Talon

Yep! That 285K might have actually been better than my 285K I am running lol. I didn't really test the 2 fully, but that 285K I sold you did my 8400 CL38 tune, same voltages, ran 40x D2D no issue, and only had a very slightly higher P core voltage and ring voltage. But it still did the same 41x ring and 56x P cores. The chip I sold you also booted higher E core on auto voltages lol. I can boot the higher E core clocks on this chip, but the low voltage V/F stops it from scaling unless I go in adjust the V/F offset for point 8. I think that is mostly a function of interpolation failing, while your slightly higher voltage allows for better interpolation and boots with no adjustments. But ya my 285K can't do 40x D2D unless I run a manual voltage, but I've been gaming on it and testing it for a couple days now and no issue at 40x. If we had a higher ceiling you'd likely be able to go higher since you still have voltage room.

Are you on the latest BIOS? I updated last week and got around to tuning it a bit more. I've found on the latest BIOS, I can now tune VNNAON manually without issue, maybe I always could and never tried. I thought I remember it causing instability when touched around launch and I never tried again. Now latest BIOS, I can push D2D up to max 40x without issue, stable. I just can't use the Asus auto voltage for VNNAON. This sample needs 1.12v instead of auto 1.012v. I had a 285K that could do 40x auto voltage, but P cores were just ever so slightly worse so I kept this 38x-39x auto chip. Now I've been testing and using 40x for a couple days and it's having zero issues. Sure it doesn't amount to much, but more mental wanting to max it out lol. It's honestly a shame Intel has killed off 1851 entirely and 270K Plus will be all they release. My guess with same crap 40x limitations in place. Panther Lake has a very high D2D apparently and they've fixed the latency issues.

Nice results! That board and CPU look like a great value. I'm extremely confused by Intel's decision to delay a Refreshed SKU until that time frame given Nova Lake is supposed to be out later this year. Reminds me of 11th gen and 12th gen. Either they had to heavily bin to get chips able to run the new clocks or they actually fixed some things under the hood. I'm leaning towards heavy binning, but hoping for actual latency fixes that can make the refresh something that will be more impressive over an overclocked ARL chip. I also ordered a 12 core BTL-S chip lol. Mouser had them as out of stock backorder, and I decided I wanted something else to mess around with. The order went through and according to them, they have ordered one from the factory lol. I'll be shocked if it ever arrives, more shocked if it works. 🤞🤞

I haven't seen a A02 version of the board yet. I've only ever seen A01. But I assume that board was returned because of that fact. I had a board from Amazon that was terrible. The Nitro Path Asus is using has made 4x boards viable now. I wish they would have done some magic like that for the 2x boards. $300 for a Z80 AYW and 265K, absolutely insane.

I always thermal grizzly PTM sheet on the core. No pump out, excellent/even temps, and zero risk. Stock had a PTM pad as well. I’m super happy I was able to fix the memory temps. I figured it’s either a heatsink design issue or bad pads. Glad it was fixable with quality pads.

Decided I wanted to repad my RTX 5090 HOF VRAM as the memory temps are atrocious since I got the card. Even with an undervolt and gaming at 500-600w, the memory temps would climb to around 82-84c which is a bit toasty for me. My old TUF ran around 70c on memory temps under load. I for some reason though the pads were 1.5mm and so I ordered some thermal grizzly advanced minus 8 pads. Turns out they were actually 1.0mm (still tried them as they compress decently). They were just too thick and the core wasn't getting good contact and it was hitting 86c lol. Tore the card down again and tried some old 1.0mm I found in my closet collection. These were absolutely shit, worse than the stock pads. Hitting 96c on memory temps with good core temps. Thought I was out of options and was just going to put it all back together with the stock pads. Decided I would try my spare Asus TUF 5090 pads I had on a spare heatsink I had purchased (long story). Luckily the pads were all in good shape and I was able to easily remove them for use on the Galax card. They were also 1mm and super compressible. I applied the pads and booted up with my fingers crossed I wouldn't need to tear the card down again. These pads are amazing, my memory temps now peak around 66-70 under 500-600w gaming loads with better than ever core temps. Finally this card is running awesome with the air cooler. I still need to break it down and to full water, but I'm waiting for my rebuild with Nova Lake later this year lol. I'm planning to finally swap PSU, coolers, the works at that time. I figured I'll go water then. TLDR; the Asus thermal pads used on VRAM is actually some super quality stuff which is why their memory temps are so good compared to other brands. I think MSI also uses similar pads as their vram temps are also amazing and slightly better than both my Asus and Galax card.

LOL yep! Same exact PSU. I RMA'd with MSI and they sent me back that brand new ATX 3.1 version.

There are some new ones for just $431 on Amazon right now. I hope you get a good one! I actually had to return an Apex to Amazon for absolutely shit tier memory OC. I learned it's definitely possible to get a bad binned board, something I had not experienced before. I really want Intel to drop the ARL Refresh in January since I have vacation and will have time to tinker and bin. But I saw a rumor of a March release which to me is just wild. Why would they drop a new CPU refresh, about 6-9 months before Nova Lake. But maybe the rumor I saw of a fixed IO is the reason. If Intel actually fixed the IO, then we might actually see the latency fixed and there could be significant gains. The rumors of 10-30% gaming gains could be true then. If they fixed gaming that much without huge cache, then Nova Lake with this fix and huge cache could be an absolute monster.

ThrottleStop with laptops is unfortunately or fortunately the way to go still. Luckily the DEV still provides updates and I also used it with my 13900HX to really unlock that beast. It sort of lets you bypass the cancer that is X-Load limits on gaming laptops. It also lets you have really fine control over power limits when you want them, which is ideal for tuning for each game/load scenario. Luckily some laptop OEMs provide some pretty great tuning, while others are pure trash. Lenovo actually provides a pretty great gaming laptop product, with really good tuning. Unfortunately they don't have fully unlocked BIOS, and the latest version apparently patched out the backdoor to get into the unlocked BIOS. So if I do consider a new laptop again in the future, it will have to be MSI again. They still provide their unlocked/hidden BIOS, the tuning is all recoverable within reason and their BIOS is more desktop like with it's menu options actually working and not bricking the machine.

https://videocardz.com/newz/cinebench-2026-released-with-support-for-amd-rdna4-and-nvidia-blackwell-gpus Cinebench 2026 has been released. New software to punish our chips with. https://www.maxon.net/en/downloads/cinebench-downloads

MSI finished my RMA and got the FedEx package today. To my complete shock, they gave me a brand new unit and the new ATX 3.1 version. Honestly a great RMA experience with MSI.

Absolute banger card. My local MC sold out of all 25+ they had over the weekend. $749 beast with high power limit, good cooling and compact size. I sold mine recently, but honestly such a great card.

Haven't bothered updating to latest Asus Apex BIOS yet, but this has been my daily Arrow Lake tune for around 6 months. I just laugh when I see 80+ns as "fast" Arrow Lake memory setups. This is on a clean install with shitty virtualization/hypervisor running on the system which hurts latency a tad. It absolutely wrecks gaming performance on Arrow Lake. In Cyberpunk 2077, it's almost a 17% penalty at 1080p high settings in the benchmark.

290K only most likely, even if I already know that all Intel has likely done is set D2D and NGU to 32x on both, and slightly binned or overvolted the cores a bit to push clocks. Very likely some sort of Intel APO fluff with new titles as well. If they've somehow fix latency a tad I'd be really shocked but I don't expect it. Still, if I can eek out a couple hundred Mhz on the P/E cores over a 285K, it will be worth it for fun. I imagine we will get a CES launch/announcement with a late Jan street date on the refresh. It sorta blows my mind Intel has waited this long, but it is what it is. I'm also hoping they launch the Sapphire Rapids HEDT at CES. The cache on those chips looks insane, and honestly it might make for a very expensive gaming CPU if it can be clocked. HEDT was always more fun.

APEX.