How to improve Sound Quality of Realtek Audio in WIndows 10/11

so there's a very interesting mod created by guy named Alan Finoppy called AAF Optimus which is essentially a custom driver for Realtek ALC Chips (mostly that are integrated into motherboard), i personally have alc897 codec on my h470 asrock board.

It comes with tons of different third party sound effect / enhancer software such as Dolby, DTS, Creative, Nahimic etc.

When i tried this 1 year ago i wasn't all that impressed but now since couple of weeks i am noticing specifically with my Dolby Audio for Speaker System (with F&D F190X), much better bass and overall sound stage. Though, your mileage may vary according to your configuration.

My speaker now sound like some premium Sony or JBL sound system that are 2-3x the price.

 Not only in recent versions the overall sound quality has improve. It also has a cleaner UI for installation which makes it much easier to understand what you would want or works best on your device.

Currently, as i am writing this article i am using the 1 week old (latest version) released on June 20th on github.

I would have to say, the guy is pretty genuine and dedicated to his work to bring the best out for people wth regular updates and resolving issue through complains on TPU Forum.

So, overall it's a good choice for people with average or below average speakers / headphones and somewhat above average stuff (like mine). 

So there you have it, i have not tried any other sound fx much so if you are interested then go ahead and experiment a bit. 

It's been 1 year since i upgraded to Intel 10th Generation Platform, Here's how everything went.

So it's been more than an year since i upgraded to 10th gen intel platform, i have the quadcore i3 10105f with hyperthreading and my motherboard is an asrock h470m-hdv. My budget was really tight so i didn't have much option as i was buying new, both combined costed me Rs. 10,800.

I got the cpu with bank offer for 5800 and my asrock board was the cheapest board available online but for that i had to sacrifice a nvme ssd slot. at that time for socket lga1200. it has served me really well for the given period and i want to continue using it for forseeable future.

It might not be the most powerful chip or fancy motherboard by any means but for an average user like me it should serve the purpose as 4c/8t cpus are still relevant, i am not a hardcore gamer and my 1050 ti already bottlenecks my cpu by a huge margin so that would be my first priority to upgrade if i ever decide to in near future, i know 1050 ti is barely capable of 1080p gaming anymore as it can't even provide stable 30fps at lowest settings in many modern titles but i can deal with that as gaming is not my first priority

F&D F190X, Budget Multimedia 2.1 Speakers Review

So couple of weeks ago, i bought these speakers from Cost to Cost shop at Nehru Place. Costed me 3400 including. It does have really good features for the given price. Bluetooth 5.0, USB, FM, USB and obviously AUX to connect to PC or TV. The addition of fancy RGB is also something mesmerizing to look at.

Now coming to the sound quality, bass isn't perfect and is above average at best, though at higher volume it sounds good and they can definitely get very loud at full volume. 

The speakers parameter of volume is 1-30 but even at 10 it's loud enough with aux though when i connect it via bluetooth on my phone the sound output is lower so i have to set volume at 20 though 15 can be fine but as i am little far from speakers, i have to adjust the volume bit higher according to it as having a distance obviously means lower hearing capability.

I like the design and admire the look though display doesn't look that much eye catching or fancy, it does have it's perks though. Matte Black color looks fantastic, to be honest the structure of subwoofer looks okay but the two satellite speakers stand out for me in look and feel.

I have also done the review of the speakers on my youtube channel which you can watch below :

My experience with Intel Core i3 10th generation CPU RMA

 so it was just over half an year since i got my cpu and mobo of asrock h470 and i3 10105f, i am very satisfied with the performance of my cpu and motherboard is also a decent budget option. Both were very afforable for me and i saved some money with discount on the i3. Couple of months ago our home electricity started to malfunction which killed my cpu. Originally i went to asrock service center as intel one at that specific day was closed, only to be informed by asrock team that my mobo is alright, they couldn't confirm hands on at the same day because there were no engineers at that time at the office. So after 1 and a half  week i got the chance to go to intel service center, same as before there were no engineers available on weekend there as well but they assured if there's any fault it would get replaced and you will recieve replacement at your doorstep in 10-12 days but thankfully it took only 6 days which was less than a week, i was impressed. Also the fact that i received a brand new sealed pack replacement. So overall my Intel RMA experience was pretty good and i am really impressed by their service, i would rate them 8/10. At additional note, CPUs aren't that commonly prone to failure, it's probably the last thing you would expect to become defective compared to gpu, ram, psu. mobo, HDDs etc.

My computer has finally been fixed, now waiting to get a new GPU

In the meantime, i will use the laptop because the mx130 is way better than gt 710.

So it's been few days since i received my replacement of CPU from RMA, for those who don't know (haven't seen my older build post). i own a 10th gen i3 (10105f). The performance of the chip is quite satisfying for the price, it can probably maintain stable 60fps at ultra settings even in most recent AAA titles.

My motherboard (ASRock) was also sent for RMA though it was found out it was working fine. But at that day they didn't have any engineer at their service center and Intel's one was closed down. SO we had to wait a few days to find out when Asrock team messaged us confessing that board is alright and at next weekend i got the chance to go to Intel service center where they promised a replacemnt under 10-12 days but pleasantly it was done and delivered to me in under a week.

To say the least i had a really nice RMA experience and i'm hoping i don't have to face such issues anytime soon as my h110 and z170 boards died with their respective CPUs. I have also replaced hyperx fury 2133mhz ram 16GB Kit to Hynix ones because it is 2666mhz, just another old fashioned looking RAM sticks with no heatsink but i don't mind that.

My Current Setup after my Desktop PC stopped working

 so, it's been a while since i wrote an article here. Haven't been in the ideal mindset due to so much burnout and distractions fueling my fire. I wanted to get rid of it so i decided to do something productive like as i am writing this piece of information and with this laptop that's the best i can do because for the sake of youtube videos, i can't edit them as Camtasia crashes while editing or closing and i couldn't find anything about it online. 

Now back to the topic...

1. The Ultimate Upgrade (PS4 Pro)

So this was a major one for me because not only it's jailbroken but also i have tons of games already loaded on my console, not everyone can afford those 60-80$ for a single game. Considering the exclusives it is well worth it. When i was buying this device, seller told me that it's running on update 9.00 so i thought it's a good opportunity to grab the console considering how cheap it was because the guy wasn't ware of jailbreak scene and rather than paying Rs. 35-40k i got it for only 16k which was less than half the price of it's worth.

2. My brother's laptop (temporary)

So this was such a blessing this time compared to past because performance and issues i was facing earlier have gone now laptop runs smoothly, despite having only 8gb ram, I can run Cricket 24 smoothly (around 30fps at low-mid) and that's the only game i'm playing rn as it doesn't have that much space, 128gb os drive and 256gb for all my stuff including those couple of games, the second one is COD: Black Ops Cold War which is highly regarded but haven't given a shot to because cricket is my childhood love although FPS / TPS was probably my favorite genre at a time. It's other specs are MX130, 8th gen intel i5-8250u (4c/8t), 1080p display.For more details you can also google the model "Dell Inspiron 7570".

3. Xbox Series X Controller

So this was a game changer, over the years i have only owned cheap chinese ones, some of them were ok but mostly gave up in few months. But here we are talking about the flagship grade of a controller by one of the world's biggest tech giant. First of all the battery backup is exceptional, could easily last few days with moderate to low usage or with heavy use about couple of days or even more. It looks cool, i have the black one, my favorite color theme. The buttons give mechanical tactile feel, feels very sturdy too and seem long lasting with high quality. Analog sticks have pin-point accuracy and the new upgraded D-pad should be a cake for everyone with it's extra padding between all 4 directions. This helps in providing precise functionality in games.

4. Samsung Series 4 32" LCD TV (almost 14 year old)

So this was bought back in late 2010, after a relative marriage and i got my hands on it last year as they upgraded to a 4k tv. Although it's only an entry level HD Ready TV even for it's time. The picture quality seems decent for those early days of LCD TVs when more and more people were tuning up to them.Though it's a non-smart TV i do have my Jio STB hooked up to it, being at lower software version / firmware, i have more flexibility to install almost any playstore app from apk file provided on various sites. I do enjoy watching sports, tv shows and movies etc. on it.

My experience of upgrading to Intel Core i3 10105F (10th Gen Processor)

So i have finally upgraded my pc to a newer Intel Platform, although it's 3 generations but still the price i got it for was really good and modern 4c/8t CPUs are enough for 1080p gaming for next couple of years atleast, assuming you want game at 60fps and i have a 60hz monitor anyway.

I was looking for the best deals i could find online, i tried many sites like Amazon, PrimeABGB, MDComputers, VedantComputers, theITdepot and even some not so known ones like StarComp which was offering a better motherboard for ₹500 less but i wasn't sure if it would be trustworthy so i went with an Asrock H470M-HDV motherboard that costed me ₹5,000 which i thought was a decent price for the quality and features it has, only downside is it doesn't have an m.2 slot which could have been quite useful for future NVMe SSD upgrade so currently for a while i would keep my SATA SSD.

The CPU was a even better deal considering the cheapest i3 10th gen online at that time that too amazon so without any 2nd thought i bought the cpu as well the next day when it was a deal price which finally went i bought it, it was listed for ₹6,450 and bank offer made it even better with ₹600 off making it effectively cost only ₹5,850. 

So overall, under the under the budget of 12k i saved ₹1,150. I consider this deal a good value for money propagation, Intel is the new AMD nowadays, atleast in the lowend to midrange market. I am quite happy with this upgrade, i bought it much earlier than i actually thought i could because i managed save up enough way before i was expecting to. I am really happy with this upgrade, nothing can beat it at this price brand new so i am happy especially considering the cpu price was which really good and Mobo price was okayish too.

I have already posted a TLOU benchmark video on my channel after upgrade and CPU usage barely reaches 50% which suggests huge GPU bottleneck. That is to be expected because i have an more than a 6 year old aging entry level 1050 Ti GPU though despite low cinematic 30fps gave me smooth experience after some recent major updates.

My Review of The Last of Us: Part 1 on PC

So last night i finished the game and it was an amazing experience, i will explain in few points how was my experience with the game was,

1. Graphics & Performance

When the game came out, textures didn't actually looked great at low settings and i couldn't go to medium or high because my GPU can't run those settings.

But after some major updates such as 1.0.4.0 and 1.0.5.0 the game not only improved significantly in performance (with all stuttering and crashes gone) but texture quality too, that's how game should have been at launch. 

I played the game upscaled to 1080p with render resolution set to 720p and low graphics preset. 

Although my gpu (1050 ti) is certainly not the best card out there but it was giving playable stable anywhere from around 25-40fps depending on the area and intensity.

2. Story

The game is set in a zombie apocalypse when Joel and his daughter Ellie,

 

former talking to his best friend Tommy about how he doesn't want to leave his current job so he want to visit him but before that he put his daughter to sleep, 

 

after she wakes up she searches for her father, he seems rushed as he comes back 

 

when his daughter reaches drawing room, gets the gun from a drawer and advises Ellie to not no near the door and shots down Jimmy who was bitten then turned into a zombie.

So that's where the drama starts, they start running away in the car with Tommy to escape from the widespread zombie attack.

Different seasons, different kind of missions, 4 major ones (set in all different weathers), different iconic places with different types of enemies, such as gangsters and military officers as well.

3. Combat & Mechanics

Combat feels quite intuitive and fun and if you get used to it you won't find it very difficult to understand, it's very simple and straightforward. 

I loved shooting down enemies in the head, it was so satisfying to get a 1 shot kill in such a satisfying way, i also did a decent job with it.

 

Body attack usually took 3-4 shots to kill so it's just a wastage of your precious ammo, although they provide lots of them lying around here and there as you enter and hang around in buildings and rooms.

Puzzles were fun as well, finding the ways to progress in the adventure side of things such as climbing on buses, trail or using plank wood in the water for Sarah as she can't swim.

 

Underwater puzzles were exciting too and you just about get enough time to complete before you die due to lack of oxygen.

4k or higher resolution textures in video games are a gimmick

This might be an unpopular topic or opinion but it still needs to be put out so people can be vary
As of recent games have become too big in size like 100-150GB and requiring atleast 4gig gpu is quite off the chart as we barely see any graphics improvement

there are many reasons behind it like the assets that are never used, long or many pages of shoddy codes but main reason is those high resolution uncompressed textures that might not see a difference at all even being set at 90% quality instead of 100%.

The other day my brother argued that bitmap is used because it is uncompressed but i have seen some games use PNG and look as good if not better.

The only reason i think of developer can go this route and affect having more potential customers is tie with hardware companies such as Intel, Nvidia, AMD so they can sell newer products such as CPU, GPU, RAM etc.

This is what great depression was all about, we won't go much further in it as it's not our today's topic but simpley in one line "keeping economy well maintained with regular jobs and employement."
Biggest proof for me that even 720p textures are good enough is looking at graphics in ps3 and xbox 360 emulators such as rpcs3 or xenia with some sorf of filtering such AA and AF both make the games look pretty neat

rpsc3 is not very stable on my pc as i get frequent crashes and graphics also look jaggy for certain objects so i deleted it as it's cell architecture is not in the great favour of proper emulation (atleast on my pc) and games were hard to make for it because of that reason
but now im using xenia which runs perfectly fine on my pc

not only the performance is significantly better but graphics look alot nicer too i have tried red dead redemption with extreme FXAA and AMD FSR and man those graphics it look pretty neat for a 2010 game

though performance wasn't the most ideal as i get consistent stutter but that is to be expected on relatively modest hardware of mine.

So in conclusion, we can say that it's an industry standard so they can newer products every generation in decent amount and make profits, nothing wrong with it. The pro is more people will get jobs but con not everyone can afford expensive hardware so gaming (especially on pc) will remain a luxury.