Ashtrix

I remember i225V LAN controller Foxville chip from Intel having this issue, this was back in 2021 when I was researching everything in the desktop arena from RAM, Mobos, AMD, Intel issues etc. And found out that i225V is a bust. All Z490, X470/X570 which used that were impacted. Only X570S and Z590 some of them started using B3 Stepping revision of the Intel 2.5G LAN controller. That mess was all over the internet searches every single place, even if you type "i225v" in Google search it will give you suggestions on how vast that thing was. Intel slowly thrown in under the rug and started issuing useless BS firmware updates. It was blown out badly as every single NUC and every mobo were impacted. Remember ALC408x ? Realtek Audio Codec. That thing had like an year and half issues all over the place, I suspect it is not fixed yet. I read that on ASUS forums, Reddit and MSI everywhere some of them offered Firmware updates for ALC chip. Anyways Intel i225V bugs were never possible to fix as it's a Hardware failure. B3 or they are SOL and their Motherboard's on board LAN controller is a disaster. But recently when I was lurking in the ASUS forums I found some users mentioning the i226V and when I searched on net more threads popped up and TPU finally made an article to get more visibility. Even the B3 is still having issues, I bet that is why Intel moved to i226V, unlike the earlier revisions the 3rd stepping is not having insane problems of connection drops but sporadic issues. See the thread below basic google search. https://www.overclock.net/threads/the-ongoing-issues-with-the-intel-i225-v-rev_03-2-5-gbps-nic.1796635/ But however if you see i226V reports which were linked by TPU it's dropping connections like B1 and B2 i225v versions and other problems. How can Intel screw up the newer one with worst possible issues and not only that it is broken since 3-4 years now, and somehow make i226V worse than B3 i225V. Intel should be ashamed of this trash. So using a USB C LAN is an option BUT it is going to eat your USB C port. For older machines using PCIe = Cut lanes, newer mobos paying $700 and end with junk. Incompetence at highest levels. I use a gigabit class Ethernet and even the old archaic AW17 with KillerNIC e2200 1GBe controller has no bugs, 2014 tech. Oh Intel bought KillerNIC and now that is also dead company like Intel POS junk, Imagine OEMs paying more for Intel LAN over RealTek and end up worst quality junk. So yea today's tech is TRASH. DUMPSTER class. No matter you buy in 2020 or 2023 you are going to get shafted big time. ALC408x problems and LAN controller issues, complete utter JUNK. They even did not bother to fix the damn ILM of their latest processors and now the most expensive boards having i226V..... AMD's X570 chipset USB issues, WHEA spam. Intel WHEA on high Cache Ratio on 10th gen. Realtek Audio Codec ALC408x bugged trash with static noises. Intel LAN problems i225V, connection drops, bandwidth reduction needed a Hardware Stepping. LGA1700 ILM bending CPU and Mobo. Nvidia's 12VHPWR junk blaming on user error margin with no latching mechanism. Intel LAN problems Redux i226V, no resolution yet on connection drops. All hardware problems.

I'm also running 8.1 on my AW17, the GPU upgrade forces to boot into UEFI only and 980M on this machine does not allow to boot into Win7 using VGA legacy out BIOS does not have the information. But the OS is super stable, rock solid. Never had any BSODs or anything. it's just Win8.1 no updates either. The NT Kernel updates in Win8.1 make it very fast over Windows 7 in some aspects without the extra nonsense of 10's bloated OS and processes. Shame how the OS has now become WaaS. The modern 11 is not fit for a desktop OS let alone install it. Garbage. Windows 10 1809 / 21H2 LTSC are the only viable options, or the good old last updated Windows 7 with Updatepack7R2.

Microsoft is setting the sun on Windows 7 and 8.1, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/end-of-support?r=1 It is official now that Windows 7 ESU is no longer being extended anymore that marks it end of an era. The day they announced Windows 11, I knew that ESU won't be updated. I posted some notes on this in the OS forum, linking that below. Possibly today's hardware might be the last to have some kind of support for this legendary OS called Windows 7. Some info from MDL on the last good Updatepack7R2 for the best stable Windows 7 updated installation onto your machine. Good bye to one of the best Operating Systems ever designed and made, it will forever live on in our machines and our hearts for providing a real interface for humans in the modern world of civilization. It is a shame that we cannot rewind the clock anymore for this OS and the future will never appreciate Operating Systems like Win7 nor the UI of that beautiful OS.

Yeah 7800X3D is actually losing boost clock from 5.4GHz to 5GHz but unlike R9 processors which have reduced TDP, R7X3D chip gains 20W extra over 7700X which clocks higher. As for the R9, maybe they see if R9 12C and 16C SKUs gets dual CCD 3D stack it will either A - Destroy their own R9 existing Zen 4 lineup and pose a threat to Zen 5 itself (wild guess) or B - The clocks will be significantly reduced and give a negative scaling on the MT workloads. So AMD does not want to commit fully on the stacking technology and wants to be conservative. Why not just give the R9 CPUs dual cache stacks and made 170W to 200W. Maybe the heat output will be drastic and PPT will be too much and thus balancing out so giving the boost as is on R9 and cutting it a bit on R7. AMD also reduced 300MHz base clock on the X3D Chips too for all 3 processors, perhaps reduce the heat and maintain power draw is my guess (because non X CPUs are having lower TDP and lower base clock). So they do not want to exceed their AM5 socket PPT target beyond 250W+ because 7950X can go beyond 230W PPT to 250W and increasing it further means 300W, but AMD is going conservative. Look at Intel 450W lol. Granted to be honest Intel Base Clock is always lower side, 10900K is just 3.5GHz. And 13900K P core base is just 3GHz. AMD Zen 4 Base clocks were super high at 4.7GHz (7600X, 7900X) literally 10900K boost all core stock lol very fast Zen 4 on base. All in all it will be a mid range refresh, a small refresh for those who want to buy later into AM5 X670 platform. Intel Raptor Lake Refresh I think they may boost base and boost clocks altogether and call it a day.

AMD launches Zen 4 3D-V Cache processors at CES 2023 Oh boy the whole BGA news was annoying but I like how their Ultra Thin cancer BGA chip kills Apple M1 Pro lol & CES is entirely about big corporation collabs and not for consumers, heck they gave X3D a few mins of air time vs the BGA mass profit making trash and no news on Radeon RDNA3 FSR3. As per rumors they are doing 3 SKUs. 7800X3D, 7900X3D and 7950X3D which is good move unlike a single SKU. But bummer here is AMD is saving binning and some fabrication cash to give a single CCD Stack on the R9 High Core parts. I think if they put 2X Cache on 2X of those dies they would have been super fast and even more performance but may sabotage their R9 lineup. Then If you see 7950X3D has a massive TDP cut from 170W to 120W but at 5.7GHz same boost like 7950X unlike that 5800X3D which lost 200MHz clock speed. Wonder if it's super binned chip ? And the 7800X3D gained from 105W of 7700X to 120W now being 8C16T. It's Ryzen 9 btw a typo lol. They are faster but not by a HUGE margin like 5800X3D fighting against Zen 4, Intel ADL, RPL all processors at the same time. So they are a bit faster than 5800X3D which is 7800X3D as per their slides, the best of Zen 4 for games and definitely fastest gaming chips. However I'm interested to know if their CPUs are now able to tune with the X3D stack unlike 5800X3D. No wonder Intel is just doing Raptor Lake Refresh, because Zen 4X3D is a mid cycle refresh, and Intel has some EMIB related complications esp SPR Xeon got a lot of stepping revisions on Intel 7 (10nm++, denser than TSMC 7N) and Meteor Lake Intel 14th gen uses same EMIB chiplet style MCM. So a Clock speed boost + some refinements is enough for Intel I guess.

RTX 4080 12GB - Rebrand a.k.a RTX 4070Ti is getting some flak which is not surprising because overall financials around the planet. I'm glad that some of these reviewers are calling the BS out otherwise they were fine with extreme Nvidia price rises for that 4090 - Full die 3090Ti is costing $1000, while the cut die 4090 at $1500+, while price matching to the outdated mining priced overpriced rubbish 3090 (which is 100% price increase over 3080 for less than 20% gain) is not accurate, nobody mentions this in 4090 and they say it's 3090 mining price and good value BS. Now that's out of way, basically the die size of 4070Ti is very small for it's price bump, they are raking in profits, it's just 294,5 mm² compare to old gen 392 mm² 3070Ti 8GB (which is priced still higher at $700+ AIB) higher performing RX 6800 16GB is 520 mm² is way less around $600 but unfortunately AMD stopped production for RDNA2 as the AIB cards are MIA, really unfortunate as AMD cut the supply a month and half before, as Ampere is also getting dried up pretty fast too. Nvidia is charging the MSRP $800 which is fake because this one does not have FE variant so it's up for grabs by ASUS, MSI, GB which start from $900. Yeah they gave it a memory bump to 12GB from 8GB but the needle is not moving. You can get 3090/Ti 24GB performing around SAME mark or more for literally SAME value, yeah DLSS3 but it's FAKE FPS booster. And for $100 more you can get an RX 7900XTX 24GB that will destroy this card outright for good and in the future it will be a bloodbath. No wonder Nvidia rebranded it and adjusted price by $100. Performance to put it straight, it gets knocked by 7900XT 20GB by a large amount in many titles, sometimes it beats and trades blows with 3090Ti 24GB (which is commendable). But there's an important factor to think here, the VRAM buffer is just lower, so scaling in the future titles might be challenging, because we are at the transition of the Old Gen Xbox One X / PS4 Pro -> XSX / PS5 so new textures and new unoptimization policy of AAA, it will eat up the VRAM fast and esp when enabling RT the VRAM will choke fast which is why on 4K it loses out to 3090Ti just because of sheer bandwidth advantage of 384Bit bus 24GB vs 192Bit bus 12GB. And 7900XT which has 20GB memory buffer and higher Rasterization power. Anyways it will be interesting if it's going to be selling like 4080 or 4090. That is going to decide a lot. Once AMD's new xx50 and Nvidia's Ti / Super launches maybe the price cuts might happen also 2023 crash doomsday plays a role.

Yeah, also I think we need to see V/F offsets more than just SP rating. With APEX default 0501 BIOS had incredibly low voltages. And same SP for me and then 1202 flash changed the voltages to what I saw when I was testing it months ago on Z590 HERO. SP remained the same. VID default factory values from Intel and comparing to the others gives a far more accurate interpretation than a simple SP prediction. I also wonder how does a late BIOS change trigger the SP algorithm to change such massively, still that BIOS is 0902 which is earlier revisions when Z590 launched so that is why more significant change I think. Also @electrosoft that BIOS is not fixing the BS bug on Z590 series, well ASUS is trash QC so their Z590 boards do not recognize the RTX40 series cards with PCIe4.0x16 despite being working fine for RTX30 series PCIe4.0x16. For Ada series it reverts back to PCIe3.0 connection. And some other ASUS X670 boards exhibit reduced lanes. ROG forum is full of such issues, Z690s having Internet problems and DIMM issues what not. Anyways Beta BIOS 1405 is the one which fixes the problems lol, like ASUS released 1405 Beta after this whole thread at ROG forum and this reddit thread. And some folks got beta 1605. But the official 1601 does not fix which came after those threads and the latest 1701 doesn't either. That's the ASUS quality standard now. (ps - There's a Z590 Strix beta 1405 in the thread if you are interested here) Yes ASUS rep STARRAIN@ROG mentioned ASUS Is working with Nvidia to issue a driver fix, but that never happened and the beta 1405 and 1605 fixed. But now the owners flashing the "supposedly" "stable" & "official" update thinking it would fix, well no dice as it doesn't do jack. I do not need those BIOSes anyways, but I kept the 1202 beta from HWbot community (verified checksum hashes with ASUS official 1202 and it matched so I kept both 1202 and flashed the official) for Windows 7. And the beta 1405, in case if I ever need. As BIOS 1701 says it has a mandatory Intel ME Firmware, which I really do not want to update nor tinker and has ARB (Anti Rollback) protection, however they say BIOS FlashBack works to rolling back, still not interested esp it doesn't fix anything and instead probably broke something off in the meanwhile. By the time 1202 BIOS was out I think RKL had it's run and so did CML I guess. Plus many reported issues flashing 16xx/17xx series on APEX and others which also is another reason to keep away from them. And like @Mr. Fox says "Newer is not better". To quote earlier @Papusan on his Z790 APEX ASUS QC and other BS. ASUS is a fallen company. It's a miracle that their boards work maybe their BIOS Engineers and HW division is the only one keeping it alive. Maybe all of them have some issues if we see forums of MSI, EVGA, GB but ASUS is way too popular and nowadays their QC is awful. Proof is above episode which is still not resolved for Z590. In case if anyone did not notice, ASUS removed the timestamps from the BIOS updates and etc on their support pages. Incredibly unfortunate move, they say it will come back this month, well we'll see when it does.

Thank you bro @Papusan. Happy New Year to you and fam as well. I will try to get it fully up as soon as possible and slowly will try to keep up posting pics lol. Waiting for a few parts. And I wanted to buy the Cablemod extension kit but got too late, now they are building a new assembly line or something gotta wait until Feb. In the meantime the rest of the machine can be done or I will try to grab the GPU power cables from Moddiy once their combs are in stock. I will also look forward for CES 2023 and see what new AIOs from Alphacool are if they manage to innovate anything or from the rest of the ones we have too. And ofc Noctua as well. Thank you brother. I try to learn and make it worth, got a lot of learning unlike enthusiasts here. I do remember that IceGaint cooler, massive hulking HS no joke it can handle the HEDT class. Thanks brother. Yea totally built only around function, full Air gives me a large space for storage as I had to buy and return the Lian Li O11D XL because their HDD bays are just 4 and even so they cook the drives esp when we use Seagate Ironwolf Pro, EXOS, WD Gold, Red Pro likes which are Datacenter HDDs because no cooling, not even passive or even ventilation space on looks it's on dot but for rest, not much. And for Corsair 7000D which had the HDD racks wobbling I did not want to risk experimenting.

Happy New Year 2023 to our small family hope you all had a fun time and wishing all the best ahead !! Finally my dream PC is ready and even updated the BIOS to 1202 for Windows 7 ACPI and POST done succesfully, A year late. But better late than never I guess. I join the big leagues at last ! Welcome to a new RIG !! HELIOS - In the honor of the ultimate light. Sun god from various Pagan mythologies, without whom the life on this planet cannot exist. 10900K DH15 Chromax Thermalright TFX NF A12x25 Chromax fans (4x top, 4x front, 1 back) GSkill Trident Z Royal C16 B-Die 4000MHz 32GB Samsung 980 Pro NVMe 2TB x2 Samsung 840 Evo 4TB SATA ASUS Z590 Maximus XIII APEX Alienware AW2521H 25" G-Sync Ultimate IPS 360Hz FHD RTX3090Ti FE Fractal Meshify 2XL Yeah the specs are a bit weird, yeah not using my 3090FE, Plan to sell it which is like-new, and a 1080P display instead of 1440P, 10th gen instead of 13th (ILM, and Windows 7 plus already bought the parts). No AIO... sorry bro @Papusan I had to get Air because that LFII only fits 360mil version not 420mil because the storage layout of my case won't let 420 mount, and I need storage layout only. Plus the one I had it has that QC issue and I do not want to use one with that even I can service it, maybe I will send to Arctic or do it myself and keep it as a backup until any cooler which can be user serviced likes of Alphacool, still any AIO the pipes will block the front part top side and force me to use lower portion making airflow non uniform as I plan to fit 6xSATA HDDs which are 7200RPM and Datacenter Class. I plan to keep this machine for a long long time. Why 1080P, because I want to game at maximum FPS at maximum fidelity without any Upscaling nonsense and 1440P same spec is $600+. Also G-Sync Ultimate because it has that fpga Nvidia chip which allows G-Sync without WDDM2.0 driver interaction a.k.a Windows 10+ only while the chip allows it to perform the Sync on Windows 7 too without WDDM that's the only advantage of Ultimate and maybe panel binning. Will get 4K OLED maybe in the future if I see it fit for another machine. Now the machine is not 100% up because ASUS is idiot company as they made 8xSATA ports in X Cross manner meaning none of the cables we use will fit as populating all of them will make it cumbersome and have fitment issues (bought Corsair cables and wasted money on them), I bought these Silverstone cables, they are trash as they do not have metal clips and they get stuck due to that, cable is cheap as even trying to remove them caused the cable to cut itself and totally overpriced junk. Waiting for Amphenol connectors from Moddiy. And the Tempered glass is shattered while I was transporting it. And if I plug the GPU I cannot connect SATA because look at it, which is why GPU is in 2nd PCIex16 slot. Will post better pictures once everything is up and running. Until then excuse me for this clumsy one. BIOS 1202 ASUS gave me hell, their board's physical QC was poor and the one board which was ok was a DOA and failed to POST. Finally one works, Chose ASUS because of BIOS features and 8x SATA without any compromise in 2xNVMe. Cheers !!

Cannot say thank you enough Brother Fox, Thank you very much for such a great post and Best wishes to your family as well !! Will follow your guidance. I always remembered that part to install the OS with only one drive active since NBR says. Will make sure it is GPT & yeah backing up once OS installation being done is also a very important step, agreed. Totally understood now, EasyBCD is not required if we use Linux yep as GRUB will take care but since right now I do not plan to experiment with Linux, the former way to go !! Hoping that I can report some good news soon.

@Mr. Fox Can I please let me know how do you run multiple OSes., like do you use EasyBCD v2.4 to manage the Windows 11, 10 LTSC, 7, Linux & EasyBCD installed onto Windows 10 LTSC as a base and customize from there. Any recommendations on MBR or GPT for Windows 7, Windows 10 LTSC 1809 / 21H2 ofc with BIOS CSM option on. I plan to boot Windows 7 from a 2TB 980 Pro (NVMe Hotfix KB2990941 and Samsung driver integrated into boot.wim and install.wim for the Windows 7 iso) But does Windows 7 boot up from an NVMe SSD ? If it doesn't then need to use a SATA SSD as MBR I guess. Then my second 2TB 980 Pro will go for Windows 10 LTSC 1809. Thank you in advance. Merry Christmas to Everyone !!

Windows 7 is coming to and end to all those who love Windows 7 and still do. Long Live Windows 7 (2009-2023) https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/november-8-2022-kb5020000-monthly-rollup-e0044ab3-5798-4622-973f-149e662d8b6e The end of an Era my friends. Microsoft is not providing any news on the ESU extension so the initial 3 year ESU extension is the final because if they wanted to extent to 2026 they would have already released a guideline for newer ESU 3 year extension plan. Since they have a new Windows 11 the chances are none. So the best OS that Microsoft ever has produced and ever will be produced the OS is seeing it's sunset soon. Windows 7 Embedded can run upto Oct 2023 but we cannot integrate those updates onto Retail OEM RTM releases likes of Windows 7 Professional / Ultimate. So it is going down lads. VSCode July 2022 is the last version that supports it. Chrome v109.x is the last (not that I care about this garbage browser but that's what it is, not sure how Chromium based ones will work and with manifest v3 it will become cancer) Nvidia, Ampere RTX 30 series is last to have Windows 7 support. 472.12 driver is the last and RTX 3090Ti has same branch driver for the latest 474.11, more notes below. NVIDIA has released a software security update display driver for GeForce GPUs to be used with Windows 7/8.x which is no longer supported by Game Ready Drivers. Effective October 2021, Game Ready Driver upgrades, including performance enhancements, new features, and bug fixes, are exclusively available for systems utilizing Windows 10 and Window 11 as their operating system. Critical security updates will be available on systems utilizing Windows 7 through September 2024. G-Sync, you need a G-Sync Ultimate Panel else the feature won't work because it needs WDDM2.0 (Windows 10+) and any panel that has G-Sync Compatible it won't work because it needs the driver handshake, Ultimate ones have the Nvidia chip on the PCB which needs no driver. AMD, RDNA2 Radeon RX 6000 series is the last to have Windows 7 support, AMD Software Adrenalin for Radeon™ RX 6950 XT, Radeon™ RX 6750 XT and Radeon™ RX 6650 XT Driver Version 21.09.12.01 for Windows 7 (Windows Driver Store Version 27.20.20912.1002). Discord will also yank the support in the near future, and so will all Electron based applications. Qt6 already is having no version that supports Windows 7 so all Qt apps which will use v6 will not work on 7 anymore. So expect qBittorent, RPCS3 to drop support soon. Dolphin already abandoned Windows 7, PCSX2 as well Thunderbolt 4 will not work on Windows 7, so all those new boards on X670 / Z790 with TB4 Maple Ridge controllers will not work even on CSM forget 7. x86 processors, AMD and Intel still seem to work from Win-raid Canonkong magic, but if your NIC is not Intel 225V and running something very newer versions or Marvell's 10G LANs which are newer they do not have .inf, and probably many other low level drivers and such esp with AMD having a lot of AGESA incoming for AM5. And with Intel 14th gen having Tile based processor fabric and lot of changes, I suspect even more challenges to fully utilize it, Alder Lake and Raptor Lake 12-13th gens see the E cores as a totally new Socket, 2P system. Not sure how good it will work anymore. iGPU for 11th gen up doesn't have drivers anymore for Windows 7 either. Soundcards, niche but Creative AE series still has support but newer ones do not have from other vendors like EVGA or any. other USB DAC / AMPs from Topping, and other Chi-Fi or similar HiFi Audio gear has drivers that can work on Windows 7 Topping does offer v4.86 which works but soon the newer products will stop working because they use USB Class 2.0 https://www.thesycon.de/eng/usb_audiodriver.shtml#platforms which Windows 7 doesn't support. So grab the ones which you like asap. RME Audio does provide high quality audio and has Windows 7 driver too to those interested. Schiit Audio does provide drivers for Windows 7 too in case if you are interested. There are ofc a ton of more software / hardware that won't work and will still work regardless like many do not care about the OS but simply offer MSI installer package with Win32 support. Now will all these make me not to run Windows 7 ? Absolutely not. The best OS will never leave. I hope Windows 10 LTSC 1809 / LTSC 21H2 will let us survive this onslaught of absolute worst Desktop regression in the Personal Computer landscape. Windows 11 is not fit to be on my of my computers even if they release LTS branch. That said Merry Christmas to everyone and Wish you all Happy Holidays !! Edit Jan 12, 2023 - Some info from MDL on the last good Updatepack7R2 for the best stable Windows 7 updated installation onto your machine. Good bye Windows 7. Also I would like to mention Office 2007 is best for that OS or Office 2010 as they suit the design language more and look beautiful like the OS itself. You know about the usual drill on the KMS and etc.

My friend bought a fresh BGA book Lenovo Legion 5S, it has 3060 with 6GB lol. Desktop 3060 has 12GB VRAM, literally castrated hardcore for mobile users. And ofc 3060Ti desktop has 8GB only lol, they cut VRAM on the card which can actually utilize the memory 3060TI because of added RT and Shader cores vs 3060 which is a cut edition with higher VRAM and lower performance. Even bigger joke is this. Upcoming Nvidia RTX 4060Ti, 128Bit memory 8GB lol. Once you enable that RT it will make the user cry. But guess what, the dumb users are fine because they enable that "Upscaler".. Don't believe me ? Nvidia always - How the Consumers/Dumbsumers are meant to be played. Check this video, it's the new nobody asked garbage "Next Gen" update for The Witcher 3 which is actually made for Consoles. All the dead CDPR company staff conjured up a pack with bunch of mods from Nexusmods and add a few of accessibility features and Photo mode, tacked on an RT-GI (only in name lol, because there's no difference) and called it a day. The result for a 2015 game with 2022 patch is RTX3080 4K performance dropped from 100FPS (Techpowerup) to 20-30 WITH DLSS (Upcaling the 1080P -> 4K). Yeah the uploader mentions as some Day 0 and not Day 1 patch, so Day 1 is not going to magically make the GPU performance go from 30FPS to 70FPS with DLSS. And yea there's not a worthy difference at all, oh the Water just got SSR update it's not Ray Tracing. Even with YT Compression we can see there's absolutely no difference worthy to get a damn 70-80% performance castration. Note - The below frame is not there in the video I just had to cut an image and paste on other to get the side by side comparison as the file size limit was at 4.88MB and both go upwards of 6MB. Yes the new patch has some new Weather so the Skybox is not same. But you can check yourself and pixel peep to find a diff that was posted. Yes, the Grass texture is higher why ? because the Update applies HalkHogan's HD Reworked Mod, and that mod has no significant effect on the GPUs likes of 3080 causing FPS drop if you do it by yourself on the current version of the game. And there's no RT Shadows either to cast grass shadow FX. So all in all a garbage performance loss with zero worthiness. There's a CDPR play here too since post Witcher 3 all talent left which is why they axed RED Engine now, next butchered Witcher (Netflix already raped it, this patch even has a crappy DLC from that garbage show) is in Unreal Engine 5, and ofc Cyberjunk 2020 was hardcore busted because of same reason still the RT FX is nothing is my point. And Nvidia is not going to save all the wideband midrangers with cancerous products but only give them castrated ones and call it a day, according to the buyers. See the comments how people are okay with this, are happy with their high end 12700K + 3080 with 60FPS, like wtf, you paid a ton of money and just want a Console Box performance ? Like what about that G-Sync screen you got at 144Hz refresh rate ? Pointless for that useless BS called Ray Tracing I guess, Oh it's a free update so all is fine from hundreds of FPS to double digits below 60FPS. The reason I called it as Console update because they do not have modding nor any of the mods, plus Pascal Gilcher's Reshade RT OR Nvidia's trash GeForced Experience has the same RT Filter with minimal performance loss. So basically packed all good things on PC and gave them to console and de-optimized trash for PC users. Win-Win to many because glorious Ray Tracing is here to save their day. Do not forget the game with new "next gen patch" now has TAA mandatory because of DLSS / FSR. Older Witcher 3 never had any Temporal AA blur cancer fest. So people now updated will have a blurry trash even with or without RT, and with low end / mid range they will enable upscaling because piss poor optimization for - shimmering, flickering, ghosting for that glorious FPS. This is the state of Gaming industry and GPU market which is my I'm beyond disgusted at the new scam low fidelity trash practices.

Good to hear your upgrade. First is eDP is this port on the AW17 R1, and the cable is also separate. N392W part number for eDP cable. I do not remember the pin count for this sorry. As you can see eDP is that one which is labeled on the left it's 30 pin from what I can recall. Also the teardown pictures are from OP it's mentioned but again here's the Full Album on AW17 R1 Teardown Screen part number if you want from the 120Hz Display thread (it's in the OP, here's the link anyways https://archive.vn/0HLPD , has more info on displays which you can buy like different revisions). 3D Emitter is not mandatory for this upgrade and 3D Vision is sadly dead. Turing was the last which had Nvidia 3D Vision support.

So 7900XTX is a maxed out silicon and 4090 is way too fast to fight. the price is less vs 4080 but I kinda wished AMD did not hold the damn Clock at sub 3GHz while their GPU Arch is explicitly states as designed for 3GHz that's a bummer they should have made a GPU variant with massive 3GHz clock rate. Official slide by AMD for RDNA3 stating about 3GHz clockrate. 2nd point Straight to the point on Perf from TPU. Their conclusion piece. 7900XTX is already winning over 4080. And over the time it will more and with higher VRAM at 16GB of 4080 vs 24GB of 7900XTX esp with future high texture fidelity from UE5 and other newer generation Engines and Driver optimization throughout the entire life of the GPU (not 1 year or 2 years but more than 4 years). The major issue is lack of 4090 competition. 6900XT can defeat 3090 and even beat 3090Ti in 1080P/1440P, 6950XT for 3090Ti across almost all Rasterization workloads it repeats for entire RDNA2 vs Ampere lineup from bottom to top end and proof is in the pudding, 6800XT wrecking havoc on 3070Ti for same price (irl the actual GPU is 6800 competition), but in RT they suffered. Again RT is a joke at this point to have some useless Reflections, Shadows (Instead of RTGI - only 2 titles Cyberpunk 2020 & Metro Exodus EE, still not a major visual overhaul) to drool over and get a 30-50% perf drop and enable the Console class "Reconstruction" Tech. DLSS(3) and FSR(3) are garbage technologies that should have exist in the PC space, because all it has with Upscaling, Shimmering, Ghosting, Flickering and bonus with newer fake frame tech Latency, Garbage frame data and inability to apply to UI elements in the game, it's a negative regressive technology that Nvidia sells (soon AMD) to make people "Think" they are getting higher FPS at the expense of fake frames which are not even rendered and have higher latency. Still if one insists the 7900XTX RT performance is at 3090Ti level, which is a surprise, I was expecting it to be at 3080 level. Shame really I do not really understand why not damn clock at high OR at-least put a massive silicon die like Nvidia, with a massive die from AMD (7900XTX - 306mm2 GCD + 37.5 mm2 x6 total 533mm2) it can beat 4090 (600mm2) in Rasterization but no we won't says AMD for some weird BS reason, annoying why the heck not get a powerful potent monster why keep holding back esp when TSMC 5N yield rate is top notch. Ultimately since no counter to top end, expect 4090Ti to have $2000 MSRP (already in EU for 4080 16GB AIB, as 4090 is 2500 Euros, and with 4090Ti at such high MSRP in USD you can expect $3000 cards soon in EU). RIP. Now that said, about that Hardware Unboxed title it seems like it failed in the 4080 performance to most of the users who prefer Nvidia but that's not the case because it beats 4080 clearly, instead what he is saying is how AMD's official numbers and the performance graphs many estimated the performance to be almost near 4090 is not what it seems like more than 50%+ vs RDNA2 or such, although AMD gave only a few titles not across the board, well shrugs. Nvidia also did the same though, BS 2-4X perf in their PR deck and all sorts of nonsense with Ada debut vs Ampere. All in all a pretty powerful GPU for those who do not want to deal with 16Pin BS nonsense, esp lower footprint too (won't sag your mobo or be a PITA to deal with in the Rig), good GPU performance at all resolutions (unlike RDNA2 only up until 1080P/1440P no 4K while 7000 RDNA3 can take on 4K thanks to new Cache and higher Memory). But again this higher GPU pricing is the result of Nvidia raising prices and then AMD following with higher price increases. However I would suggest like always NEVER buy any PC tech in it's infancy of announcement, wait for price cuts be it with GPU, CPU, Mobos, RAM.

Hit the nail. Also I think if AMD reduces price from get go, I bet people will still buy Nvidia. That's how it has always been from what I have been learning lately. The Ampere vs RDNA 2 pricing, post mining crash is the literal proof. So they aim for margins and undercut nvidia but not significantly because Nvidia always always is raising the roof withe very single damn GPU generation.

It is not yet finalized, MS did not release any press information or any sort for Windows 7 extension of ESU unfortunately. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-US/lifecycle/faq/extended-security-updates As for AMD Radeon RX Windows 7 last driver was 21 June 2021. Both of the GPU manufacturers stopped it. With Nvidia it was 472.12 Sep 2021 being last and a 3090Ti exclusive update which is same in 2021 is the last which is Win32 and Win7 supported. Radeon drivers running on Windows 7 I would not advice esp given the fact how AMD optimizes their HW which is damn way old to run newer games better for longer periods and longevity. Bonus is AMD has superior (Open Source Drivers) Linux support and no BS crap like Nvidia. So using AMD on WIn10 / Linux is best. Since Nvidia already relegates optimizations for old Architecture in backseat once new GPUs are out and over the time, It's better to run the old driver on Windows 7 and dual booted 10 for latest games. Plus newer games started to even block Windows 10 LTSC 17763.xxxx a.k.a 1809 itself massive PITA but for me I do not care much about newer titles since they all are garbage most of them at-best 2-3 titles max per year that is also not always. It is not a lower binned silicon it's a die-cut, as 7900XTX is a full Navi 31 silicon and 7900XT is cut, the MCDs are reduced on the 7900XT, it has less Infinity Cache basically. And lower VRAM + Bus. Plus the Shader cores (CUs) are also cut. I think it should have been called as 7900 not XT.

Nvidia will destroy the market more. Nothing will change is my guess. DLSS was already a headache, a damn TAA sharpening upscaler, upscaling BS is useless for those low end cards as they have pisspoor VRAM and awful memory speeds and Low Resolution 540P -> 1080P upscaling like you bought a PC and then running upscaling why not buy a console and get Checkerboard rendering at this point. RT is also trash for Low end & Mid Range cards, since enabling that will get a 50% perf hit and with lower VRAM they get crushed to oblivion. It's useless, not a single title worth it. Just look at Portal RTX Nvidia Tech Demo - RTX 4090 gets 60FPS with DLSS3 (FAKE FRAMES, had to cap it) yeah $1700 2022 card needs "fake frames" on a game which released in 2007 that too at 60FPS. Fantastic RT performance right. And the consumers think they will get better performance esp at lower resolutions with low end Nvidia cards but nope, in reality RDNA2 is a far superior product when it comes to 1080P/1440P and not 4K across the entire stack including the 3090Ti vs 6950XT (4K is low on AMD because GDDR6X and memory bandwidth does not exist). Reason I mention low/mid end is because that's where the market is in terms of Volume and that's where people get shafted big time. - Upscalers get worst fidelity on 1080P/1440P (because low/mid cannot handle 4K so they use Upscaling on low res) - VRAM cap + Silicon shenanigans (RTX 3060 vs RTX 3060Ti (got VRAM capped lol) vs RTX 3060 8GB (cut down silicon not just VRAM, it's a SCAM) And RDNA2 6800XT it creams all the Nvidia cards in the price bracket that it's a damn joke, is super cheap now, still people prefer Nvidia sadly. So below you see 3070Ti with 8GB VRAM vs 6800 with 16GB VRAM beating it (not the 6800XT it will destroy even more, and 6900XT will obliterate), see the last title, DOOM Eternal a proper optimized solid game 23% diff. DLSS vs FSR not much there when you are downgrading Fidelity and both are almost neck in neck and games have both and RT is a joke when you speak a poor RT effects junk like - Reflections, Shadows that too on these Mid / Low end GPUs. RT GI is the real deal but how many games have it ? Cyberjunk 2020 DOA dumpster. Metro Exodus is other worth but perf hit will be massive and still the non RT a.k.a Pure Raster game looks beautiful !!! RX 6800 16GB - NewEgg AIB card pricing - $590 to $579 +Tax RTX 3070Ti 8GB - BestBuy AIB pricing - $639 to $719 + Tax RX 6900XT AIB card price - $684 and that is = RTX3090Ti / 3090 So the market will not correct. And Nvidia will ruin it more, the new DLSS3 / FSR3 more fake data for nothing, Fidelity is already lost in PC with upscalers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And here's a video that I just came across and how glorious Nvidia's "Flagship" card gets itself suicided into a useless pile of e-waste junk starting from DX9 to DX12 Vulkan in a ton of games. AMD obliterated the Nvidia card and will continue to do so. Poor owners of the Kepler thinking Nvidia is really the best performance king. AMD's driver optimization still worked wonders on that outdated EOL GPU meanwhile Nvidia's GPU Optimization just crashed into oblivion. And if you check relative performance at TPU the 780Ti vs Maxwell, you see 980/970 near that in 10%+. So you can guess where they stand now Kepler / Maxwell both vs AMD outdated GCN, Yes, Nvidia always had poor ASync Compute performance so not a surprise in Vulkan and DX12 but that's not an excuse since only Ampere got it improved from what I remember not just DX12 in the Kepler case. And with that Shader Re-order whatever Nvidia calls for new RTX 40, it perhaps got that even more refined. I will wait and see how Ampere will age vs RDNA2.

Intel is re-refreshing the Alder / Raptor Core series processors. Intel “Raptor Lake-S Refresh” confirmed for Q3 2023, Sapphire Rapids HEDT specs leaked 13th gen Raptor Lake S "Refresh" is incoming. It will be on same socket, Q3 2023 release into Retail they are planning for all TDP ranges. I said re-refresh because all CPUs under i5 13600K are using Golden Cove which is Alder Lake Core series architecture. Raptor lake itself is a refresh of that by adding - More L2 Cache, High Clock, Higher Ring Bus speed, Improved IMC. It will be on same 13xxx naming probably. 14th gen is delayed / moved to 2024 to compete vs Zen 5 this is probably done to make Intel Socket feel longer in life than in reality. Because If Intel releases 14th in 2023, and by 2024 15th it will be EOLed and leaving Zen 5 2024 > Zen 5X3D in 2025. So they want to compete on same AMD competition. Remember Haswell refresh ? 100-200MHz clock boost across all processors I think. So RPL-S Refresh might as well be same, I wonder what's the deal with 13900KS then. So I think xx50 will be added to all processors like i7 13750K, i9 13950K to distinguish or if they want to pull a massive smoke then it will be 14xxx series lol. They may also add that DLVR Voltage Regulator to improve the power draw as it was there in ASUS BIOS but doesn't work on any of LGA1700 processors as it got fused off. Wonder if they plan to enable AVX512 since AMD has no competition as they are leaders now in that AVX512 even if they enable the AVX offset wont go away. Honestly I do not expect much from this, because the 12th vs 13th in gaming helped only a little, and more Cache + Clocks will not provide any significant uplift it will be a refined chip that is pretty much it and have some relevance in that gaming vs Zen 4X3D. For Hyperthreaded high core workloads the 12th vs 13th improved due to added baby cores and overall platform improvements, still it was not a big leap vs each Core in 12th vs 13th like Zen 3 vs Zen 4 has a lot, as 7600X beats the 5800X in everything even with 2C4T less. HEDT Core-X series is finally officially dead. Moving forward it will be W series Xeon and Workstation (64 PCIe Lanes only) then Workstation Pro (112 PCIe Lanes + higher channel memory) . Just like AMD's Threadripper PRO which also distinguished the more wider memory channel. But Intel may be offering basic W class. AMD might as well be forced do the Threadripper and not just PRO next year with Zen 4 based EPYC > Threadripper processors. AMD Allegedly Prepping Three Ryzen 7000 X3D CPUs Ryzen 9 7950X3D: 16 MB L2, 192 MB L3, 170W Ryzen 9 7900X3D: 12 MB L2, 192 MB L3, 170W Ryzen 7 7800X3D: 8 MB L2. 96 MB L3, 170W Going back..So basically Intel wants to keep the LGA1700 sales alive for next year too after Zen 4 X3D will launch which is rumored to have 3 SKUs this round, from 8, 12, 16Cores across full R5, 7, 9 series. Making a total refresh of X3D unlike Zen 3's 5800X3D and since the voltage is already low on AMD parts this round at 1.1-1.2 at 5.8GHz boost I do not think there will be a clock rate cut off or some other BS. Time will tell. Both will fight against their own processors lol. RPL Refresh vs RPL. Zen 4 7000 vs 7000X3D.

@Mr. Fox is right. ALL boards have CSM option. There's no IF/But. Even though Intel wanted to phase it out totally since a long time. Even the modern 40 series cards got some Black screen problems officially Nvidia offers a firmware update tool, or use CSM to not experience those issues, that only means how trash UEFI garbage is and has been. Noting more things - however TB4 Maple Ridge Controller doesn't work on CSM at all. You cannot use it. Period. forget using that with Windows 7, the thing will be disabled automatically. So say goodbye to TB4 and up with CSM option enabled, that's how MSI ClickBIOS 5 works. I'm sure ASUS is also same. Also even Canonkong knows that TB4 will not support Windows 7. I hope USB4.0 doesn't copy that BS since USB4 and TB4 have same bandwidth basically and even, USB wants to move to USB C instead of USB A, that's a problem for the future. Yeah,. Tomshardware link which I misplaced for the first opening phrase (now corrected), has all the metrics, I added Servers because that's where the real innovation happens and trickles down to Client side. Intel however has been opposite, Their Server business is the bread and butter which they swayed, and thus caused the rise of AMD and ARM. And their focus on Server is not successful since a long time but due to their "Chipzilla" status they have been going ok, Sapphire Rapids is 14C tile x 4 design btw. Intel is going to reduce the cores to 6P and more E next 14th gen mainstream. I do not think AMD is going to reduce their core count esp their CCDs are maxed at 8C right now, instead they may increase them. Intel cannot put more P cores because their 10nm++ cannot do it esp Ring reached max and started flaking out with 10th gen (14nm++) overspeed Cache which is why RKL and ADL reduced Cache speed but on RPL they improved it still Core arch is on it's limits. Zen is a new design.

Far late, I wanted to post but just recalled I saw the thread title sometime back. STH has a review too. Anyways posting for posterity. Would love to have one but they are literally unobtainum. HEDT is also sadly gone. Shame we normal folks will never get to damn experience them. Buy old XEON build small scale homeservers or to wait for the Rome EPYC 7000 series processors to drop in used which won't happen for at-least 5-6 years from now. Quick side note about HEDT death - I do not forget what AMD pulled on the HEDT consumers, they absolutely killed the HEDT well some of the blame should also go to Intel after their X299 they killed it and did not care and pumped out BS like XEON W anyone remember ASUS ROG Dominus Extreme ? yeah pepperridge farm remembers, running on a chiller lol. So AMD had zero competition. Still made X299 outdated by the Threadripper 2000 which was a most wanted update to TR 1000 series because the 1st version was horrid, Zen+ based TR 2000 was a much welcomed one, but they killed that X399 (sTR4 socket, yeah pathetic X299 ripoff naming from AMD PR team). Launched sTRX4 socket upgrade for TR 3000 which were based on Zen 2 cores. That thing screamed performance it nuked Intel XEON W. But guess what ? normies and people made PC into a gaming only machine and do not care for PCIe slots or I/O I already repeated this over and over but I will again everyone wants "Muh Gaming" so it died due to high cost (no competition) and not much market since Mainstream Ryzen got a lot of Cores/Threads AMD saw not worth in reducing the EPYC bins to TR. Thus HEDT faded out. Then AMD pulled another EOL the sTRX4 is dead after just a single CPU support replaced by sWRX8 socket TR 5000 PRO series, ultimate processors, massive I/O performance as they were on Zen 3 based design but unobtainum as the prices got jacked up to stratosphere. So thus HEDT died.

Those are for Intel existing XEON Platinum 8000 series processors vs EPYC 9000. Sapphire Rapids based XEON did not launch it got delayed a lot 2 years I think behind the schedule. As for Genoa comparison we have already got that. Intel has to fight this with 80 Threads less. Yea that's what it is, XEON SPR is maxed out at 56C112T which has to be launched soon in 2023 Q2, EPYC Genoa is at 96C192T and then there's Genoa-X the X3D variant which will also be launched I guess that thing L3 may even let us install a game. Then ARM Neoverse V1 and N2 are also coming which have extremely high core count. So for that AMD has Bergamo, Zen 4c it has 128Cores I do not know if it has Hyperthreading because ARM parts do not and they rely on core density only so these probably won't have HT/SMT. Intel planned the counter to these by 2024 with their E cores only server XEON. Quick side note about HEDT death - I do not forget what AMD pulled on the HEDT consumers, they absolutely killed the HEDT well some of the blame should also go to Intel after their X299 they killed it and did not care and pumped out BS like XEON W anyone remember ASUS ROG Dominus Extreme ? yeah pepperridge farm remembers, running on a chiller lol. So AMD had zero competition. Still made X299 outdated by the Threadripper 2000 which was a most wanted update to TR 1000 series because the 1st version was horrid, Zen+ based TR 2000 was a much welcomed one, but they killed that X399 (sTR4 socket, yeah pathetic X299 ripoff naming from AMD PR team). Launched sTRX4 socket upgrade for TR 3000 which were based on Zen 2 cores. That thing screamed performance it nuked Intel XEON W. But guess what ? normies and people made PC into a gaming only machine and do not care for PCIe slots or I/O I already repeated this over and over but I will again everyone wants "Muh Gaming" so it died due to high cost (no competition) and not much market since Mainstream Ryzen got a lot of Cores/Threads AMD saw not worth in reducing the EPYC bins to TR. Thus HEDT faded out. Then AMD pulled another EOL the sTRX4 is dead after just a single CPU support replaced by sWRX8 socket TR 5000 PRO series, ultimate processors, massive I/O performance as they were on Zen 3 based design but unobtainum as the prices got jacked up to stratosphere. So thus HEDT died.

Modern AMD is not underdog anymore. Intel is getting rammed by AMD on Datacenter and Client both. ARM and AMD both are chewing them away And overall x86 share was 10% in 2018 for AMD, and 2022 30%, this can happen only because the company is offering a ton of value + performance and it's growing as we speak. Intel CEO also had a statement recently that he said "AMD in rearview mirror" with ADL launch got shattered as he had to backtrack and nuked Optane, the one technology which Intel totally pushed to limits. Optane was TOP NOTCH. Extreme performance, Extraordinary endurance but ultimately couldn't achieve what it was made for and the beancounters axed it from orbit. Shame now we get trash QLC junk. They will axe even more businesses. The 96C Genoa EPYC is a literal piledriver (pun intended) through Intel Xeon SPR which is MIA right now. Also looking at AVX512 on Zen 4, Intel's AVX Clock offset is also outdated by a huge margin, there's no AVX offset or Thermal meltdown like Intel parts. Look at the TCO graph here. Total annhilation. They are also ready with Bergamo that will destroy ARM parts in Core density, Intel has no answer to AMD nor ARM. Which is why Intel CEO is saying they will lose more marketshare. I do not like Intel for what they have been doing, 2 chipsets for 2 CPUs on same Socket per 2 year and then hamfisting and purposeful sabotage of LGA1200 with BS negative regression on Core Count, MT performance, Efficiency, IMC on all things Rocket Lake. No they do not get a pass. LGA1700 is also half cooked, purchase Z690 Maximus Extreme and need to buy $6 part to get the CPU and PCB bend-issue fixed and get it proper torque specced so that it will last well I do intend to mention that because everything is a torque spec when it comes to mechanics imo. Not acceptable when the product costs over $800 and they did not bother to even try to fix for 700 series either. As for AMD's performance, the Ryzen 5000 IMC and whole DRAM shenanigans with USB issue and IOD nonsense blew a hole hard with the instability & bonus if you touch the tweaking even worse, run at 3200MHz or 3600MHz + PBO2 stock perfect out of box super performance. The thing is with modern processors esp since couple of years, the CPUs are clocked to max out of box, Intel and AMD both. PBO2, TVB what not. So there's a little incentive to spend on Intel processors every damn year. Which is why AMD is still outselling all CPUs on Amazon with AM4 only. The saturation is too high and AMD had to cut AM5 prices. Newegg has Intel more but Amazon volume is definitely far far greater than any e-commerce front. Still look at the AM4 and there's no sign of the dead LGA1200, btw Intel still selling 10900K, 11900K usually they do not, but at BestBuy I see them. Milking 14nm+++ to death I guess lol. I think AMD Ryzen 7000 is a superior product for many users except to those who tweak, I like to tweak and control and maintain a stable solid clock and not rely on boosting which is why I bought 10th CML only and not AMD. I would buy dead end only because it's mature and cheaper. But to many it is not the case, because AM4 paints the story clearly how AMD's x86 share is just increasing on all fronts. Many like to get a long supported platform. Also since it's a desktop that's what makes sense invest in one thing and run it for 6 years upgrade your rig not to just dump it and buy another one for those few % points in games or workflow, this is why even Consoles outsell PC because 8-10 years of life. (Which is why PC optimization is gutter trash. God of War 2018 ran on x86 Jaguar junk that gets destroyed by Core 2 Quad Q6600, but on PC it demands a super powerful x86 CPU likes of 10C20T+ why ? Publishers do not care much on PC as Console is mass market high volume, high margins) Also with modern chips - 12th and 13th gen push the Thermal limits to max, with i9 you need an AIO or it won't cut. The heat density is massive. And Intel clocked them to limits out of box look at 13th gen binning literally all are top end silicon 5.8GHz boost 10nm++ at low voltages barely any junk exist, Intel added a bunch of E cores to reach AMD parity in MT and blow a ton of power on top. But in gaming just look at the CPU graphs and tell me how much 12th vs 13th improve at best same for ST performance growth it's literally single digit % growth and the Socket is now dead, the LGA1700 while AM5 LGA1718 gets Zen 5 in 2024 and 5X3D refresh in 2025 which will destroy any 13th gen CPU without a shadow of doubt, that is a win for consumer no matter how you see. Ultimately that makes the AMD chip more valuable product as the overtime Consumer choice is existing unlike damn chipset every year, and finally to round off they fixed the IOD crapping out and even better significantly lower voltage than Ryzen 5000, they ran at 1.4v stock X3D ran at 1.3v the modern Ryzen 7000 runs at mere 1.1-1.2v at 5.8GHz boost with all 16C32T core at 5.5GHz temp target 95C 24.7 plus the IF is not linked to MemoryClock and Uclock anymore. It's like Intel Ring independent of the IMC+Memory clock. Meaning no more I/O nonsense relationship. Plus own memory profile standard like XMP, EXPO is there. Also finally their boards are also super high quality now, unlike the X470 era. X670 are just extremely overbuilt like all the high end Z690/790 with tons of VRM components. Oh AMD will release a chipset for sure with Zen 5 as the current X670 is limited by PCIe4.0x4 link speed even though the CPU is capable of 5.0 maybe the cost of redrivers and PCIe5.0 adoption is "Absolute Zero" no SSDs, no GPUs nothing exist, even Enterprise barely started it's just wasted so they will upgrade it to PCIe5.0 in 2024 but it's like X470 vs X570 and not like LGA1200 vs LGA1700.

AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs get official ‘New Low Prices’ on AMD webstore AMD slashed the prices, As expected we should never buy these PC components on Day 1. Always wait for price cut and avoid first adopter tax. Surprisingly AMD says these are limited time deals lol Update: PCGamesHarware claims that Ryzen 7000 price cuts are only for the Black Friday Week sales. Therefore, those are time-limited offers. Anyways a win is a win. Having AM5 and new PC builders should go with this if they want to keep their rig for a looooong time esp until Zen 5 X3D (2025+), Intel will have a socket in this time with 2 chipsets per CPU SKU revision (14th and 15th gen) like always and will probably abandon the socket like the usual policy.

I still have to use TFX and report on long run but from what I read Thermalright TFX lasts longer this is what was suggested in those RTX3090 VRAM padding and re-pasting, the main issue is spreading you cannot spread it you have to rely on the HS contact plate and put it in boiling water for at-least 30-40mins before job else it won't even come out easily. Another issue is the price. It's too expensive. 14.3W/mK is the rating for this. I tried it when I was trying to build the machine, it is indeed not easy to deal but once you get the job done I do not think it will go anywhere and performance is also good. KPX will need re-paste job more frequently, GC Extreme is also dropping in quality I think but it will last good amount still needs a re-paste.