Thursday 21 April 2022

Razer Deathadder Essential - White Edition

 So this one was a longer plan of getting a review of this for a while and eventually forgetting that the time to test this was too good to be true or a fake, But this is the first legit razer device I've ever used for myself, There was the kracken back in the Torchy days. I wonder what it was going to be like. But this review gives a sort of a glimpse at that. Again due to the time constraints, it's going to be a post for this. The £24 price mark is what this is but other places have it in stock. 


The Packaging: 

Now this is where Razer Shine, is the classic black and Green style they are renounced for, and this is no exception, it shows the Mouse itself, the text has a metallic feel and also makes it clear on what this is, though this does give an impression of an imported version from the language on the front and back. But there is some icons of the features for the mouse too. But the sides of the box just show RAZER and there retail flap at the top for the Slatwall hooks and the small print is at the bottom too which does give even more impressions this was a cheap import. 




The front of the Box 



The top of the box 



The back of the box 



The sides of the box are mostly the same 



the bottom of the box with  more of the small print


When it comes to the inside, it seems to be that it is quite basic, with only cardboard and not much of a manual or even other documentation. But with the way Razer do give this on their website is less hassle on this. But since its a easy mouse to use or so it might seem. But the cable is nicely tidy in the box top part and then the mouse Underneath. Its a nice fitting and it also comes with a cute white band too. 

The Cable inside the box 



The Mouse inside the box 

The Mouse itself,  


Its got that nice curve and a very clean ish white design along with the Razer Logo which we will see how it glows up. But its got the Side buttons and there is NO DPI switch which is not a bad thing so its later how that can be a good feature of making it smooth. But the cord is not a braided one, so cats and dogs might have a nice chew at it. The Sensor is quite a big one so it should not have an issue of it being dirty. 



The Left side of the Mouse 



The Right Side of it 




Underneath the mouse 




The USB Connector with the cap on 




A look of the cap being off 




The bottom of the usb connector is green as a nice touch, 



The Setup and Synapse: 

So it was a case of Plug and play and that means Windows picked it up, one thing to mention is that it glows White which is perfect for this. Sure the LED could be a RGB for a nicer effect but some cheaper brand will put that in their own copy like other mice do.  

The Mice plugged in and glowing 




It fits nicely on the back of the PC and the cable is plenty of stretch 








Device Manager does see it as a Generic Mouse which is interesting. So it means installing the drivers might not make a difference if there is any drivers per say.


The Mouse Properties 



The install  details 




Descriptions 




Device IDs 




The install details 




It does let it wake up from sleep via that tick 



So it then was the case of not being able to change the DPI since we needed to install Synapse. The Firmware update is still a TBA on what that means. But That installed pretty quickly but does take over 1/4GB aka 389MB. 

Downloading 




Installimng 




The finish 


Synapse: 

So this app you do NOT have to Sign in, which later on might be useful for but for me and the single device, yeah, thats not much of a need, for me to worry about. 




The sign in screen for the first time 




Then it shows the devices Razer Syanpse will work with and the Deathadder appeared in a easy way to then tweak things the way I want it to be tweaked, Which then leads to the buttons are easy to configure via pressing on them. So it was easy to map buttons to what you wanted it to be. 


The Syanpse Menu 





The settings for the White mouse 



The DPI Settings 




The choice of changing the DPI 




The options for more of the Lighting with the LED 



Now this is the nitty-gritty for the key mapping layout 




Now this means its the chance to get to map the keys, the back and forward to the DPI switching which might be easier but when using this, mouse the high DPI felt easier to get used to than the previous mice and that meant much faster scrolling for it to be used. 



And Aim Test:

Well, I'm not the best FPS but it was nice to check how this turned out and was the best out of 2 and well I'm not as good as I should be for a PC user for sure. But it was better with the lower DPI from what I did test with the below score. 

The results from the Aim Test 


Using on Mac. 

Now, this is one feature that Razer did not officially support. there have been some in the GitHub that ended up making an open-source version of synapse per say.  Since Synapse 2 does not support the mouse in question. 

The Installer and the Site 



Its a pkg file 




Quick to install 




But it does use a kext and then needs a restart 




But forces to sign in to the Razer ID 




But then it was the time to try out Open Razer and actually that is a nice way to have some of the features of Synapse on Mac and yes it does things such as DPI switching ad well as the light pattern for the lights on the mouse itself, it is not too bad to install either via the dmg. 

The install for the Razer App 



It means going to system preferences to open it up 



The Settings screen 



The list that actually appears which lets you control most of the settings (Not applicable for some due to the mouse itself) 




The debug state of the mouse 




The settings which includes DPI control for the mouse, the colour will NOT change 




But more settings can tell the brightness for this




So, all in all, it means it can now be adjusted so that means Mac on the unofficial side is actually more workable instead of being stuck on a certain 3200 DPI for example. the middle of the range. So that does make it useful if I need to video edit when I get to go on holiday with the laptop. 







As for Games and General use, 

IT feels quite nice and even on the higher 6800 DPI it can feel very smooth and even a little too fast but again there is the chance I can change it in the synapse so it is always to be tweaked to my likening, the grip on the mouse is good so it fits my hand and does not make it a bit painful like some mice such a the Fury Warrior 


For Video editing, it gives a better option for it to be smoother when trying to drag files to a timeline such as using it in FCPX,. But it makes you sure about how it can be that extra bit smoother for those precise moments like dragging a file from one window to another.




The Conclusion: 

It's a good mouse and has a nice design on it and makes it feel like it's worth getting, there are some limitations compared to some of the entry-level gaming mice out there. The Software is the bulk of the features for it so without the open-source it's more a no-go for non-Windows. But it feels exactly what it should do, sure the DPI switch is a corny option but not being here means this is one aimed to make it the mouse they want it to be. 





omracer's Rating: 8/10 


The Good Points: 

  • A Razer Mouse That's  Good value for under £30 
  • Its White which is a change
  • a Nice long cable 
  • Plug and play for those that want it to work
  • Razer Synapse works nicely 
  • There is an open source way to change DPI on Mac
  • There are 2 lights, one for the wheel, then the razer logo 
  • Very smooth with the high dpi 

The Bad Points 

  • The Lights are only white and not RGB
  • Not much sold minus some bigger retailers and online 
  • Not easy for those that want a simple way to install on MacOS if not using unblock 
  • The Cable is rubber so it can easily be chewed 
  • Higher DPI can get some used to if you did not give the option to change it on a non-supported OS 


And there is another review, this probably will be the last blogpost only ones for a while, and hopefully some video-based ones in the near future, but that will be when work has eased off to the point I'm not typing this up at 1:40am on a work night

But for. now we can catch up soon 


omracer 















Monday 18 April 2022

Maxsun Terminator GTX 1650 4GB DDR6

 This was another overdue one and comes to the fact of GPUs getting slightly more in stock over months and well this was time for work to have some desperate measures, to end up going to Alixepress to Gamble £1,00 on some components and that included a GT 1030 with 4GB of RAM (as well as DDR4) But months later and even with prices lower than when I purchased it, its time to do a IOU for me on work and well here it goes. for the  GTX 1650 4GB model


The Packaging: 

It got that GPU vibe of aggressive mentions to it, with Clear writing, the Black and Green Colour Scheme Nvidia is well known for, Maxsun have their own twist on it, but all in all its also not very much focused on the design of the GPU itself, the features are on the back which makes it a nice touch too. 

The form of the Box which 



The right side of the box with the labels 





The Top of the box 



The Back of the box with various features 





The other left side of the box 



The bottom of the box with the features in small print and the max sun logo 


Now it comes to what's inside the box since it's ALOT less than other GPUs, to be honest. So I'll list it below:

  • Warranty card x1 
  • 1650 in an anti-static bag
  • Foam 
  • Thats it
Now to make it clear, that makes it so there are NO drivers included which for most gamers not a problem if you go to the Nvidia site, Also maxsun do have drivers linked too. But that links to the Chinese Nvidia link for the drivers. So be aware to download some before installing the card. But the box does protect the GPU via the foam inside, so it was not a tight fit to make it easier. Thats all of note to be honest. 

The inside of the box with the warrant 



The back of the warranty card 




The card inside the static bag inside the box 




The Card outside the foam 



Sometimes things are underneath the foam, not in this case 

So then it leads to see if it will fit in the steam box and how the card looks. 

Look at the Card. 

It's actually a decent card, it's not gigantic, but it's also not a small ITX based which is lucky for the steambox. But it's got the 3 outputs, and a nice backplate as well. Plus its got the RGB logo at the top, this model has no RGB in the middle like the Site mentions. But there is a 8 PIN PCIE connector too, which means it does need more power than the previous Card I've ever owned (3 cards to be honest). The heat sink pipes are nice too. 

The front of the card 



The right hand side of the card 



The back of the card with the terminator logo upside down 



A look at the top of the card 



The left side of the card with the DVI, Display port and HDMI 




A closer look at the heatsink and PCI x 16 




Then t was time to see if the card was too big to be fitting in the machine itself. 



A Time for the Fitting in the Steambox




So it comes to getting it fitted and well there is the chance it will not fit in there and that was my worry, But lucky the Antec Case does have the support for the full-size GPUS for the most part, but this sort of shape is a good one for this ITX machine. So it comes to a case to see how it fits in, the PC is dusty. 


The inside of the Steambox before the upgrade 


So it was the case to then get the card ready to slot in, it was not much of a easy one and the good thing with the PCI flap being the way it is, the cables were not stretched but the Audio one was being in the way for it to settle in there as it should, But a bit of pushing, it was then fitted and ready to install the Drivers and see how it glows. 

Fitting the card inside 



Checking the PCIE 6 pin connector 


So then it was time to see how it goes with the blue LED strip on the PC and it actually is a bit weaker  on the GPU than the strip so it's not as noticeable., But there is a faint glow if you look hard enough. 

The Glowing of the logo with the blue light 



A better look at the strip 




The case was back and closed 







But then it was time to install the Drivers. 

The installation of the Drivers

This is the standard affair for this Since it's the Nvidia drivers that just install as normal.  So that was from the Nvidia site and then it installed even with the reset option.  But some Devices IDs can be an option here if you need it. 
Maxsun's page of the drivers 



The POST before and after installing the Nvidia drivers 



The status of the device 


The Description 




Device IDs



More of the compatible ones 



It matches this if needed 



How Windows decides aka the event of the installation 


So then once the Nvidia download was done, it was time to install and do a clean install of the Game Ready drivers and NOT install GEFORCE EXPERIENCE since it can cause the issues of the games and files being a bit nerfed and the login needed to updates drivers is a pain. So that I skipped and a clean install is good for the first time. 

The  Installation options 




The installation finished 



The driver info  








So, that means it is installed and it means it's time to finally test this out to see if it does make games better, well the answer is going to be good.   Especially with the fact it seems to be the case of the fact the gen on the NVENC is the turning one not the pascal or titan on aka 7th. 


The Tests: 


Well, it's Going to be the case to see how things will perform since this will be the case of what games are going to work, well most of my collection will. Just a difference in how much of the improvement was to be decided, which for me it will feel like that for sure. 

The Games: 

So we have a few Games to try, some not as well known but some were a big difference to the usual line-up: 

#1: Train Simulator: 

Now, this actually is the reason of many to get it since I've been wanting to get some modes enjoyed which is of local routes such as the BHBP and there are some others. But it actually is a surprise how it almost was the Same on some maps/scenarios but when it came to the in-game or main content from Steam was nearly 100FPS in some parts which means it's fine. But there are some stutters which is always the case with it, even on an SSD on the Xiaomi 6 Pro E5100 so might be just TS. But it was nice to have it on high settings.

The menu 



Loading screens are always high FPS 



One of the Scenarios always has a loading glitch 



The inside of the cable 




This was around the 40fps mark 



But all in all, it does make it nicer to play on the higher ones and even with FXAA settings it worked. the only issue was that Bloom might have made the in-cab light a higher FPS drop when it was turned on using the H key if I recall. But even on low settings on a iGPU, this game could even go at 40 to 50 FPS. 


#2 Minecraft: 


It  runs on all high around 70 render chunks at 60fps 1080p. its NOT a RTX card so no need to enable those features. But this is more than enough since even this runs on HD 4000. Smoohtly. 

The world works fine 


#3 Tetris Effect: Connected 


An interesting topic but this game does need more power than it seems and this really is a crisp game and does play smooth on lower settings with the MX350 but on a 1650 and it can bring that extra brunt. There is some lag when it transitions from one to another but it is so smooth after that. 

The settings used 



That does look beautiful 




But scores are not as good from 


But eventually it ends up with a few more games to try, this is not as demanding but still beautiful even in low quality. 


#3: Goat Simulator

This is not as smooth as thought but it does play nicely once outside the menu8 and in the game itself .. But it works which is the main thing. 

The goat being laggy




#4 Fall Guys: 

This is the most shocking out of all of them, in terms of how smooth this is,, like this was barely getting 60fps EVEN on the MX350 with low settings, either thats the dual core or that MX350. But this was nearly getting in the 170FPS on some settings. There were some lows of say 70fps at times, even when recording so it is not looking as laggy. 

The original settings 



Those Frames 




Upped the settings 




The loading was getting some good frames too 




This was smooth to watch 




Even smooth to play as well 

As i upped some more settings, the connection was getting VERY droopy and weird, since it was like I was playing alone, then it disconnected on me, like hmm 


Uppped more settings 




It seemed ok at first 




But then it just locked me out and kicked out 




Another map to try  




I seemed to get somewhere 




Then I walked to the finish line and did not get kicked out until later on 


So it means it makes no problems with the game but the connection is getting glitchy even with the wired connection and at UK midnight time which is less usage on the local broadband . 


Which then leads to another Epic Game: 



#5 Fortnite

So this one was a surprised in its own right of how it was the WORST of all of them. So here's how it went. 

The setting was on DX 11 first and it was unplayable, with not even 40 fps and even on lowering the settings down too. But that is the fair point for a lower end card in the gaming standards today . 


Thye settings on the DX 11 




This was getting very laggy before the dive 




Even gliding was a laggy part 




On the ground was better 








There was some major lag for entering some parts 




Towns  were not good 




This camp wad not too bad 




Better or for worse is the question to ask here 




But in the end, it gets laggy to the point of Losing right on the show down 


So that means it is going to be ALOT of tweaking for this card to work, also note, using Afterburner to OC caused the PC to lock  and need a reboot when I applied it. So don't do that. But with Performance mode, frames were ALOT higher but there was this concern of say, stuttering which means it was going to freeze or lag when needed the most. 


The settings on performance mode 




In the lobby was better 


This part is playable now 




This was even more smoother 



The woods seemed better but the stuttering was noticeable a bit more



dual monitors on this 




It was a bit better on creative mode but that was with V-Sync so only capped at 60 



So that means I have a lot of tweaking to check on the stuttering, if that is HDD related or SSD as well. But there was also connection issues on Fortnite so that could explain it on why it happened. Especially as fall guys did very slightly stutter but this was almost bad on both counts. But this was a shame on why it decided to not actually play fair but this is early days, also OC-ing the card did not make any change. 

So we now decide on the next step and to check out video encoding, OBS will come in a future edit of this post so we will look into that 

Video Encoding: 

Now to be making clear, it has the Turing version of the NVENC which means it is the newer revision of the 1650 with the TU116 Chip and that means streaming is going to be better and encoding, so with what we learn, how does it perform for rendering and encoding. 

#1 Vidcoder

Now for this, it can work and convert pretty quickly in a quicker timeframe than others expect it to be, But the clip from a Game base recording did convert faster almost than Realtime which is good, Like it was converting at 70-80 fps which is very good form the clip is a 30fps one. This was with H264, there is also H265 which is not tested yet. 



The Settings I used for H2.64 NVENC 



That time it took to convert is promising for sure. 



#2 VEGAS Pro 15

Well all i can mention here that is supports it for the settings in the app itself, so if i get to make videos again i can always use this but its been one of those things I've had lack of time. But it will be an improvement from what was the case on the older Pascal version via the 1050 2GB.


The Settings for the GPU acceleration 



Conclusion:


This card holds up pretty well for a nice change to the 1650s, from the backplate to the extra Turing TU1126 chip fore the added effect, it feels like a more powerful GPU than I was expecting in some ways and games do run a lot better minus some exceptions such as Fortnite, this was NOT the best value due to being bought during the GPU shortage and in ways, it can be cheaper for a RTX 3050 than what the price of this card was back in November 2021. 

omracer's Rating: 6/10

The Good Points: 

  • A GTX 1650
  • It has the TU116 aka 7th Gen NVENC
  • Nice Backplate 
  • Dual Fans
  • Works with Nvidia drivers for an imported card
  • Most Games feel much faster and nicer even at 1080p

The Bad Points: 

  • Was bought during the GPU shortage so price was not reasonable 
  • Some Stuttering in games like Train Sim and Fortnite
  • Only a small LED Logo
  • Can be a tight fit in some cases 
  • No Driver Disc or OEM Sticker 


And there we have it, another review might be coming soon which will even more things out and also more things to pay back when I get chance to, but the personal side I'm losing time to which is putting thins on hard time for the content creation and social .