tps3443

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.

Yeah my Astral wasn’t even that great of a deal either lol. At the time they were brand new for $4,329.99 + tax and they had a single open box for like $3,779 or $3,889 + tax in the Best Buy store, I’m forgetting exactly how much it was. The box was kind of ripped a little, coil whine is not as quiet as my 5090 FE was (That one had a tiny bit, but you had to like put your ear against it to hear it, 1.2KW per limit certainly amplified it just a little bit) But the quietest GPU I ever owned was probably the 5080 Astral OC, it did not make any sound under load, even with your ear right against it lol. The 5090 Astral isn’t bad at all though but it makes a deep buzz if you lean in and try to listen to it. You won’t hear it in a closed case or anything though. Not a squeal or anything annoying at all which Is perfectly fine for me. I think most high end GPU’s will make a buzz under heavy load if you lean in close and listen to them. Too many check boxes these days to be super picky on GPU’s. Max Voltage, core overclocking ability, are 1% lows impacted with +3,000 memory OC, coil whine?, are the core and memory chips actually soldered on the board? lol, does it even work? lol. 😂 Unless something is making a high pitch squeal noise, I don’t care! Two prior products come to mind where I did care!!!. My Z590 Dark Kingpin motherboard, and EVGA power supplies lol. But yeah the Astral overclocks really well, and that’s what made me love it and decide to keep it. Excellent GPU. I’d probably long return my 9950X3D2 and Dark Hero X870 before that 5090 Astral goes anywhere!! Speaking of which that return period is coming up FAST on the AMD chip!! I may swap it out.

It’s time for custom loop with these rising AIO prices and as they become more and more premium in design! I have a single 480 GTR on this 9950X3D2, I’ve never even felt the air try to blow even remotely warm. Its such overkill .It’s pretty nice though. Funny thing is, this 480 GTR was a brand new one I had that fails leak test, but interestingly it doesn’t leak water at all. But seeing some of these newer AIO prices has me surprised.

I’m wanting to try another memory kit. But, I want more ram. I’m not exactly content with 2x16GB. I’m wanting 2x24GB or 2x32GB preferably. Maybe even 2x48 but prices are INSANE!!! lol. The Gskill 2x32GB or 2x24GB 6000c26 kit looks great to me. I’m more inclined to go with the 2x32 6000c26 Dual rank kit for PEAK performance. I’m probably going to sell my Xeon system here soon and help fund the next ram kit. I had to buy new tires for my tow vehicle which was an unplanned expense. So unfortunately new ram right now isn’t in the budget. But very very soon! 😃 I’d like to play with some high bin Dual Ranks on Ryzen dual X3D 🎊

Man, I’m shocked on 5090 power…. I popped in the 5080 Astral to check things on the 9950X3D2 and grab some rendering video of it, since it’s being sold. Playing Crimson desert 4K leverages the 5090 to a new level completely… CRIMSON DESERT 4K, Cinematic graphics, DLSS Quality, Ray Reconstruction ON. RTX 5080 Astral fully MAX stable OC: 83-84 fps W/ 2X Frame Gen. RTX 5090 Astral fully MAX stable OC: 80-81 fps W/ 0X Frame Gen. (Frame Gen is off) 💀💀💀 PS: GPU Tweak III has a cool GPU hour counter that I actually use. Probably the coolest thing in the app.

Getting 1,000+ FPS is something I have never experienced before. Below is Ark Ascended doing just that on all low settings and 1080P. 6000c26 with 65k tREFI, all tuned to the max with 2167fclk. My son took a picture of me with my phone while I was in the bios breaking things (So posting it here! lol. 😂 )

Well I’m only running DDR5 6000c26 daily, so I don’t have to push high VDD’s like that. But yeah 7600c38 32k trefi needed like 1.700v when I was messing with it yesterday. 1.650 doesn’t work. This gave me the feeling that IMC is weak.

Seeing how well ram tuning posting and stability responds to adding memory voltage, I am definitely pointing to a weak IMC. It’s like 6000c26 boots fine with auto 11K tREFI with 1.435v VDD. EASY EASY. 32K tREFI? It won’t attempt to post, adding 32k tREFI puts a much heavier load on IMC, but adding voltage to VDD. Quick and easy bump up to 1.450v VDD gets it done! 65k tREFI fully tuned timings? Similar situation. I need 1.480v VDD. Probably can get away with 1.460vdd. But it’s all too familiar! And it put me right back in the seat of tuning on Intel with DDR5. Weak IMC’s loves high or too much VDD/ VDDQ. And that’s my system to a T lol. 😂 @Mr. Fox I’m going to swap it out for another. I’d like 2,200FCLK AS WELL. I’ll see how the next one runs. It’s a BEAST in games doing one thing at a time producing a high FPS though. That’s its main benefit. It’s not as fast as my Xeon doing brute work handling multiple things at a time. Like leaving a game minimized and doing other things simultaneously etc. it’s just not as fluid as my 28/56 Xeon 3175x is. That could be partly due to lower bandwidth, maybe higher latency, or merely due to being two CCD’s? Either way. Gaming performance is great! And that’s what I wanted to see.

I think my 9950X3D2 has a weak IMC. Different bios doesn’t help. Max 1:2 speed I can boot is DDR5 7600. Either weak IMC, or my 6000c30 A-die kit is just at the limits? I’ve tried like 1.5v VDDIO LOL 😂 1.300v VSOC UP to 1.650v VDD/VDDQ. Nothing helps. 7600 max, and that’s hit or miss, 7400 posting works every time. I tried to use some preset timings. And that did not help either. Is it possible to have a crazy weak IMC on my 9950X3D2?

Yeah this thing is funny, it likes those higher 1:1 speeds better than higher 1:2 speeds. Based on what I am reading, I am seeing that some of these IMC’s may like faster 1:1 speeds, while simultaneously NOT liking faster 1:2 speeds. 6600@1:1 is not actually stable. But I can try and see if I can get it stable, probably can’t. But maybe with voltage tuning, tuning timings etc. I was really pushing the FCLK, and I hear that also impacts your 1:1 max edge speeds stability as well. But I have been just gaming with running regular speeds. As far as easy stability goes like set and forget. 2167 fclk and 6000c26 @1.450v VDD, or 1.400 VDD with 32k tREFI works, with a 65,535 tREFI. This setup runs very easy without tuning voltages or anything. I may swap the CPU for another. But being honest. I don’t mind too much. I’m pretty much okay with how it performs even stock. If I return anything, I may try a 270K Plus as well! 😄

I almost bought that Vcolor kit! I thought it was suspiciously priced low. I suppose that’s why? Because it’s dual rank 16gigs? Have not tried the bios yet. But, I will soon. Being lazy. I am testing a 6600c28 though!

What about the faster 1:1 speeds? Im testing 6600c28 right now. How would those compare VS. like DDR5 8000+ in 1:2 speeds?

So I’m pushing 1:1 speeds to check IMC limit and fabric limits. I can run 2,167 fclk which seems to work well, and DDR5 6600c32 1:1. Right now I’m trying to dial down to C26 or maybe c28. The lil ram fan helps too lol!

Looks like fun to me! I almost went with one of these. Multithreaded performance is really good on these.

I’m shocked they started doing dual rank 16GB DDR5 sticks lol. That’s so cheap of them! Lol. 😂 So these sticks should be good for 8000 at least is what I was thinking, I’m going to try a different bios. If that does not help me, then I may exchange the motherboard and CPU at the same time, the 9950X3D2 has pretty high SP’s on both CCD’s. Whatever I get after that, I’m just going to roll with it. 😎