computer myths and outdated terms?

[Buddabudda]

I can tell the difference easily of having fps over 40, hell even over 60 but the law of diminishing returns kicks in. The arguement using the 30 fps figure is usually based on televisions using 30, but computer monitors are a totally differnt animal. There are various articles out there detailing why this is...lemme go look..

 

[Buddabudda]

Here's the first article I've found, but there are all kinds of em regarding the human eye cannot see over 30fps myth. http://www.daniele.ch/school/30vs60/30vs60_1.html


Just load up quake 3 and try /com_maxfps 30 /com_maxfps 60 /com_maxfps 90. Seems obvious to me.

 

[BoberFett]

<< I still have yet to see from a reliable source that this is a myth. On the contrary, I just read in the highly respectable c't magazine that this is not a myth but the truth. >>

Really? So am I wasting money when I buy a monitor and set the refresh at 85Hz? It'd probably be much cheaper to build them so they only support 24-30Hz.

Bah, 60Hz is annoying to look at, I can't stand anything less than 75Hz. Don't tell me that 30 is the max needed.

 

[DesignDawg]

This one annoys me the most, and it is still widely held by MANY people who consider themselves quite hardware savvy... (Probably most of you still believe this):

Connecting two different drives with different modes on the same chain (IDE) will limit the faster drive to the performance or mode of the slower drive.

BULLSH!T. It's simply not true anymore! Modern computer IDE controllers are NOT THE SAME as the older ones where that was true. You can hook up a UDMA-100 hard drive to some old-ass drive that will only run in PIO mode 1, and that UDMA-100 hard drive will STILL RUN IN UDMA-100 mode, with NO performance hit whatsoever. What's more, Even when both devices are in use, the hard drive will not take a performance hit.

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[Viperoni]

DD, I still like to keep everything seperated
Boberfett, you're absolutely.
My eyes start watering @ 60hz, and at 75hz I'm only lightly bothered. 85+ is what I need.

THE 30fps myth:

Look at your TV.
THe example I like to use is the show ER (yes, ER)
Whenever the camera pans from 1 side to the other relatively quickly, the people/opjects DO NOT go by smoothly.
Yet whenever I play CS/Q3 @ 100fps, everything goes by smoothly.
If I can see a difference between that, that means there MUST be a difference between 30 and 100 fps.

But really, over about 70-75fps, one can't tell much difference.


If somebody (stupid enough) can argue that, I'd like to hear their arguement

 

[Virtus]

Here's another myth we're all subjected to...

The name of the company that made your computer has something to do with its components.

How many times have you asked someone what kind of computer they have, and they say &quot;I've got a (insert major company name here - Dell, Gateway, etc...)&quot; - and that's it. Ask em a hundred times and that's all they'll say every time - sometimes they'll add &quot;got it a few months ago so it's top-of-the-line&quot;

And when I say &quot;I've got a 1 gig Thunderbird&quot; they look at me like &quot;that's too bad you couldn't afford to buy a real computer from a real company&quot;.

 

[igowerf]

I wasn't very clear about the one on mixing RAM. I meant mixing different brands of RAM and not types.
As for IBMs... I sort of forgot about the Aptiva.
And I believe that the 24/30 fps thing is for TV's rather than computer monitors. A lot of PS2 games, however, have been touting &quot;60fps game play.&quot;
I think unplugging ps/2 (not playstation 2) devices can damage your system. I heard about somebody frying a ps/2 port from doing that.

 

[igowerf]

One of the most annoying things I've ever heard people say when asked about their system is &quot;My computer is Windows 98.&quot; Usually, only completely computer illiterate people say this but it annoys the hell out of me.

 

[MGMorden]

I've seen in many places that the maximum fps viewable by the human eye is 81 fps.

 

[R0b0tN1k]

quote:

&quot;never unplug the keyboard or any cables of the computer while its on&quot;

Certain cables can be hot-swapped and others can't. This is partially true. PS/2 generally can't...it is said to cook the whole motherboard, but I do it all the time at work with no problems (one of these days I'll learn the hard way).

&quot;if ur card or ram has gold pins, replace it with another with gold pins&quot;

This is true. Mixing gold and tin contacts will cause corrosion. Most new DIMM's and expansion cards/slots are all gold plated. This is still an issue with older hardware.

&quot;put in ram in pairs&quot;

This is true for older SIMMs and is even returning with RIMMs.

&quot;Windows 9x/ME is DOS + GUI.&quot;

It is. They all use the old DOS code and have a GUI stitched on top.


Now for some REAL myths...

concerning a network hub: &quot;effective bandwidth at the port is the max bandwidth divided by the number of ports&quot; This would only be true if all nodes were transmitting the max amount of data simultaneouly and continuously..which never happens.

It has been said before but &quot;Higher CPU clock speed gives you better performance.&quot; A PPC CPU can wipe the floor with a similarly clocked X86.

 

[xtreme2k]

Games has NO motion blur therefore require much higher FPS to achieve the same smoothness of a Video (which has motion blur)

people say you cannot see more than 24/30fps is taking rubbish

 

[Bignate603]

don't know if it's as high as 81 FPS, i think it's over 60 though. If you sit real close to the TV you can see a flicker, it's there. People just sit father back from the TV and therefore lose that because of distance.

 

[Dameon]

Server Computer Myths:

1) You cant have RAID 5 on a system volume.
- This is pushed in all the Microsoft certification courses, because THEIR software RAID can't do it. Hardware RAID with any decent RAID card can have RAID 0,1,5, 10 or whatever else you can come up with on any volume. It makes no difference where the system / OS files are located.

2) Tape Backups will always work.
- Test your friggin backups people. Verify the tape works. Verify verify verify. Do not ASSUME just because Veritas Backup Exec Says the Data is fine and wrote OK that everything IS ok. Too many people don't learn this one until they are in deep poo poo.

3) It's got to be a hardware problem.
I hate everyone who calls into tech support because of this myth. Just because you've been doing whatever for 10 years doesn't make your assertion of hardware failure accurate. Troubleshoot the stinking problem.... it is often software related or because of settings that were changed.

4) Installing Windows over itself fixes things.
I can't tell you how many clueless folks out there try to fix blue screens by just running windows setup over and over again.

 

[sandorski]

Dameon: Sometimes, installing Windows over top itself does fix problems, but if it doesn't work the first time then you need to try something else.


The thing I hate is when you ask someone what kind of computer they have and they just state the name on their monitor!? This is especially irritating when trying to give phone support.

3.5&quot; disks **are** floppy disks and I hate having to explain that to people, especially when you want them to check the &quot;hard disk&quot; and they immediately think of their 3.5&quot; disk.

 

[claw]

Remember when you had to park your hard drive heads before turning off the computer?

I still have a Tandy 286 with a 32 mb hard drive that requires parking.

 

[cbwolf]

ewwwww....

 

[jamarno]

I remember the Tandy TRS-80 having about 5 aftermarket DOSes for it, all better than Tandy's, and eventually one of them became Tandy's official DOS.

Another myth is that once PCs became 1,000x faster and had 1,000x the capacity, we'd each have a HAL 9000, but software bureaucracy outpaced the hardware improvements enough to prevent that.

 

[Wuming]

<< never unplug the keyboard or any cables of the computer while its on >>



i usually plug and unplug my monitor cables while my computer is on. haven't had problems yet. heh

 

[Degenerate]

IBM does make PCs, workstations and note books.

 

[feb]

>One of the most annoying things I've ever heard people say when asked about their system is &quot;My computer is Windows 98.&quot; Usually, only completely computer illiterate people say this but it annoys the hell out of me.

How about &quot; How do you connect to the Internet, a T-1 or dial-up?&quot; and people answer you Netscape!

 

[WileCoyote]

here's another myth -
&quot;unplug your power supply when modifying the hardware in your computer&quot;
the only thing I learned from my A+ cert. is that you leave it plugged in.

more myths:
&quot;spinning the fan the other way will reverse the polorization&quot;
&quot;gold plated parallel/usb cables are faster than non-plated ones ones&quot; ...technically, maybe? but noticeable and worth mentioning? only if you're a salesman.
&quot;usb is a lot faster for printing&quot; ...average person wont notice.
&quot;the earth is round&quot; ...fools, you're all fools!

 

[Dexion]

Myth:
For High-end systems, the monitor is capable to emit the equal amount of FPS claimed on the benchmark

Truth:
The average refresh rate for todays standard monitors is 75Hz. High end monitors have a maximum of 100Hz output, therefore having a video card capable to produce more than 100FPS is redundant(unless you up the resolution).

 

[Dexion]

<< &quot;the earth is round&quot;...fools, you're all fools! >>



lol when wasnt the earth not round? The earth isn't a perfect sphere is what your trying to say right?

 

[Smbu]

I'm pretty sure he was joking about the earth myth.

 

[mcbiff]

WileCoyote: That may have been true back in the AT days, but with ATX power supplies it's definitely better to unplug.