How to fine-tune pfSense 2.4.5 for 1Gbit throughput on APU2/APU3/APU4

Background information

APU2, APU3 and APU4 have four 1Ghz CPU cores, pfSense by default uses only 1 core per connection. This limitation still exists, however, a single-core performance has considerably improved. With new BIOS, and settings described below, pfSense can route about 750-800Mbit/s on one connection.

APU2*4 have very performant Intel I210-AT Network Interfaces. These NICs have 4 transmit and four receive queues, being able to work simultaneously on 4 connections. With some fine0tuning, pfSense can take advantage of this and route at 1Gbit when using more than one connection.

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Here’s Doom Eternal running at 1,000 fps on a liquid nitrogen cooled PC

Earlier this year id’s lead engine programmer said that id Tech 7 powering Doom Eternal could run at 1,000 fps. Which is kind of a funny theoretical laugh because nobody has a computer that can do that, at least I thought so, but apparently there are overclockers out there who can in fact do that. Bethesda recruited Polish hardware retailer x-kom to figure out how to run Doom Eternal at 1,000 frames per second. Then they did it. There’s a video of it, above.

The surprise? For me, at least, it’s that this is fairly widely available, if expensive, computer hardware. Here are the specs:

  • CPU: Intel Core i7 9700K @ 6.6GHz
  • Motherboard: ASUS Maximus XI APEX
  • GPU: ASUS RTX2080Ti Strix @ 2.4GHz
  • RAM: HyperX Predator 4000MHz CL19 2x8GB
  • Drive: Samsung 512GB M.2 NVMe Evo Plus
  • Power: Be Quiet 1200W Straight Power 

Of course, you couldn’t really do this at home because the key component is that they had to literally pour liquid nitrogen into the computer to make it work. Yes! That’s right, -196 degrees Celsius, -321 degrees Fahrenheit, liquid nitrogen. That’s because when you overclock a system like this it gets very hot. Don’t try this at home, and actually go and scold the guy who does this because he handles the liquid nitrogen without gloves and my high school chemistry teacher would be very mad about that. 

You can read a more detailed article on the whole thing at Bethesda’s website. Also, if you could actually run a game at 1,000 fps, would you be able to tell the difference?

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3D Printing Greener Buildings Using Sustainable Building Material Made From Local Soil

The construction industry is currently facing two major challenges: the demand for sustainable infrastructure and the need to repair deteriorating buildings, bridges, and roads. While concrete is the material of choice for many construction projects, it has a large carbon footprint, resulting in high waste and energy expenditure. Today, researchers report progress toward a sustainable building material made from local soil, using a 3D printer to create a load-bearing structure.

The researchers will present their results today at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting & Expo. ACS is holding the meeting through Thursday. It features more than 6,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.

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Back to Basic – Mini CNC Plotter

There are many projects and tutorials related to recycle old CD/DVD players into a mini CNC Plotter based on Arduino.

I have become too concerned with complicated details or new things, and now I should concentrate on basic, simple and important ideas. Getting back to basics, to start learning CNC, today I’d like to share how to easily build your own low-cost Arduino Mini CNC Plotter. With my version, I used the spring part of stapler as a main component for pen lift. During the process of doing this, I have referenced from many sources, studied & tried to clarify some point hard to grasp.

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