Ask GN 43: Find CPU & GPU Bottlenecks, Temporal Filtering

By Steve Burke Published February 08, 2017 at 11:49 am

Hardware

We’re on to Episode 43 of Ask GN, which means we’ve past 42 – which means that the we missed the perfect opportunity to answer questions about “life, the universe, and everything.” Ah, well.

In episode 43, we’re talking skills to figure out if your CPU is bottlenecking your GPU (or vice versa), laptop thermal refurbishment (copper shims, thermal pads, thermal paste), and more. A good few minutes of the video is spent addressing a question about “Temporal Filtering,” one of the new-ish settings that’s been in a few Ubisoft games lately. Watch Dogs 2 most recently makes use of Temporal Filtering. We define that here.

For written content today, check out our revised WD Blue vs. Black vs. Red guide that defines Western Digital’s rainbow of hard drives. It’s been updated a bit since our original piece.

Timestamps

1:05 Lunch Box: I have another question Steve. Could you explain temporal filtering? I know watch dogs 2 uses it and I hear that the ps4 pro uses it and that xbox scorpio uses it but I don't fully understand what it does. Cheers!"

5:09 Crimson Sunrise: "Steve, If USB is so fast and kick-ass as manufacturers keep saying and advertising on gaming peripherals, why even high end/enthusiast motherboards have at least one PS/2 connector? It sure can't be for legacy, as no enthusiast would be caught dead using a PS/2 keyboard or mouse (even though the first version of the Steelseries 7G was PS/2 only and came with a USB adpater). Could it be that PS/2 is still a faster bus because it's CPU interrupt based as opposed to being host controller polling based?"

7:18 Dan Wrenn: "Steve, can you tell my bosses, for video editing we need newer computers that aren't 2011 iMacs with i3s? They're so blind to the fact these old iMacs are complete shit, it takes 2 MINUTES to OPEN Premiere Pro."

8:20 SS S: "Steve, For gaming, what is the best method to determine it is time to upgrade your CPU and motherboard? This will vary based on application but in a broad sense how can you determine the CPU/mobo is holding the performance back?"

10:50 CROner Gaming: "hey Steve, what is the maximum voltage for everyday using on skylake? thank you and keep up with the great content! :)"

13:40 forestR1: "ASK GN: does orientation of vapour chambers or heat pipes affect their ability to move heat energy? since gravity is used to lift hot vapour and fell cooler condensation, it makes sense that they would be more effective when vertical; yet on most CPU coolers the pipes are horizontal in a tower PC. thoughts?"

16:20 Coalition Gaming: "And here I thought you guys were local (to me) from SoCal already, but I had no idea honestly. Anyways, what is your stance on using multiple AIO loops (GPU aio + CPU aio)? Furthermore, how you guys feel about expandable AIOs like the Alphacool Eisbaer units, upcoming EVGA unit, Swiftech, EK predator, etc. I think its nice the "expandable" AIO market is growing and now further including budget and "enthusiast" options. Rock on, guys!"

18:10 Al-Wakkass Mahmood: "Hello Steve, TL;DR is it a good/bad idea to put thermal compound on one/both side of a thermal PAD (of a laptop GPU die). TL;DR 2 thermal pad vs. copper shim vs. really viscous thermal compound."

Host: Steve Burke
Video: Andrew Coleman

Steve Burke

Steve started GamersNexus back when it was just a cool name, and now it's grown into an expansive website with an overwhelming amount of features. He recalls his first difficult decision with GN's direction: "I didn't know whether or not I wanted 'Gamers' to have a possessive apostrophe -- I mean, grammatically it should, but I didn't like it in the name. It was ugly. I also had people who were typing apostrophes into the address bar - sigh. It made sense to just leave it as 'Gamers.'"

First world problems, Steve. First world problems.