poor QC and customer service reviews I've been reading. I was even looking at the big ones like the Acer Predator x34 and the Asus PG348Q that have curved monitors at 100hz or better. I don't know if they'll work well with a 1070 but they look outstanding....when they work. Your views on this would be much appreciated. Thanks.?"
12:48 - WhoeverThatGuyIs: "So Steve... Another Ask GN episode... Without cornrows. I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, but that's neither here nor there right now. I am sure you are pretty skeptical now when it comes to my comments, and I don't blame you, but I actually have a serious question. Considering the recent leak of specs for NVIDIA's next Tesla card, the potential pricing and specs of AMD's Vega series in relation to Polaris, and the specs and pricing of the 1080, when do you think you will be getting cornrows??"
13:20 - Special feature.
Thanks for 50,000 subscribers and nearly 11,000,000 views, everyone!
Host: Steve “Lelldorianx” Burke
Video: Andrew “ColossalCake” Coleman