Help with a PC run command

[Ahpook]

I need to get some driver updates on my gaming PC and need to check some system specs.

I have always used a run command that would pull up a window with all system info on the first tab. You could click through the tabs and test video and audio as well as other things. I simply can't recall what the command is.

I think it was 5 or 6 characters long. It isn't systeminfo.32!

Any idea? I know there is other ways to pull up different info, but this was a easy command that had everything listed in one simple window.

Now it is going to drive me crazy

[mr_lebowski]

1. Probably thinking of dxdiag.exe? (nt)

[Ahpook]

2. That is it

Thank you

[mr_lebowski]

3. I've been building my own PC's for gaming for 25 years ... since I built one for Myst ...

There's not a whole lot of things related to PC gaming I'm not up on

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

4. How about PCs in general, unrelated to gaming?

Just curious.

[mr_lebowski]

6. I'm a fairly serious computer nerd in general ... though I mostly know about PC/Windows

Not nerdy enough to know a ton of Unix commands ... though I know some because I run Linux VM's at work.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

7. Compared to the general population, I'm also a fairly serious computer nerd.

On the other hand, I guess I'm something of a Luddite, because I'm not happy with everything moving to the smartphone.

I'm using one now, but I'd prefer to be at my desk looking at my large screen and using a full sized keyboard. Especially as I'd like to be multitasking, including with some spreadsheets I need to work with!

I know how much we can do on our phones, some of which we can't, or can't as easily do on our PCs. But I find so much of my computing needs met more satisfyingly on one of my various PCs. And I fear the trajectory is toward an all-phone, all web-based computing world.

[Midnight Writer]

9. I'm with you. Give me a desk, a big monitor, a mouse/keyboard and a comfortable chair.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

13. + about a trillion.

[mr_lebowski]

10. I am exactly the same. My phone is an S5 from 2015. I keep it cause it's paid for ...

It's slow as hell and probably super-insecure, but it still does what care about my phone doing, which is ... not much.

You might be amazed at how much traffic on websites is phone/tablet based.

Most of the major sites are visited <10% of the time on desktop/laptop browsers these days.

Our platform of choice is close to being irrelevant at least in terms of things being designed 'for it' specifically.

Desktops are mostly used by gamers and people at their desks at work (or home office).

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

12. I did know that and it's why I'm disappointed.

I don't mind change for the better. I just don't like change that's, at least in my view, not for the better. I think a big part of the reason for the trend we're discussing is simply that it's the trend, for lack of a better way to express my thought.

What I mean is, I don't believe people have necessarily thought about PC/imac vs smartphone and decided on smartphone as the one device to rule them all. It's just happening.

[mr_lebowski]

15. At this point, phones are computers in a different form factor

And phones cost ... as much as computers. Except you can finance them over 24 months really conveniently.

An awful lot of people have no need for the functionality of a computer beyond that which is accessible on their phone. It's not a logical investment for them to have a 2nd computer.

If you think about it, a WAY WAY WAY higher % of people now 'have a computer' than was the case 12 years ago.

It's just not a laptop/desktop.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

16. Good points. It's amazing to think back on the first computer I used

and compare its power and memory to that of even two of my smartphones ago. And that was probably a 2011 HTC Vivid!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. Editing files in Windows got a laugh from my team.

I'd open a file, then fill the first line with "j"s, because that's the "scroll down" command in the VI editor.

Then I got VI and SED and AWK for windows, and life was good again.



(edited to add AWK, couldn't live without it)

[mr_lebowski]

11. I don't know what any of those are ...

I use a Bash terminal in Windows regularly (specifically Git Bash) to interact with the Linux VM's (the boxes for which are NOT made by me) so I know some basic Unix file system commands ... but that's about it.

[Ahpook]

5. I loove that series

I plan to revisit Riven for old times sake.

Fascinating game

Thanks again for the help

[JustGene]

17. Don't keep up now

I was a hardware geek since 486/66 was cool.
Last Build P4/950D

[Ahpook]

18. Another quick question about hardware

Do you think it worth to upgrade to the latest greatest video card? I am running an EVGA 1080Ti at the moment. That card is still pretty hard to beat!

The jump from DDR5 in the 1080 to DDR6 in the latest cards seems almost worth the purchase, though.

Thanks again

[mr_lebowski]

19. 1080ti is still pretty sweet ...

At what resolution, and what sorts of games do you typically play? What's your CPU? What's your monitor's refresh rate?

Honestly you'd have to spend a lot to get significantly better, esp. right now because stocks are low and prices elevated.

You talking about the new 3070/80/90 from nV? Those aren't out yet (first one, the 3080, comes out 9/17), and I can guarantee you they're going to be like unobtainium for a number of months after they come out. And I'd bet the MSRP $699 price is going to be more like $899. If I'm wrong ... that's definitely a worthwhile upgrade.

The real gem is looking to be the 3070, which releases a few weeks later MSRP $499 and it's supposed to be very close to 2080ti in perf. Assuming it's REAL close to a 2080ti, then that card is possibly a worthwhile upgrade to your card at that price but it's not going to be that price for a WHILE I'd bet. It's going to be extremely popular.

I'd probably plan to hold out until the 3080 is widely available at around it's MSRP of $699, which I'd bet won't be til early next year. That's my thinking. I'm on an evga 2070 Super Ultra ATM, which is a little faster than a 1080ti.

[Ahpook]

20. After looking over the newer gen cards

while nice, I could grab another 1080TI and run SLI. I don't know what price tag they are going to put on the 3090, but I'd bet SLI 1080's would clock comparatively?

[mr_lebowski]

21. SLI is kinda dying TBH ... and it'll put off a lot more more heat ...

I've run SLI and Crossfire many times over the years. Quite honestly, it's cool for benchmarking but that's about it.

In my experience, 40 fps on a single card feels very similar in terms of smoothness and responsiveness as 60fps in SLI. So the 'return' is smaller than you think, even in the rare case when you get like 90% scaling (70% is more typical).

The 3070 coming out next month (at $499, in theory) is going to be the card to get IMHO. It's gonna beat a 1080ti by about 50% is my guess, maybe more in some titles, plus it'll support ray-tracing.

[Ahpook]

22. Awesome

Thank you for the info.

[abqtommy]

14. Love it! Thanks, all! Bookmarking for future reference.