win32asmguy

One thing I need to try and do is see if I can push clocks a bit further. Supposedly testing individual cores for overclocking stability is a way to achieve this. Is there a good guide out there for this process? Ideally if I could even get 8 out of 24 cores up to 5.2ghz then I could also generate a Process Lasso affinity preset to apply to games. Sadly they seem to mostly be dumb and do not ever select a higher clocked core, or potentially there are bugs with CPPC in pair with the Xeon so it may just not work well in an automated fashion. I am looking at a few higher resolution options out there potentially. I do not want OLED or really miniLED. There is a 38 inch ultrawide LG at 3840x1600 that looks interesting and should be a better fit for a 5090.

FSR3/ULTRA Funny how close it is to the 4090...

I can live without 18 inch, but that being said I can carry a portable 16 inch monitor to use as a second display, and would also rip out the force fed high DPI garbage QHD+ display and replace it with a more sane FHD+ 165hz panel that is more power efficient and far easier to pair with external displays at a similar ~100DPI. I think for me QHD+ at a minimum needs to be in a 21 inch laptop panel - otherwise its just too much of a jump unless someone has 20/20 vision and does not get migraines looking at a display for extended amounts of time. This 16 inch is testing stable at 8000MT C38 according to Prema. They do not have CSODIMM modules yet.

It's a good keyboard. Indeed very heavy. I ordered it with pink switches but think I actually wanted browns so I have been waiting for that set to arrive. I believe cherry switches can be ordered from digikey to be used in place of the kalh ones they offer. Everything is pretty modular so replacement of worn out parts should be easy to do if needed. They also make ATX cases as well, but unfortunately I needed SSI-EEB so I had to go with the fractal option instead.

Yes on their site. It is called launch (or launch heavy which is the one I have with a 10 key). They have a custom designed firmware for the keyboard with very lightweight config software that works on windows and Linux. It also remembers the configuration so no need to even keep the software loaded unless it needs a firmware update.

I wish someone with deep pockets could help get the System76 Virgo Laptop project going again. Its a design that would be fully open source and produced domestically, along with using open source firmware. It would likely only ever be an Intel platform as AMD and Nvidia do not really collaborate on these types of projects that threaten their established OEM ecosystem. Its not much but if you are ever looking for a mechanical keyboard they make a fully domestically manufactured one. I was even able to take a quick tour of their factory in Denver where they have their fabrication machines back when I bricked one of their laptops and needed it to be recovery flashed.

The price on the Eluktronics Hydroc G2 is better. Its $3300 for a config without SSD, RAM and OS but including 275HX, 5090m and miniLED display. The memory is no longer stacked and has some active cooling so its better built for overclocking this generation. The GPU is a proprietary modular board. No gaurantee of upgrades but it should be less expensive as a spare part than a BGA CPU+GPU board. I guess if you compare it to a desktop 285K and 5080 its only about a 100% surcharge for being mobile.

The advantage of the Raider 18 is the advanced bios and that you can get a less limited EC through certain channels. It will still not clock memory as high as the GE78 however as it has four SODIMM slots which really hurts memory signal integrity in DDR5 laptops. Even the Titan 18 is not stable above 6000MT with two SK Hynix SODIMMs. I feel like 18 inch models from last year did not get a fair display of potential as many OEMs kept the better technology and configurations in their 16 inch models. Probably the same thing will happen this year because OEMs do not really want to produce 18 inch laptops.

Hmm. I do not believe it can be undervolted and the miniLED panel does not have a software switch to disable FALD. I would probably opt for a Eluk Hydroc 16 which for 2600usd it would at least have a Prema bios and a much more sane control center. Or if 18 inch is really a must there used to be a Costco Raider 18 with 14900HX, 4090 and QHD+ 240hz for 2400usd. There are not a lot of good options in the laptop space. Most are pretty limited in one way or another so its very ripe with false advertising everywhere.

The 5090 Trio is not a bad card, it is the one I was able to get. It is supposed to use the same PCB as the Suprim but the capacitors along the top are of a different height so it may not be compatible with a water block designed for the Suprim or Vanguard. People here are still willing to pay inflated MSRP prices (tariffs or not) and for bundles with sometimes over 1000usd of extra overpriced components.

Yeah one would think modern games can handle high core count CPUs or at least not drastically tank performance. In WoW I can pretty much watch core utilization only max out a single thread and then have another seven at mid to low usage. It is also very sensitive to mesh clocks. It seems like the sapphire rapids refresh mcc (2595x) may have 32x as default which is a huge leap from 23x on the 2495x. I am trying to find out what Uncore voltage they use to accomplish that.

No Frame Generation

Yep I tried for one too for ya. The MSI site has been horrible. Very unreliable and constantly hammered by the demand. BTW they have the Titan 18 with 285HX and 5090 as coming soon for the low price of $5999!

I was able to find the bios option for setting slots to Gen4 but it did not make a difference. It looks like the performance issue in Timespy is related to hyperthreading. With it disabled the results for the GPU test are in line with other CPUs. This was apparently also an issue with the 4090 paired with these Xeons as well. https://www.3dmark.com/spy/53199910 On another note I am using the same Corsair 2x8 to 12VHPWR that Derbauer used in his video. I am not sure if the AIB cards are any better at load balancing the power draw through the pins but its definitely concerning.

I will have to check that. Thanks for the tip. Although it does seem like GPU-Z says Rebar is working. Also its crashing again with a memory management BSOD so I am wondering if use of Gen5 requires more voltage on the rail for mesh overclocking stability...

Got the 5090 installed but for some reason the performance seems to be limited. I left the VBIOS switch set to silent but I did not think it would make a major difference. HWInfo64 shows Rebar support inactive too. http://www.3dmark.com/spy/53194988

Yeah somehow I got an old revision Corsair HX1500i that did not include any 12VHPWR cables. So I ended up picking up the separate 12V-2x6 cable they sell for $30. On another note, is there any reason to get a Power Conditioner + AVR for the system? I am used to running my systems through a UPS with those features but it seems like for high wattage they are only standalone.

Hmmm is a Corsair Type 4 12V-2x6 cable safe to used? I dont want to risk destroying such an expensive card. The 4080 Super only draws around 300W so the 5090 will be significantly more power draw.

Its worth around 2000-2500. Hope he extended the warranty too as these came with a 1 year by default I think. You could also look for a ge78. That would overclock memory better and we can get a modded ec to let it boost higher if you tweak the cooling system.

I found some listings for the Raider 18 on ExcaliberPC. 3899usd A9WIG-082US 9955HX3D, 5080M, 2x32GB DDR5-6400, 2TB SSD, UHD+ 120hz miniLED 4899usd A9WJG-052US 9955HX3D, 5090M, 2x32GB DDR5-6400, 2TB SSD, UHD+ 120hz miniLED So prices have gone up a decent amount from the Zen4 models even before the current 10% discounts they have on them. I am not sure if these prices reflect tariff increases as well. There is also no QHD+ 240hz model listed now either which is a big disappointment. The Intel variants with Arrow Lake HX are no less expensive either. It will be interesting to see what power limits and clocks they end up allowing for the 9955HX3D. Hopefully much higher than it was for the 7945HX3D.

The new Titan will be better in that regard as its only going to have two SODIMM slots so it can keep up with the Tongfang model hopefully. They still are not a great value though. Nobody would be paying 4k-6k for a 285K + 5080 system.

No 18 inch version announced. However Prema confirmed to me that it has a TB4 port wired to the iGPU. That makes it much better in a docked situation as it can be run with no apps on the dGPU, then simply be unplugged and taken for a meeting without needing to reboot or otherwise try to take steps to get the Nvidia GPU to sleep which can be complicated if it booted while set as the primary display. With that model I would have to swap the QHD+ panel to a FHD+ 165hz as well so it would be usable at 100% scaling.

The 128GB of RAM in that laptop will only be stable at 3600MT. Even if you remove it and replace with 2x16GB Hynix A die it will likely only be stable at 5600MT to 6000MT. The CPU can be fully unlocked for tuning but DTT is still required in order for the GPU VBIOS to allow boosting fully so running beyond 95W + 175W is not possible from what I understand. There is a new revision of the Tongfang 16 inch that should soon be released by Eluktronics for around the same price. It will have a proprietary modular GPU board so its a step above the all-soldered options from this generation. It will also have a Prema BIOS so its probably going to be one of the few that could be tuned closer to what one might do with a desktop 285K + 5080 setup. Those also allow more control over the hidden dynamic boost configuration parameters so it can be tuned much more easily than a MSI without resorting to obtaining a custom EC and VBIOS.

The cooling system looks like its better than the X370 but still not MSI Titan 18 level. The overall thickness means loud fans and hot palm rests at 250W combined loads if it can be sustained. The built in speakers should in theory sound better than the X370. I suspect pricing will be $500 higher than the X370 was.

Their USA store had the 5090 Gaming Trio OC in stock around lunchtime. The site was pretty slow and took 1-2 minutes to either timeout or advance. If it timed out I had to change the button element back to enabled so it could attempt again. Some things like the query to load the list of states in the address also failed multiple times too so the whole process took around an hour to complete...