Ask GN 34: AMD's Version of Boost, Sandy Bridge, & Monitor 'Game Mode'

This episode of Ask GN addresses reader and viewer questions relating to boost technologies for GPUs (DPM states and GPU Boost), "game mode" for monitors, and a couple questions related to CPU benchmarking. We talk loose plans for Zen tests and scalability of the 2500/2600K Sandy Bridge CPUs in the modern era. Even Nehalem got a few mentions.

Monitor "game modes" presented a topic with which we're not intimately familiar, but some research did grant us enough information to hopefully answer the question in a helpful fashion. The rest, like the boosting functionality on GPUs, is stuff that we've discussed on-and-off in review articles for several months -- it's just now laid-out in a quick Ask GN video.

Questions and timestamps below:

1:46 - BeamPolaris: "I'm looking at a monitor that has a "game mode", looking at the manual it says this "turns off frame buffer to reduce input lag". I didn't even know that monitors had frame buffers and can't find any information online about monitor frame buffers and what the disadvantages of disabling it are, can you help meh?"

5:17 - ulamss5: "Hi Steve, Why doesn't AMD have something similar to nvidia's GPU Boost yet? It seems like such an intuitive feature to implement, and nvidia's already on gen 3. Is it actually a hardware-enabled feature?"

11:11 - 'Marth': "Hey Steve, I saw a pretty cool mod here on this overclocker.net forum post. http://www.overclock.net/t/1471349/gpu-backplate-mod

The modder here bought an Aluminun Heatsink and after applying a thermal pad to the heatsink and attaching it to the backplate if his Nvidia Titan, he read a difference of about 20C after applying the heatsink for less than $30.

My question is if you could validate his testing for me and see if these cooling benefits are unique to him alone or if someone like me could reap the same cooling performance (EVGA 1070 FTW). I would appreciate the information greatly if you could do this."

15:20 - Jason Smith: "Hey Steve, when you start your Zen benchmarks, will you include the 2600k for comparison? I believe it is the most venerated i7, if not the most popular, and perhaps the most logical place for a 'common user' to start considering an upgrade to be worth the investment, regardless of workload.?"

17:04 - Jon Da Silva: "Steve, is it fair to say that older core architectures like Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge and Nehalem have run their useful course? I've seen several videos elsewhere that suggest these CPU's, (i7 920, 2500k, etc.) are still capable of gaming at 1080p in a variety of AAA titles. As someone considering upgrading to a 4790k (so I can reuse my DDR3 ram), is it better to hold out until the next generation of CPU's or act now?"

20:41 - Exiled Storm: "Does the cat use the same shampoo as you?"

Host: Steve "Lelldorianx" Burke
Video: Andrew "ColossalCake" Coleman