Mr. Fox

The Asus SP rating on AMD is less reliable because it can vary by temperature when the calculation is performed. It's kind of weird. The hotter the CPU is at the time the calculation is performed increases the SP value. I have only seen a change in the SP rating by 1 with my CPUs. My 9950x has an SP rating of 119 it goes down to 118 if I flash the BIOS when the system is totally cold. It may be different for the 9950x3d2 but 118-120 is about average. My 4585PX is SP120. However, the VF curve doesn't fluctuate as much. You can look at the Prediction area at the lower right to see what voltage value is displaying for a manual core ratio. Try setting a fixed all core ratio of 55.00 and look for a voltage value of 1.400V or less in the Prediction box and see if it will boot with the FCLK set to 2200. If it will not boot with 2200 FCLK I wouldn't want to keep it Use that first video that I shared with you the other day in this thread (added below) for tuning a per core PBO Curve Optimizer. Stronger cores will have a lower voltage value by default and will accept a smaller negative offset then the weaker cores. You want to see as little variance between core quality as possible when you look at the VF curve page in the BIOS. Being able and to set a deeper negative offset on individual cores that have a higher default voltage value on the SP rating page isn't a good thing to see. The wider the SP rating variance is on each core in a CCD is less desirable.

I hope that your hard work and faithfulness is recognized by your employer and pays off in compensation equal to the time and effort. It generally does when you are working for a respectable organization. Good companies know that good employees are hard to replace and need to be retained. It's sad how things are turning to crap for our hobby. It's hard to get excited about anything from AMD, Intel or NVIDIA. Not only because of abusive, predatory pricing. Everything is riddled with compromises and mediocrity in one or more areas. Hardly anything is awesome. Even the extremely retarded price of a 5090 gets you a GPU that has been deliberately castrated in terms of power and voltage controls needed for overclocking excellence, a dangerously inept power delivery mechanism (12VHPWR) and dishonest, unreliable warranty handling by the OEMs and retailers. It applies to DDR5 and NVMe failures as well as GPU failures. "Sorry, we took your money, sold you a defective parts, but you're on you own now because we make more money selling the same parts to AI data centers for 150-300% more than what you paid for them." Now even Best Buy is selling "open box" GPUs with no core and memory. Clearly they did not bother testing anything before putting it on the shelf. This video from Alex should help the victimized customer get a refund. I'm surprised it wasn't handled and made its way into a video like this.

A 9950X3D2 will likely degrade your gaming and overclocking experience. It is generally not good at either task. It is interesting to see people buying them anyway, despite the reality of the situation. It is the Ryzen equivalent of a Quadro GPU. Not the right tool for the job.

Tony is fixing borked DDR5 modules now. I need to get myself one of those programmers. I do not use RGB software anymore for changing RAM LEDs to white because it destroys the SPD. I've had several DDR5 kits corrupted by it.

You really need to get the memory kit that I recommended if you want to have great results on AM5. Anything else is going to be a crap shoot. All of the AM5 memory overclocking record holders are using what I recommended and ASUS has built their firmware around it for unrivaled results. If you get something else YMMV and may not be as good as you might want. I don't know of anyone getting good results on a Ryzen build using Corsair memory kits. You're going down a totally different rabbit hole with AMD and I'd hate to see you make it more frustrating than it will be otherwise by making a wrong choice on the RAM. AM5 also copes much better with 2x16GB than it does with 2x24 or 2x32 kits. Overall the platform is finicky and requires more effort while yielding smaller rewards. It's not horrible by any means, but it is not on the level you are used to in terms of ownership experience. The pricing of memory and SSDs right now it off the rails and beyond stupid. I paid about $300 for this G.SKILL 6000 CL26 kit and now even the trashiest crap DDR5 memory kits with Micron and Samsung ICs are selling for 2-3 times what they should be. I have a V-Color Hynix 6000 CL26 kit and it performs like garbage and sucks at overclocking. It's back in the box and will only be used if necessary due to a hardware failure. Pay the extra $50-$100 for the recommended G.SKILL kit and avoid regrets. No. I would not purchase a 9950X3D2 CPU. There would be zero benefit for me. Total waste of money from what I can tell so far. They do not play games better (maybe actually a little worse honestly) and unless you get super lucky with a god bin sample they are worse at overclocking. The CPUs with 3D cache also have a small memory and L3 cache latency penalty. X3D2 is very niche with no practical application for gaming. My favorite Ryzen CPU is 9950X (non 3D). All Ryzen CPUs are literally designed to boost as far as they can with 95°C as a threshold. One or two CCDs and regardless of core count they hit 95°C under max load and only delidding can tame them. They are power, current and multiplier limited processors. The CCDs (cores dies) and IHS are small and have minimal surface available for good heat dissipation. The only meaningful benefit to going AMD is socket longevity and a longer CPU upgrade path that does not require replacing the motherboard. Otherwise, I would say go with Z890 and 270K Plus. If I could do a straight across trade for that without spending any money I would. Rumors are that Zen 6 is going to be awesome though. It might be but nobody knows for sure yet. I know that this commentary probably all comes across as negative. Let me balance that by confirming that I do not hate my AM5 systems at all. They are decent and I have learned how to like them, but my expectations going into it were higher than they should have been and I am just being very frank with you about what to expect. All of the former Intel enthusiasts on overclock.net that made the switch to X870 from Z790 that I have communicated with echo the same. By no means bad, but rather mediocre overall. If you go into it with low expectations it will be easier than if you go in expecting it to be everything you loved about rocking an Intel system. If you go into it listening to AMD fanboy fables you're going to quickly get pissed off and frustrated while you learn how to make it work to the best of its ability. The performance tuning gains are smaller and require more effort. The X570/AM4 experience was an utter dumpster fire for me. That has not been the case with AM5/X870E/Zen 5. If you decide to go with a Ryzen build, I highly recommend watching both of these videos. The first is for CPU tuning. Very useful. The second is some memory tuning and other myth-busting that goes against what many of the fanboy gamers will tell you. This guy knows what he is talking about.

LOL... my WTB thread was 1 year ago today... 6/18/2025. FreakFreak is hunting unicorns. He posted this today. I wish him better luck than I had (which was none). What he is asking for is even more rare that what I was looking for. An X3D with a strong IMC and high core clocking capacity is even more unlikely. What he is asking for is also less relevant... X3D CPUs are largely memory clock agnostic in terms of the effect on performance. The benefit of memory bandwidth is mostly negated by the cache.

100%. I have not seen them priced that low for a LONG time. (I paid like $300 before the AI-retarded nonsense ruined everything.) @tps3443 better get them before they are gone or go back to $1200+ again. Edit: Good find Brother @electrosoft. Those are the "H" variant with 1.450V but the advice is still the same... 2x16GB. The Amazon listing appears to include typos or conflicting info as to whether they are G or H but the voltage indicates H. The G variant is 1.350 or 1.400V with the same timings. To add to my previous comments about older Intel XMP kits on Ryzen, the default SPD timings are not good for Ryzen as I mentioned, but the ODT values are also wonky and don't work well. So, you are chasing not only Ryzen-friendly timings but also different ODTs for Ryzen versus Intel. ASUS Crosshair mobo firmware sets all of the right ODTs specifically for these 6000 CL26 G.SKILL kits.

The only truly excellent memory kit for a Ryzen 9 CPU is a G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo 6000 CL26 EXPO kit. You cannot find them when you need to, and now they are going for like $1,200 or more. But, essentially 100% of the impressive memory overclocking on AM5 involves one of those kits. There are two variations. The one with "G" in the part number is slightly better. I have the "H" version and it needs a little more voltage and won't clock quite as high due to that. The part numbers in question are F5-6000J2636H16G and F5-6000J2636H16H. I have one in my Apex and it is definitely head and shoulders above all others, and ASUS has specifically tuned the firmware FOR THOSE sticks. But, even with one of these memory kits you're going to need to source one of the dozen good bin quality Ryzen CPUs in existence to do anything impressive with the memory kit. What I have right now is about is good as it gets with AMD CPU and memory overclocking and it is very mundane compared to what I was used to with Intel. Whatever memory you get, be sure it is EXPO. Older Intel XMP kits are crap on Ryzen, even when manually tuned. The XMP SPD timing values left on Auto often malfunction and it is a pain in the butt to find stable settings unless you are starting with an EXPO kit. Ask me how I know. Painfully time-wasting and frustrating when you don't start with an EXPO kit.

I would not recommend a 9950X3D2 if you are focused on gaming. You will not benefit from it in gaming. It's really for work like content creation. It will be the same or worse as a 9950X3D, but costs several hundred dollars more. If you want some extra FPS for gaming just go with the 9950X3D or EPYC 4585PX (same CPU, different name and usually better silicon quality than 9950X3D). The 9950X3D is the same as 9950X except for the 3D cache, but the silicon quality of the X3D CPU is not very consistent in comparison. Some run hotter and need more voltage, and have weak IMCs and do not handle memory overclocking as well. If you decide to go with a 3D cache CPU, do not rely on Windoze to manage it correctly for gaming. Some people burn a lot of calories on chipset driver updates and keeping XBOX bloatware updated and still does not work right all of the time. The solution is simple and effective. If you are gaming, use Process Lasso or CPUSetSetter and tell the game which CCD to use. Flawless execution 100% of the time and not reliant on a crappy OS like Windoze 11. After owning both and using them side-by-side, I'm not overly impressed with the 3D cache CPU. I have a better sample (returned a horrible one) but it doesn't perform anything better than my 9950X, other than getting some extra FPS in some games when I go to the extra trouble of making sure it is working. It is hit or miss and not enough extra to matter to me considering the added cost. My next build will likely be Intel. AMD products are overall mediocre and kind of boring. That said, the current platform is the only AMD platform that I didn't hate. It doesn't suck, it is just boring. Golden Ryzen samples are about a rare as unicorns. And, if you are lucky enough to get one you won't be able to max it out due to thermal constraints unless you delid it and run bare die with liquid metal. It will be thermally limited and run about the same as the average CPU samples with the soldered IHS. Even a 6-core 9600X will hit 95°C in Cinebench with a maxed out overclock with the soldered IHS on it. No there is not. The Apex motherboard might have some subjective benefits, but your CPU won't be able to leverage them fully in terms of overclocking. I have not been able to achieve higher memory clocks or tighter timings with the X870E Apex than I have been able to achieve with the X870E-E Strix or X870E Carbon or X870 AORUS Master. Memory overclocking sucks on Ryzen overall unless you have an above average CPU sample, and even then it's not wonderful. A lot of what you know about overclocking and tuning from your experience with Intel will no longer be relevant. That transition from Intel to AMD has been similar to moving to Linux from Windoze, but more frustrating than the change in OS because you are dealing with hardware limitations (capped core ratios, power and current limits) and goofy silicon quality randomness rather than purely a learning curve. Out of the many AM5 motherboards I have owned, the X870E AORUS Master was the best overall. The firmware on ASUS is better, but the Master motherboard was overall the best. Gigabyte motherboard firmware sucks though, no question about that. (Really stupid stuff, like no way to disable the onboard WiFi and Bluetooth module in the BIOS.) If I could have a do-over I would have kept the Z790 Apex and Apex Encore. The Ryzen 9 only beats a Core i9 in Cinebench. For just about everything else, Intel is the winner. A nicely binned 14900KS that is tuned properly is right on the heels of a 9950X3D in terms of gaming. In some things the 14900KS is better in spite of the 3D cache.

Good job on that brother. Yeah sorry to hear about the lung problems. For your dad and sisterwas it entirely heredity or did they also do the same type of work that contributed to the problem?

Glad it was just a poor connection. Sort of. Unfortunately, having a poor connection with these garbage cables is common. They are fragile, inferior and the people responsible for making them a standard need to lose their jobs and be forced to find a new occupation. One they are good at, 'cause they suck at their current job.

Glad to see you are making good progress, brother.

Probably has been plugged in and removed too many times. So far everything is staying evenly distributed across the pins according to both of my WireView Pro 2, but I have have not disturbed the cables very often. You have been doing a fair amount of GPU shuffling recently and these are pretty fragile connectors.

It's too bad the Astral 5080 isn't a good silicon sample. Everything in the realm of GPUs is totally random now. Paying more for the most premium model(s) now only guarantees that you will pay more for it and it will have an extra bell or whistle, but the possibility that silicon sample might be an inferior one, or it will have other defects like severe coil whine, is exactly the same as the cheapest models. Glad you got a decent sample and slightly better price on the Best Buy open box 5090. Are you going to do the Astral fan resistor mod so you can cross-flash a better vBIOS? It's a black one, correct?