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5090FE is fine man. If I didn't like it, I would not keep it that's for sure lol! I had a 4090 Gaming OC and @johnksss that thing was cheap as hell, flimsy, light weight, and loud as hell with bad coil whine, but not this card, this card feels nice and premium and heavy etc. So, it's okay for $1,999.99 (People do try to convince me that my own GPU sucks though, they do not like it, that I like it I guess 🤣) Last I checked, Astral+Block = $4,000, too much for me to afford. But at least they perform TOP NOTCH once you water block it, flash it, and solder it.. Yes, the FE's have weak coolers; I cannot hold that against it. It's going on water/shunt anyways. I mean, your Astral is probably faster than an RTX Pro 6000, but that doesn't mean it's better than one. FE's have weak coolers but not weak cores. Definitely an acceptable GPU for the price tag and performance. Card scores perfectly acceptable for a stock cooler, hot, non-shunted 5090 FE. Plenty of other 5090's that cannot hit these numbers out there, and this is the hottest one you can buy. 🥵 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 video card benchmark result - Intel Xeon W-3175X Processor,ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. ROG DOMINUS EXTREME

OK Brother @jaybee83 I just installed the Apex. I have not updated the BIOS, just disabled TPM, Secure Boot, WiFi, BT. Left all of the CPU settings on Auto, manually set an 8400 memory overclock (not tuned, just set what I thought would work) and *BOOM* - it worked. This shipped with a pre-release BIOS so since it is dual BIOS I will leave that alone and try one of the recent uploads from Safedisk on the secondary BIOS chip. Also noticing no bifurcation issues. Sabrent NVMe Quad card running in top X4 slot and GPU is still X16. I am only using the upper Gen5 M.2 slot on the motherboard, both DIMM.2 and the Quad NVMe card. I left the other M.2 slots empty to avoid cutting the CPU back to X8. Time to hit the sack. Will see if tomorrow I can get some play time after celebrating Mother's Day with my best friend, Mrs. Fox. Next projects will be to delid the second 9950X and tune the memory and CPU overclock. @Papusan and @johnksss having a backplate didn't do anything for the bowed motherboard. It's bowed just like the Intel Apex and Apex Encore were. It wasn't flat until I mounted it to the chassis and bolted it down.

Why? Because.... 1. MSRP. 2. I like the look/form factor of the FE series. 3. Price:performance it is actually one of the best (if not the best with 9070/xt temporary launch pricing now a thing of the past) just like the 4070 was retail pricing which I pointed out back during ada. Of course the above is no longer true because the temporary introductory prices of the 9070 and 9070xt no longer exist and the MSRP is now higher while the 5070 FE has remained the same. People seem to get stuck on the whole VRAM issue. I am one of the few who thinks the whole 8gb fiasco is blown out of proportion and an 8GB card is ok depending on your use case. I also think 10GB and 12GB is just fine too. I watched the reviews of the 5060 and 5060ti and went, "Ya know, it's not that bad at all..." Same for the 9060xt w/ 8GB of VRAM. Moving that 3Dvcache underneath the CCD has made a major difference. Once they slap it on both and improve their interconnects even more, it will be near perfect. Oh, and go ahead and offer a dual binned variant and call it "Extreme Edition" if you want ala Intel style and charge a touch more and I'm there for it.

But that is what everyone says about everything? If I didn't like it I wouldn't keep it. If that is the case, I would expect far more for my 2000, for as heavy and premium as you say the card is, but then say the cooling is crap. So i'm kind of at a lost on that part. I'm not here to convince you my friend, that your GPU sucks. As I have been down this road with many other ideas I have had over there years and people have said worse. (AC on laptop or pointing in case at GPU or using a water chiller before that was even a thing) And boy did people have nonsense to say. You either buy what you want or you buy what you can afford and that's it. All the rationalizing in the world just means a person can't really afford it. Example: And this went for something as cheap as 50 cent cheeseburgers at McDonalds. Those things are like 3 bucks now. Astral + Alphacool Block + 2 year Accidental Warranty cost me 3,771.36. Potential loss at the end of the day? About $600. That's why I look at it differently. Now if I sell the block then that 600 drops lower. If I give it to @Mr. Fox then the price stays about the same. The astral is not faster at stock for stock for the very obvious reason that the Pro 6000 has more Cuda cores automatically makes it faster at stock. Over clockers are not getting the card to bench it stock. So if that card can not get past the 600W max, then it's just a 10,000 dollar "Hey look at me I spent 10K so I can say I have better stock numbers" card is just foolish. If you bought it to just game/Ai/work and the occasional benchmarks and said nothing, then it's your money and buy what you want. Why? Because that person is not bragging about it. So until that card is unlocked/shunted/modded and cooled, it's just another GPU in the world of over clocking for numbers. And at this point I'm pretty sure no one wants to be represented by Nvidia in the world of over clocking because Nvidia would just take what the people showed them to make it better....A way to lock it down further. Just like Dell/Alienware did. Unfortunately those scores are not acceptable in my book, but that is my opinion, but they are acceptable for gaming. A shunted card doing 16,6K in Steel Nomad is crazy to me. Again, only my opinion. If I'm gaming I would not even bother shunting it. And in reality, this is like the 2nd card I have shunted in 17 years. I would rather not have to do that. That last line is debatable as that is based on user. But I will keep hope alive in that they figure out why the shunt is not working as intended, but I would recommend them not sharing that in the open forums or the next FE will be locked down even further. These are facts and not opinions. Edit: It's not Nvidia as a whole, it's mainly these old timers at the top that do not want to go outside there're comfort zone. Like any company their are a bunch of bright minds that get stifled because of that BS seniority rule. So new ideas do not get seen or past on to the customer. I saw this first hand with Clevo. Not everyone at Nvidia wants to follow Jensen and senior staff, but when it comes to running your mouth or keeping your job....Those people would rather keep their jobs.

I'm glad you don't care what other people think. That is how it should be. It only matters if it affects them and this doesn't. The fact that you like it is all that matters. There are some people that make their decisions based on what their friends think is best or coolest, (without anything else to base it on,) which is really dumb.

im guessing u two do something right @benching 😄

correct, when it comes to gpus im pretty boring, air cooling only for me. thats why i went for the suprim to get the best air cooler 🙂 btw GOOD NEWS GAIZ! i hit 8000 STABLE on one of the kits yeeeehaw! so this is indeed a very interesting finding, were getting a spread of at least 600 MT/s between the worst and best performing kit on the same cpu + mobo. u basically never see any reviewers doing this, they either bin cpus (seldom) or mobos (mostly). so this is one of the g.skill 8000 kits, the one running at 1.30V for the XMP profile. i also tried 8100 and it booted but then hang during the windows login screen. dont matter tho, ill take 8000! so this leaves 3 kits still to be tested, two out of which are already on their way to me. stay tuned! here the current standings: 8000 Mhz G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB F5-8000J4048E24GX2-TZ5RK 1.30V (newer SKU) = 7600 / 7800 / 8000 / 8100 (Windows Login) G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB F5-8000J4048F24GX2-TZ5RK 1.35V (older SKU) G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO RGB F5-8000J4048G24GX2-TZ5NR Kit 1 = 7600 (1%) G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO RGB F5-8000J4048G24GX2-TZ5NR Kit 2 Patriot Memory PVXR548G80C38K = 7600 / 7800 (3%) Kingston Fury KF580C36RLAK2-48 Lexar ARES Gen2 RGB LD5U24G80C40BR-RGD = 7600 (20%) 8200 Mhz G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB F5-8200J4052F24GX2-TZ5RK = 7600 / 7800 (97%) 8400 Mhz G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB SP-8400J4052G24GX2-TZ5RK = 7600 / 7800 (1%)

It’s very possible that the majority of PC gamers, install a game and simply play it. They won’t even change their default graphic settings. And they don’t even care. I was the one to teach my own son. But I remember when he’d install a brand-new game. He couldn’t care less about his graphics, or his frame rate. He would just be so excited to play the game that it didn’t matter. The 9060XT 8GB is the “On/Off Switch for PC gamers” Option A: No graphics card, (Cannot play games at all) Option B: I have a 9060XT, I can actually play games now. 🙂 They wanna force an upgrade out of em down the road too! 😂

100 Points to close in on @Hiew's score of 7911. Im probably only getting a taste of what @Mr. Fox might be feeling when it concerns this hobby of overclocking. It dawned on me that even with an AQUAS vBIOS which allows for 550w TDP I am still "tuning" for the highest clock for a given voltage. The lower the voltage the higher the score. This is with a fresh install of Windows 11 IOT, visual set to performance, monitors unplugged save for a 1080p144hz panel and waiting for it to settle at 22-23c before launching the benchmark. Still 1000+ points between me and the top spot. Getting closer...

I think the AMD craze drives them at the moment. Speculations of course.

I went ahead and bought an ElmorLabs EVC2SE module. I am sure I am a far and away from a competent soldering technician, however I am comfortable with the iron I have. 550w on chilled air is probably the max I would use for a daily vbios but now I want to see how far I can take card. Still using cheap-o generic pads and the Kryonaught is on its dozenth or so re-application. I can probably add a couple of 900w server PSU's just to split up the load but more importantly reduce the banshee shrieks those PSU's can produce. No idea when the module will show up at this point but I'll keep you guys in the loop as I get more updates...

I’ve had great luck with them. Like many others. My 2080Ti FE was 2080Ti HOF fast. Me personally, I don’t care what it is so long as you can make it fast, a GPU is a GPU. Many golden 4090’s were in the form of FE. motivman had a crazy good 4090FE. That thing absolutely ripped. I’m all for cheap+fast. But I don’t overthink the stock form it comes in. But I understand that some people may not modify their own cars, they may want that high HP right out of the box. You gotta take a solder iron to any of them this generation. Unless you’re Linus lol.

Just posting in case anyone else on the net needs to know. PowerColor Red Devil 7900 XTX GPU retention bracket uses M2x6 screws Hopefully tomorrow i'll get the vbios flashed, been trying to do a little reading on ch341a.

@Mr. Fox Not sure if you know this but..... The Best Computer Store in Phoenix, AZ The Wait Is Almost Over – Micro Center Grand Opening Coming in 2025! Micro Center is coming to Phoenix with over 25,000 items in stock and the industry’s best customer service. Phoenix, get ready to experience Tech Heaven for yourself—stay tuned for opening details! https://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/phoenix.aspx You might be able to rent that 5090 yet!!

Maybe better have a nap😁 Not all average Joe see it this way. If the PC cost above $1000 then it has to be good. And don't expect everyone know the difference between 8 and 16GB vram. You shouldn't give so much credit to humanity. Even stupids can be great people. Sad seeing they become screwed. See bolded text.

I share similar sentiments regarding the 8GB VRAM from an abstract stance, that being said the people who most likely need to be the ones checking in advance as to if that should be a concern are also the most likely to never consider it in the first place. I can think of a litany of uses for 8GB VRAM, but at 24GB Im not thinking of use cases anymore.

@tps3443 is making want to go buy another Astral right now and run it at stock just to see what it gets today. LOL I would do an FE, but that card is like a 4 leaf clover at our Micro Center.😂

Yes, I am sure he does know. He has to know he is our buddy and we think very highly of him. But even so, sometimes a guy feels like an underdog if everyone has a different opinion. The important thing is that a person doesn't change his opinion based only on what others think in order to have their approval or feel accepted in the echo chamber, but it is OK to change it because you have changed your mind as an exercise of your own volition.

w00t w00t! we got separation! 🙂 Stick No. 5 of kit 3 is stable at DDR5-8600 😄 Fun fact: this is one of the open box items, thus significantly cheaper than the new kits 😛 now off to 8700...

Bartlett Lake confirmed! Looks like we won't have to go to Xeon CPUs to escape the E-core madness after all! https://wccftech.com/intel-confirms-nova-lake-s-nova-lake-u-p-core-only-bartlett-lake-s-desktops-panther-lake-laptops/

Oh, the Xeons can also have scheduling issues. I have had trouble with CPPC, so processes on the 2495X do not automatically run on the highest clocked core or the favored cores. Also with hyperthreading enabled it can cause issues with the scheduler similar to what you would see on the 7950X and 9950X. In latency sensitive applications some cores are also more mesh hops away from a given DDR5 or PCIe5 block so depending on which slot you have a GPU in some cores may be better to use than further away favored cores. It will get more interesting if we end up getting a Granite Rapids WS Xeon at some point, with Redwood Cove P-cores. Maybe a LCC or MCC monolithic variant could be tuned to give a 285K or 9950X a run for its money. It would be great if it could also not require registered memory (as was the case on the 3175X) and the latency penalties associated with it.

5090 is just an expensive midrange high end gamer cards. The more you pay the more you save. Here's Nvidia's new "gamer "flagship" card😀 Not sure this would please @electrosoft😁 The $10.000 cards almost sounds like a real circular saw. Very special sound from it. Not the worst I have heard but the sound from this is awful and more annoying than this one from my older post

Alright my last resort didn't work to get SLI working on W790. So I will put the 5080 in as primary and maybe use rtx titan for PhysX LOL

Depending on how hot my office is, between 90-95°C with the same BIOS settings. So, roughly 15-20°C core max reduction. Very clear and unmistakable improvement. Basically mirrored the improvement seen on the first 9950X delid/bare die upgrade. This is using the Thermal Grizzly Mycro Pro direct die block.

Yup, I can attest to this. My DDR4 kit I have in my older desktop (with the super bin 10900K from bro Fox) can do 4400 MHz CL 15 with default XMP subtimings as long as I have my Noctua IPPC fans blowing on the sticks at max RPM (3000 RPM). If I use lesser fans, the sticks aren't stable even with the normal 4000 MHz XMP profile as the RAM can't be kept cool enough to not error out. No wonder the previous owner waterblocked these sticks. The 4000 MHz CL 14 kit costed double what this kit did at the time I bought this kit, so I went with this kit instead and am still satisfied with having the second best. It looks like it can definitely still be pushed further with better cooling. I typically do 4200 MHz as a daily driver speed as that is the best compromise between performance and stability (barring better cooling). A 5% overclock over XMP isn't bad given it was a brute force approach and I'm not experienced with RAM overclocking.

You would be surprised how many people I have told this to that do not believe me, LOL. It is absolutely for real a lottery, in some ways even worse than the CPU lottery. Only about one in five or six memory kits I have owned (DDR4 and DDR5) have actually worked correctly at their advertised speeds with default XMP profiles, etc. and only one out of two that did work correctly as advertised were actually worth keeping for overclocking. So, about 2 out of 10 that worked as advertised with 1 of those 2 samples actually being good enough to keep and not RMA for a refund. I have returned more garbage memory kits than I can keep track of.

Soooo. turns out silicon lottery is real, even with RAM kits. The second Trident Z5 Neo turned out significantly better than the first one, at least being able to make it halfway through testing at DDR5-7800. Secondly, pricing is NO indicator whatsoever when it comes to OC ability on a given mobo. Among all the kits tested, the Kingston Fury was the most expensive (387€ vs. 298€ 2nd place, 270€ avg. and 229€ cheapest kit) but actually performed the worst, erroing out pretty much instantly at 7600. For comparison, the "golden" DDR5-8000 kit i found only cost me 266€, so a tad below average! So this only leaves the 1.35V older sku of the G.Skill 8000 kit, which unfortunately got cancelled / refunded by the shop i ordered with. However, since that kit is specifically the only one listed on the QVL of the X670EE ill try to get my hands on it from a different source. im just too curious to see how it holds up with the 1.30V variant (secretly hoping i might be able to push 8100/8200 😛). so anyways, hope this data might help out someone here! it certainly was an eye opener for me, thanks to bro @Mr. Foxfor putting those silly thoughts into my head 😄 now to initiate the bunch of returns for all the "loser kits" 😛 and hoping to get all my money back 😄 conclusion for now: 4 out of 9 max out at 7400 MT/s, so basically half (including my current TG DDR5-8200 kit) 4 out of 9 max out at 7600 MT/s 1 out of 9 is able to do 8000 MT/s Notes: Striked through: Out of the race Blue: current champ Percentage in parenthesis: how far did the stress test go before it errored out 8000 Mhz G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB F5-8000J4048E24GX2-TZ5RK 1.30V (newer SKU) = 7600 / 7800 / 8000 / 8100 (Win Logon) G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB F5-8000J4048F24GX2-TZ5RK 1.35V (older SKU) G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO RGB F5-8000J4048G24GX2-TZ5NR Kit 1 = 7600 (1%) G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO RGB F5-8000J4048G24GX2-TZ5NR Kit 2 = 7600 / 7800 (49%) Patriot Memory PVXR548G80C38K = 7600 / 7800 (3%) Kingston Fury KF580C36RLAK2-48 = 7600 (0%) Lexar ARES Gen2 RGB LD5U24G80C40BR-RGD = 7600 (20%) 8200 Mhz G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB F5-8200J4052F24GX2-TZ5RK = 7600 / 7800 (97%) 8400 Mhz G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB SP-8400J4052G24GX2-TZ5RK = 7600 / 7800 (1%)

Hi everyone, el_gohan from France. I’m here to get help and give back to th restoration of my 2 Alienware m17x r4.

To all for whom the holiday is relevant, have a good day tomorrow as we celebrate the freedom we enjoy and honor those who gave their lives so that we can.

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/134254982 Got #3 Dont think I'll be able to get much higher for Steel Nomad but #3 is pretty good for air cooling

Ah ha! An A$$rock Ryzen CPU killer! 🤣 The X870E boards (Carbon, Master, etc.) and most of the B850 boards can just about all do over 8000 even with 2dpc. It's rare with AM5 600 series to see 8000. You could grab an ATX B850 board for even less and confirm that the old mobo is the limiting factor. One of the great things about the AORUS Master is that it has asynchronous BCLK (eCLK). Not many X870E motherboards do, and most of those that do are all a WHOLE LOT more expensive (Apex, Godlike, etc.). Most of the appropriately priced options do not. The only major flaw for the Master (and other Gigabutt boards) is no BIOS option to disable the slot for WiFi/BT modules. I don't know why they do not make this available like other brands. It seems they operation on the ludicrious assumption that everyone uses WiFi/BT and everyone is using Windows 11 (WiFi 7 doesn't work on Windows 10). One of these days I am going to see if @Prema can find a way to expose/enable that. If not I will probably remove the VRM heatsink/IO cover and remove the modules from the slots. I hate having WiFI/BT enabled and not having a way to disable them. Plus, I couldn't use the WiFI even if I wanted to, because Windows 11 is too shitty to use just so WiFi would work. I'd use a USB WiFi card instead to avoid Winduhz 11 crap. The other thing (and it is common on all AMD boards... ASUS just fixed it with the most recent BIOS updates) is tRCDWR/RD are combined into one setting that equalizes them. You have to use hex numbers on the AMD Overclocking menu to manually adjust tRCDWR.

depends. although im not a big fan of the overall form factor with CAMM2, i was hoping for some advantages in terms of signaling / attainable DDR5 speeds. if it really turns out that CAMM2 provides a performance advantage ill go for it for sure, function over form. but as long as traditional sticks can keep up or outperform it, then absolutely, no need for change just for the sake of it! soooo, looks like 6 or 7 out of the 8 RAM kits i ordered will already be arriving today, nice! will keep u guys posted 🙂

In my defense, I DID pace myself over several months.... ....but.... .....yeah.... 🤣 I'm probably going to order a few more since I've sold off all my weaker sets and my last set of 6400 sticks is going into a system of other parts to sell off (12700kf, 3080, 32gb 6400 ddr5, etc...). Right now, I'm fighting the urge to pick up a 9950X3D to properly take advantage of 8000+ with the dual CCD..... True, I've sometimes picked up multiples of whatever I'm testing/upgrading in the moment....

right, says the one whos already gone through 6 kits 😄 and hey, its all bro @Mr. Fox fault, he put silly ideas into my head! 😛

Innovation at it's best. When aRGB ain't enough to trick you into pay more. Same as with modern AIOs. A small screen on everything to increase the prices. V-Color puts displays on memory modules tomshardware.com Of course, screens on the side of memory modules add to the cost, but since they represent a unique feature, enthusiasts will likely be willing to pay extra to have it.

Stock heatsink, my room is small so if im running my equipment the window AC unit is running, especially with heat ramping up here in Texas. I tend to essentially disable all electronics while im working and keep things minimal until 8PM when electricity is "Free". Then its more or less off to the races. The Red Devil heatsink is definitely a chonky heatsink, but I dont know that it would cool 550w adequately. From Left to Right is probably this order. General Tune > Specific Tune > Aquas Extreme Tune

Parts for sale here and at overclock.net https://www.overclock.net/threads/strix-z-790-e-gaming-13900ks-combo-14900kf-2-tg-mycro-dd-supercool-dd.1816332 Brother @johnksss not in the listing above, I have saved one of these in case you want it. Let me know if you do and it is yours. https://www.thermal-grizzly.com/en/intel-mycro-direct-die-pro/s-tg-my-dd-p-i

Took some doing to get the vBIOS to cooperate with the 7900 XTX. Flashed via CH341A programmer with NeoProgrammer software. Originally tried the Nitro+ vBIOS, while it worked immediately it only lifted the TDP to 460w versus the 430w I was already working with. Then on to the AQUAS vbios which was said to have a 550w TDP limit. flashed it, but lost video on all DP/HDMI ports. Switched to the backup bios, rebooted and installed some remoting tools as my keyboard was behaving as if its in OS. Confirmed my suspicion but resolution was 640x480 at best. Reinstalled drivers but didnt seem to change the video out problem. Went for the AQUAS vBIOS from Asrock (extreme version) which did detect "Correctly" that I had the right "card" however, refused to install while an AMD driver was installed. Once I resolved that stipulation, Windows flashed the extreme vbios and my DP/HDMI ports came back to life. Red Devil scores on chilled air cooling. To get higher I would definitely need the EVC2SE module, water cooling and chilled water. Was not able to beat @Hiew's 9070XT score of 7911 yet, maybe a fresh install of Windows, this instance has been in service for a year or so now. I also replaced the screws on the retention bracket, and the other GPU screws as well as the previous owner was quite rough with this card before I got it. I still have yet to apply PTM7950, now that I have more or less unlocked what I can do on air its time to get that applied. I mostly wanted to also maintain above 3Ghz, for no other reason than 3Ghz is better than 2.8Ghz :)

As soon as this happens I will be ready.

Ah ha! You were being sarcastic. I love sarcasm. Yeah, I can hardly wait to buy my next FE GPU. (Yes, more sarcasm, plus there can be no next without a first. I do not intend for there to be one.) Size is subjective. Those two SFF builds I did in the past year or so really illustrated how relative the perception can be. I was amazed by how much performance fit into a midget-sized package. But, to everyone else it was like, "Huh? What? Small? That's not small. It's just not as massive as your other computers." The way I see it is, if I can hold onto it and walk across the room with it tucked under one arm or move it somewhere else without having to use both hands to wrangle it, then to me it's SFF.

i was talking about the gpu not the SFF build 😄 omg u with such a small case is like that classic cartoon of a big mountain of a man getting out of a tiny beetle haha

Small and densely packed jigsaw puzzle computers make me angry. I really do not care for SFF. Kind of like sitting in the middle seat on a 4-hour flight between two extra-fat and sweaty people that can't fit into the seat space allocated. Even the SFF builds I have done were 'too big' for SFF fanboys. Those that are too big can also be frustrating. O11D XL size is near perfect.

I don't need it. I just today received a brand new 3080 from Israel that has more of them for under $350. These are like what they use in servers so they're a bit loud and hot, but I can fix that. An aftermarket backplate and waterblock will do the trick. This is indeed brand new and it shipped in generic whitebox type of packaging as though it was never intended for retail consumer distribution. Works like a normal 3080 though. Just stripped down with a crappy blower cooler. They've got more old stock on hand. https://www.ebay.com/itm/187160768672

Honestly, that's the reason I am running an AMD platform. I took a look at how Core Ultra dumbed everything down and I was instantly uninterested. I've had no problems whatsoever with degradation on Gen13/14 and had the new Core Ultra been a worthy successor to 14900KS it is where I would be now. 9950X nudges out 14900KS by a margin on most things. But, not by much. 9950X only really distances itself from 14900KS in Cinebench and similar workloads because of not having any slow baby cell phone Atom cores that lack hyperthreading. I've watched the trailers and it looks amazing. There has never been a DOOM title that I haven't liked and each new version in the franchise is better than the last. I will be grabbing it when I see it available for $25 or less. I did not notice it was released. I watched the trailers some months back before it was released.

I got rid of the worthless "server-grade thermal conductive gel" in short order on the 9070 XT Elite. It was junk. And, it also is not "gel" at all. It is a putty that is dry and not very sticky. I replaced it with 1.0mm 13 w/mK pads, put Duronaut on the core and added 3.0mm pad covering the back of the GPU. Brought down all temps between 5° and 10°C depending on what part(s) you are measuring. Hotspot and memory junction temps are no longer at or above 90°C as they were with the stock trash. @jaybee83 here are some settings you can mess with for 24GB modules. (Note that they are slower overall than 16GB modules at a given clock speed, same as Intel. 24GB need looser timings than 16GB modules, so you only gain with higher clock speeds, not tighter timings. Two steps forward, one step backward.) These are stable settings. Runs TM5 without error until the modules hit 60°C on air and error out. So I have what I plan to be a temporary build so I can see how many of the LGA1700 CPUs are good (confirm which ones are dead to be more accurate) so I can sell them... or something. I am using a Strix Z790-E that I bought new for 50% off because the box had minor damage. Funny thing is, the "damage" to the box looks like most boxes normally do for me. They are never flawless boxes when I buy a new motherboard. I'm surprised that it is running an 8000 EXPO profile just fine. It's actually a nice mobo... for a 4-DIMM normie-boy gamerkid part.

I remember Star Wars outlaws giving the 4090 a serious work out. And with the 5090 it seems like the performance difference is huge! I never played with Outlaw graphics settings daily before, but the 5090 laughs at this game. I think they have done some optimization as well. Starwars Outlaws with "Outlaw" Graphic settings uses power just like Steel Nomad benchmark! This is some serious power consumption, and a serious Ray Tracing work out! FE is in a closed case only reach 50% fan speed at 600W. My card never reaches power levels like this in a game! So it must be something serious I suppose. If something were to burn, this is where it’ll happen lol.

Nah, FE is not the Lexus of the industry. It's just a cult of people that love inferior products, like Alienware fanboys. 🤣 Congrats on the open box 9070 XT. UPS has the Apex on the truck. Supposed to be delivered between now and 8PM today. I will have to check out that Delta Mate block to see how she looks. Speaking of GPU blocks, I got the Alphacool CORE installed. It looks really good. Much more refined aesthetically than the Bykski block that has served me really well with the 4090 Suprim. It is much heavier than the Bykski block and brawnier in appearance. @johnksss the WireView does NOT fit with the CORE block. Not even almost. It is about a half inch short of being able to reach the connector socket on the GPU. So, now I have two WireView to sell. I'm going to miss it, but not the end of the world. Another thing I noticed after the fact is the switch to change between vBIOS chips is also covered up. If I were testing different vBIOSes still this would be a problem. I am not so I don't care. At least for the moment. Sorry for the low quality camera phone photos. My 5 year old phone camera does an amazing job of capturing dust and lint in photos, but not the finer details that one would want to capture. Too lazy to break out the DSLR for this, so these will have to do.

I was not joking when I said the Dubai Edition. They love everything in gold.😂

So, the X870E Apex is scheduled for delivery tomorrow. If it doesn't handle bifurcation on the PCIe slots the way I need it to then I will return it for a refund. I am pretty sure only one M.2 slot and DIMM.2 can be populated. Two of the motherboard M.2 slots must be ignored if you want PCIe X16 for the GPU. Same is true on the AORUS Master, but all of the slots can be used without gimping the GPU.