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You can upgrade the EC Bios to 1.07.10TR3 from the official XMG website https://download.schenker-tech.de/package/xmg-zenith-17/

It never ceases to amaze me how much better temperatures are bare die.

Of course the only downside is that G-sync is no longer available but, that doesn't bother me at all!

Finally, after many years I got what I wanted! A 4k screen 120Hz 100% srgb colors for my Area51m, and let me tell you guys, the colors are night and day difference. It looks absolutely amazing!

I appreciate that!! I’m not getting another regular job though, I was building this business model up right before I was fired, but right now I’m free from the 9-5. I do what I want these days 😴. Just being careful too though. I buy and re sale all of these junk cars. I will pay $50-$200 bucks for rotting junk cars in people’s yards and haul them to salvage yards who buy them based on what it is for much more money. The best thing about it is you come across so many running and driving vehicles with titles that I can sale private party for a much larger profit. Those cars will all be gone in no time, and different ones sitting in their place. 😃

Yep., You'll need some cash for next gen Intel. And not a small amount. The ROG tax will come on top. Same for the high end from MSI or Gigabyte. Expect noting less than $3000 for the board and chips. Or 1.5 times the org MSRP for 5090. Less than this would surprise me for the better parts. One thing come in my mind... The MB makers need to stop flood the market with all sorts of similar boards but with only marginally differences. Now we can have +20 models with same chipset only with different themes. This need to be stopped. And it will lower the total costs for every motherboard. Stupids! ASUS, GIGABYTE, and MSI will be raising the price of all their motherboards in the coming weeks. ASUS, GIGABYTE, and MSI are currently preparing a new price increase for their motherboards. According to reports from Board Channels, the price hike will take place sometime in the current quarter (Q3 2026). Btw. Needed new router... Bough this one. A mesh system. On the pricier side than what I preferred ($838 MSRP). It's what it is ASUS ZenWiFi BQ16 - (2-Pack) - Mesh router Jepp, it's Asus but their support length and features for their better router’s is superior. Yup, correct brother Fox. And it will stay this way until I see how Nova Lake stands out. Not interested in any of the "old" AMD chips or the newer 200 failure branded Arrow Lake from Intel. Never been tempted buy any of it. And it seems I will keep my Raptor Lake refresh a good while longer. No problem🙂 Intel delays Nova Lake for gaming with bLLC until mid-2027 Good news for the blues of Lip-Bu Tan, as what was initially a faint rumor has gained traction in recent hours. According to leaks, Intel has delayed its most powerful Nova Lake-S CPUs until mid-2027

Version v1.4 is out, you can now edit pascal desktop cards Release v1.4 | Nvidia-vBIOS-Clock-Power-Tweaker · JadeRover/Nvidia-vBIOS-Clock-Power-Tweaker

I believe Brother @Papusan does Yeah, I sent the tools back already. Hopefully @Jor3lBR won't mind letting me borrow them again. If I sell the Apex components I will need to buy another Mycro Pro block as well. If that happens I may buy a GIGABYTE Z890 AORUS Elite Duo X to replace it and see how that fares. Looks like a good 2-DIMM option without having to pay an Apex tax to avoid having a 4-DIMM mess. It looks like Z890M (mATX) options with 2-DIMMs and a debug LED are essentially non-existent, which is very unfortunate. A memory cooling kit will definitely help. Even the legacy type with generic heatsinks and a waterblock bolted on top is a huge improvement and not that far behind a direct touch RAM block.

So Asus is sending me an Asus X870E Crosshair Dark Hero all shiny new to evaluate and add to my collection which is nice. I'm going to hold off on putting the 9850X3D delidded combo in the current MB in LM form and do it all up with the revamped edition. Glad I found out before I tore down my current system to install it. Still might pop it in but with just paste for now because that's quick and easy to collect some baseline data. Wonder if I can get sent one of their newer AIOs that interface directly to the MB connectors? 🤪 My original Crosshair Hero is solid but the LCD is flickering a little (common problem) so I could RMA it for a new one or at least a repaired one to then sell off with the 9800X3D. I could also just switch the wifey to AM5 and sell off the 14900KS SP109, much needed to be retired Asus Strix-A Z690 (loose USB ports in the rear) and B-die 2x16 G.Skill 4000 sticks. Does anyone in this thread still run a 13900k/14900k besides @Talon and I? -------------------------------------------------------- I saw that over there, congrats brother! Definitely looking forward to the lid and delid results! It's a top notch sample and best way, just like @Talon, to get the most out of it. I'm working on it, lol. I think I want my ram water cooled equally as much as the CPU at this point. Even with a fan, temps are an issue 8000+. I suspect they could even provide a little bit of help on the low end too. Still being able to game at 5.8 is damn nice and that is with just auto scaling and no fine tuning. Power and thermal reductions must be nice too. With credit flexibility, why not return it all and give a 270k a whirl to compare and contrast? Worse case, you return it and pick up another AM5. 270k would definitely be cheaper. At the very least, return the 9950X3D2 and try another one. Sorry the job situation hasn't resolved itself yet but at least you have a good side job that seems to be paying dividends atm. Man, that's a lot of cars lol. What do you do with them exactly?

No worries, brother. Putting the needs and concerns of your family first and the ability to provide for them takes precedent over anything else and you are making a good/right choice in doing that. I would be disappointed if you allowed any kind of hobby or fetish to draw your attention away from that duty. I only offered it in case you were interested and able. Since you are a friend I wanted you to have first crack at the stuff based on our recent communications about the CPU and memory overclocking experience you have had with it. If your main use of the PC for pleasure is gaming there is no point in returning what you have or buying a 270K Plus CPU and Z890 mobo. AM5 is going to live quite a few more generations and what you have right now is way more than adequate for a world-class gaming experience. Superior overclocking capabilities using the highest end parts (like those you already have) is not of any remarkable value in the context of gaming. It would only be worthwhile for eking a little bit more life from an antiquated setup or marginally adequate hardware that stuggles with gaming workloads.

Hey @Mr. Fox I would buy your parts, but I actually bought my 9950X3D2 and Dark Hero and Ram with the BestBuy 0% store Credit Card. So, if I were to return it all, it just goes back to the card. I used the card because I was not sure if I was going to even like or keep the setup. So it was a way for me to give it a good run in and test it daily. It seems pretty solid, other than being a weaker sample. And, I still might return it all. If I do, I’ll maybe be going for a 270K Plus. But I have really Moved away from overclocking and XOC. I just play games when I have time. I’m so busy with buying junk cars these days. I pretty much just keep it simple man! Congrats on the binned 270K plus purchase! That is a very nice chip! This is a picture of my yard full of cars from a days work. 😂

Just saw you grabbed that SP98! I honestly debated grabbing it too. But this SP97 is so good already, I have no complaints with it. I'm able to game at 5.8Ghz P and 5.3Ghz E on this beast. @electrosoft 5.85Ghz P passed gaming for the short bit I tested, but got angry in geekbench of all things. This was all with no manual core voltage tuning though, just auto scaling. Percentage wise for gaming, over my SP89, it's about 5% faster in some tests for gaming. Nothing amazing, but what you'd expect from the clock speed bumps.

These parts are currently in my daily driver build. I may regret selling, but I could use the cash to fund another project. I am not "parting out" at this point, (so don't bother asking,) but willing to sell it all as a bundle. I really like this build and I am not desperate to sell, but asking a fair price on these super expensive components. Here is what is included: X870E Apex motherboard (includes box and all original accessories) 9950X3D2 CPU - Delidded (will include IHS and retail box) Buyer's Choice of: Thermal Grizzly IHS, Thermal Grizzly Mycro Pro DD block, or IceMan DD block G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo 6000 C26 (2x16GB) Memory F5-8400J4052G24G 1.450V Supercool Computer Direct Touch Memory Cooler (will include stock RAM heatsinks) If you do not want a 9950X3D2 CPU for some reason, I have a decent 9950X that is delidded and also runs 8200 stable with tight timings and I will discount the price to reflect the cheaper CPU. (We can discuss that via PM.) Price: Asking $1800 including shipping and insurance to a US buyer in the lower 48. Item Location: San Tan Valley, AZ Shipping: As noted above. International Shipping: I will consider selling internationally but buyer will pay all costs associated with shipping outside the lower 48 states unless a shipping forwarding service is used (with a US address). Handling Time: I will take the system apart upon receipt of payment, so the following business day it will ship. Payment Options: PayPal Friends & Family or regular PayPal plus 5% to cover the fees (regular PayPal will let you use PayPal Credit or Pay-in-4 options) Condition: Used - excellent, near new Warranty: none from seller, mobo still has time left on ASUS warranty Feedback: eBay Profile; OC.net MarketPlace

Listed at oc.net: X870E Apex - 9950X3D2 - G.SKILL 6000 C26 - Plus Extras Bundle Listed here:

I sent him a PM asking for his PayPal. If he has not quietly sold it already I will buy it. Probably not a smart move, but most things we are passionate about produce behaviors that are not very intelligent. Too bad I already sent the delidder tool and heater back. This will drive me to sell the parts I had offered to @tps3443 to pay for it and fund the replacement motherboard, etc. I honestly have not had time to put either the delidded 270K or delidded 9950X3D2 through their paces to say definitive gains in performance were achieved, but the massive thermal improvements alone made it worth the effort in both cases. I've had too many competing interests consuming my time. I'm going to expect decent performance gains on the 270K. I'd not expect as much from AMD simply because things are so limited by design by AMD. But I would delid them both again in a heartbeat just for the thermal gains even if nothing changed on either one in terms of performance. Bare die is the only way to fly. I need you to build a custom loop and stop settling for an AIO, brother. Since he spent more than I am offering to sell him the parts for he could come out ahead moneywise and with a better and stronger system if he were to return what he bought and use the money to pay for it. But, maybe the return window already closed. No matter the situation, I respect the decision to say no for the reasons that he did. Priorities are always God, family, work, play... in that order... and the first two are hard to separate. If the last two get out of order everything falls apart.

I’m thinking about upgrading my Area-51m’s RTX 2080 to 16 GB of VRAM. What do you guys think? Has anyone here done it?

Nice! How did 5.8 fare? 5.7 SP97 vs SP89 how much less heat and power draw assuming the Noctua could handle it on the SP89? I see Digital has dropped the price of that 270k down to $640 (or $655 PP FF shipped). Still not tempted atm as I am in the need of a major sell off of hardware to prepare for Nova with that lucious bllc (if it's anything like X3D, it is going to be a wrecking ball for Fallout 76 but we will see), but if there was ever a chance to snag a killer 270k for testing now would be it methinks.... Personally, I still think the problem with Nova Lake is even with superior SP ratings and silicon, we're just not seeing the insane clocks superior silicon provided with the likes of 13th and 14th gen. I'm only on an AIO, but 2x 265k and 270k all ended up at ~5.6ghz for me realistically. Even the poor first 265k SP77.... It gets close sometimes, but it still can't touch my SP109 14900ks in gaming. @Mr. Fox you delidded your 270k. Are you seeing appreciable gains in performance or does it hit a wall that isn't thermally and voltage related? I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted though and the sooner it sells is the sooner the temptation is removed 🤣 Best scenario is one of us picks it up so I can at least ask questions and see results. ------------------------------------------ Smart play. These are but toys and fun things. Family always comes first. I still say you return the 9950X3D2 at the least and order another one or even step down to a 9850X3D unless you really want all those cores for gaming. You could get a 9850X3D + Strix open box for $753 vs the potential $1700+ you paid for the 9950X3D2 and Dark Hero if you're looking to shave a bit off the top and still retain gaming nirvana. No need to return the 5090 as it will keep gaining in value and you can sell it any time you want for what you paid for it and most likely more as time passes unless financial realities force a return and we've all been there.....

You are being wise, and that's what all of us should be. Fantastic score and yes, crazy good silicon I think the 9950X3D2 works best for me on a BIOS released several months before the CPU was released. On one hand it kind of sucks that A$$zeus has burned most of their calories on maximizing performance using the G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo 6000 CL26 part numbers but, on the other hand, if you own either of those kits it is awesome and you're happy that they have. This is using the A$$zeus 8000 BIOS profile. Fully tested... very fast and very stable. These are not my best scores, but they are close and I haven't spent any time tuning the memory or the CPU. Just click and run in my crazy hot Arizona home office with a 78°F ambient temperature.

SP97 with just Noctua AIO. Was around 300w and 70c for a single run. Crazy good silicon.

Id love to splurge on this. Great deal! But, I have to be smart. I don’t have a job anymore, so I’m completely self sufficient these days since May 2026. Things are going well, but I feel like bad luck can happen at any moment. So I have to be smart.

Dual PEG reg edit Win + R Regedit Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318} There should be a couple of folders such as 0000, 0001, etc. Check each folder which GPU it corresponds to Create a new DWORD key inside the folder for your high performance GPU , name it EnableMsHybrid and set value to 1. Ex: EnableMsHybrid=1 Create a new DWORD key inside the folder for your power saving GPU , name it EnableMsHybrid and value is 2. Ex: EnableMsHybrid=2 Reboot. Next Regedit: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\DirectX\UserGpuPreferences create a new string value which name is “DirectXUserGlobalSettings”, and set its value to “HighPerfAdapter=xxx” where XXX stands for hardware ID’s VEN&DEV&SUBSYS of your graphics card, which can be found in device manager. In the case of my 7800 XT "HighPerfAdapter=1002&747E&78011EAE" while device manager displays "PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_747E&SUBSYS_78011EAE&REV_C8" Reboot Now right click desktop and choose display settings. Then graphics settings. Add your app and choose high performance GPU for it Tesla specific addition: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}, find where your tesla card is, change “AdapterType” value to “1” and “FeatureScore” value from “cf” to “d1”, create a new dword key which name is “GridLicensedFeatures”, and set its value to “7”. Disable then enable tesla in the device manager. This step changs the gefore driver into grid driver，and the tesla is in wddm mode now.

@tps3443 let me know he is not able to obtain these items, so if anyone here is interested in grabbing it for $1600 let me know. If not I may list in the marketplace at oc.net for probably $1800. 9950X3D (delidded) IceMan Bare Die Block (or Thermal Grizzly Performance IHS - buyer choice) X870E Apex G.SKILL Trident Neo 6000 C26 32GB (2x16) 1.450V F5-8400J4052G24G Supercool Computer Direct Touch Memory Cooler kit

Where many of the 5090 goes. To China. Do Jensen care? Nope. He have never cared about rules/ restrictions or where his products goes. Overpriced 5090s due shortage keep Nvidia's partners happy. Asus have raised their prices for the US Store... 5090 TUF just $4400 before any tax. And the Astral 5090 LC OC cost now $5029,99 in their Store or +$3000 above MSRP for the 5090 FE. This looking good. Nice. China sells servers with 288 water-cooled RTX 5090s, air conditioning, and their own power generator. The RTX 5090 is considered the most powerful GeForce graphics card for gaming, being around 30% faster than the previous generation RTX 4090. For some years now, China has faced limitations and restrictions imposed by the United States, preventing it from purchasing advanced AI hardware and graphics cards. For example, NVIDIA had to create cut-down versions of the RTX 4090 and RTX 5090, known as the RTX 4090D/5090D , the latter with a V2 version that represented yet another limitation. It's curious how, despite these restrictions, China continues to obtain these types of graphics cards by using third-party countries and exploiting this "gray area" of the market. Now we're seeing another use for these graphics cards: in China, they're selling servers inside shipping containers packed with RTX 5090 graphics cards.

If I can get my hands on an RTX 5080, I promise I’ll post an overall Time Spy score of over 25K 26k maybe even.

Your system still isn’t fully optimized. Why did your Time Spy Graphics Score drop from 29K to 25K? That’s roughly a 20% performance loss. Now that you’ve fixed the CPU performance and achieved a 10,300 CPU score—about a 30% improvement—why has the GPU performance dropped by 20%? I’m really looking forward to seeing you post a Time Spy score above 23K overall, which should be easily achievable with your hardware.