Mr. Fox

I have not seen one, but a cable with the terminal on the GPU end having the same variety of 90° orientations as the Cablemod adapter would be good. Having the cable connect to an adapter that connects to the GPU provides a potential additional point of heat-generating resistance, and in the worst case scenario, increasing the opportunity for failure/damage. Even the crappy stubby adapters that ship with new GPUs provide an additional point for possible failure. Those adapters would not be as undesirable if they had cables that were 12 inches long. Their stubby design is what makes them so stinking undesirable. They produce an eye sore in an otherwise clean-looking build. Maybe they made them ugly on purpose so people would want to spend money on new ATX 3.0 PSUs, better aftermarket adapters or 12VHPWR cables. (Yes, that would be collusion and a hybrid scalping technique to spread the money around to everyone that wants to have their hands in the Ada Lovelace profit jar.) What I meant was loose in the middle, but not disconnected at either end. I am not sure what anyone else meant if not that.

The thin sensor wires are always free-floating on every example I have seen so far. Even the factory 12VHPWR cable that comes with my Corsair PSU has it free-floating, but it is in the middle between two flat ribbon cables so it is protected pretty well. I think some of them that are sleeved put the sensor wire inside of the sleeve.

I am not sure there is any real evidence to show that Cablemod QC is universally bad or that their cables are causing it. The 90° adapter might create some resistance, but bear in mind that the adapter might be used to avoid bending the cable near the connector in tight spaces. The aesthetic improvement is nice, but it is not necessarily the motivating factor in all cases. It may be used in an effort to prevent the burning cable due to being bent sharply near the connector on the PCB in a case that is not large enough. Totally agree with that. The alternative to replacing it free of charge during the warranty period if the connector melts would be a recall and replacement of all GPUs sold so far with a new GPU using a better connector design, or a larger PCB with 8-pin connectors. I would like to see AIB partners do this on their own and start building 4090s with four 8-pin connectors and 4080/4080TI with three 8-pin connectors rather than following NVIDIA's lead on the 12VHPWR connectors. Any GPUs that are replaced under warranty would get the new design that does not use 12VHPWR connectors.

My Cablemod cable and 90° adapter show no signs of melting or heat despite the recent benchning with more than 600W getting rammed through it. Neither the cable nor the 90° adapter has ever felt hot during severe load. Slightly warmer than room temperature.

It is also a matter of strength and load distribution. The small connector with thinner pins soldering to the PCB not only will get hotter because they are thinner, they are weaker because they are thinner. You can see it just by looking. If I compare the size of them to what the 3090 had and the 6900 XT have on the 8-pin connections, you can instantly tell the diameter is smaller. Remember, NorthridgeFix also showed at least one video where those posts/pin were physically broken. It places too much stress on a weaker/smaller part physically and electrically IMHO. Stupid... the "thinner, lighter, smaller is better" approach always sucks and only dumb-dumbs believe it is true.

Agree. 4080 and 4090 should both have dual 12VHPWR connectors. There is too much current getting pushed through a small connector with fewer pins. If you look at the guage of the pins that solder to the PCB, they are also thinner, which further increases the heat on the connection. It would dramatically reduce the heat load on just one if they distributed the current on two connectors, even if you didn't utilize their full capacity. My 3090 KPE had zero issues with 900W+ running through three 8-pin connectors.

I went ahead and got another 1200W SHIFT PSU. I really like the flat cables and side ports. It is so much easier to manage the flat cables versus round sleeved cables, and the side ports free up usable space. The space they occupy on the side of the PSU is normally unused. The cables on a conventional PSU consume space that can be used for something else, like a drive cage or basement pump for a custom loop. All things considered, the volume this PSU and its cables consume is probably about half what my 1600W Supernova PSU consumes. Maybe the fact that it is native ATX 3.0 and has the factory 12VHPWR cable will help avoid socket melting.

It might have turned out better had they used two instead of only one of these dainty little connectors, but that probably would have cut into their profits by at least $1.75 per graphics card, so perish the thought. Comments on that video... all spot on.

I believe it is the connector socket design and NVIDIA's fault for forcing change where change was not necessary and illogical. Instead of the power being spread out over three 8-pin connectors that uses 24 pins and ~2.5 inches of PCB it is a crammed into 12 pins (not counting the sensor wire and three empty sockets) funneling into one inch of PCB. Same principle as using a small guage wire where a larger guage wire is indicated. More power than the small connection can comfortably and reliably manage. Another example of "smaller/thinner/lighter is better" reflecting engineering stupidity.

I like the simplicity of both the EVGA and HyperX keyboards. Not a lot of fluff and gimmicky stuff, just a no-nosense mechanical keyboard with a metal frame and good backlighting. I really like that EVGA has not made any off its software UWP filth. Everything is the vastly superior legacy win32 applications. Keep an eye open for the same price on NewEgg. That is where I bought both of mine for the same price at EVGA's current out of stock price. Maybe set a price alert for $60.

EVGA Z15. They have a clicky type and a not clicky type. I have one of each and wish both were the non-clicky type. You use EVGA RGB software to set the colors and they save to the keyboard NVRAM so the software only needs to run when you want to change something. The EVGA software (like always) is a win32 application, not UWP filth. This is a link for the non-clicky version: https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=821-W1-15US-KR

Nah, they're not going anywhere. Honestly, it doesn't matter what brand you choose there are TONS of things to hate and complain about. There are also some things to be glad about. The universal problem that seems to apply to most things, all brands, is poor quality control and abusive overpricing. The people selling things are more dishonest and greedier than ever before, and the people that are buying things are more stupid than they ever have been before.

The 12VHPWR cable is an inferior design in general, unnecessary and has offered nothing more that a reduction of cable clutter as an advantage. And, that is assuming you're not using 8-pin cables with the crappy short pigtails that new GPUs include. It would have been better to have stuck with the legacy 8-pin adapters and made the PCB a few inches longer to provide space for them. The fact that some GPU manufacturers and/or NVIDIA are not providing warranty coverage for a failure that virtually never occurred before introduction of the new flawed/weak/failure-prone 12VHPWR connector is pretty scummy. The notion that exactly the same problem could occur with a PSU cable made by Cablemod should not be surprising, and it seems unrealistic to suggest that one brand would be less prone to failure than any other. That is kind of ludicrous. The fact that Cablemod is covering the cost of GPUs when it is clear the failure occurred when a customer was using their cables show they are an honorable company that cares more about doing the right thing than the companies that sold the GPU. It makes me want to support them even more.

Yeah they're probably at least 10 younger than my daughter, so it seems really weird. The older I get, the more immature and child-like they seem. But, that is not nearly as weird, twisted and sick as people unfit for parenthood taking elementary school kids to drag shows and other equally appalling crimes against children. Other than that, it seems like their dance moves in that video don't match the music playing. It seems like somebody recorded the video of the dance moves, removed the audio and set random music to it that just doesn't fit. I thought that was really odd.

They don't even try to pretend to add value. They prey upon the stupidity of the people that buy their products, and do so shamelessly. Silicon Power, PNY, Team Group and Crucial 2TB NVMe and SATA SSDs are available for ~$65-$70 on Amazon.

The product, the company and their target customer demographic are a good match. We all know what bottom feeders eat to survive.

I don't know that there is a right or wrong answer. Really depends on what you legitimately need or feel compelled to do when you travel and how long the trip is going to be. Unless you need that level of performance away from home, seems like a waste of money. If you do need that level of performance away from home, then I would say the opposite. What I would do (have done) is have an inexpensive laptop that is adequate for the basic functionality needed if I am away from home a week or less. I need/want email and web access, some degree of productivity (Micro$lop Office stuff) and that's it. No real need for gaming excellence or benching. As long as it is fast enough to do what I intend to do and not be so slow that it becomes a source of aggravation, that's good enough. For some people, and almost me, a Chromebook is good enough. As long as it is not a slimy touch-screen piece of crap, has a good screen and keyboard, and a USB port for connecting a mouse, that's about 90% of what I need it to have. It does not need a quality pointing device because I hate touchpads and won't use them except as a last resort. That is very intelligent, reflects common sense and sound reasoning. It's unfortunate that many people that never move a laptop waste their money on compromised garbage when they could have something significantly better for roughly the same or less money. Laptops and smartphones are things that I view as a necessary evil that I would prefer to have no need for, and would not own at all otherwise. As such, they are tools that do not need to be a source of pleasure. They only need to be good enough to do the job and not be overly frustrating or disappointing to deal with.

There could be a plethora of reasons for that. I haven't noticed any marketing spam hitting my junk folders yet that relate to the new Titan. It is only an anecdotal observation, but it feels like speculation and excitement over unreleased products is also more muted than it used to be. The Titan is probably not going to be relevant to a lot of people. It also probably doesn't help matters that there have been a number of examples of overhyped and misrepresented new tech in the past year or two, where the end product didn't clear the bar that was set. Combine that with some of those same products having some unexpected design flaws, QC failures and engineering defects, along with abusive pricing that puts some things either out of reach, or beyond the point of acceptableness for some people. I know I have no interest in talking about, speculation or swapping assumptions about unreleased tech at this point. If find it pretty hard to get excited or want to talk about stuff that you may be fed a string of lies and overhyped half-truths about, might be broken on launch day, and might be priced beyond reasonableness. At a personal level, if it is not something I am planning to buy for myself, then new products of any kind (technology or otherwise) are not things that I am interested in looking at or talking about, just because I simply don't care about those products. That's why you almost never see me in a laptop thread unless someone tags me and expects a response. I just don't give a rat's butt about laptops, and I have no interest in looking at them or talking about them.

It is easier and faster to boil a small pot of water than it is a cauldron filled with water. That's why those little 12VHPWR connectors are so special. The other reason is because the Green Goblin says they are, and we all know that if NVIDIA says so it has to be true.

Newer is better newer. Every time!

What better way to sell your flagship that destroys every other option available by a huge margin--but, with a huge price tag attached to it--than to make all of the alternative options an undesirable, overpriced and lame Mickey Mouse excuse for an upgrade? That is a pretty decent game. I have played it and it's not bad. I am surprised to see it available for free on Epic. Thanks for the heads up. Anyone that doesn't have it should snag it while they can.

As I mentioned before, there is a huge disconnect in their understanding and thought process. They do not understand their target market and they have confused console jockeys with PC enthusiasts. The alternative is they don't care or they are targeting a compromised group of consumers rather than PC enthusiasts. Believing that GDDR6X doesn't offer a meaningful performance gain and that 90°C+ hotspot temperatures is OK paints a picture of a truly clueless and misinformed clown posse. They will remain in the shadow of NVIDIA forever unless these examples of poor judgment are mitigated.

It could be either one, but the outcome is the same either way. Not winning is not winning. Like RIcky Bobby's daddy always said... Well, 3x8-pin was enough for the 3090 KPE pulling over 750W through 3x8-pin. I do not believe the 12VHPWR connector was necessary and I do not consider it to be a real improvement. The one advantage that I see is that it is one cable versus three. But, for the same reason it is more fragile and prone to failure than the tried and true 8-pin cable. Pushing the same amount of power through a smaller connection and fewer wires, in a concentrated spot on the PCB, also makes is hotter. Nothing wrong with 700W. More power generally means more performance. When it consumes gobs of power, gets hot, but still doesn't deliver a commensurately high level of performance is where that becomes problematic. Having no idea about some things seems to be a trend for them.

While it sounds cynical on the surface, the fact of the matter is that has been the excuse/reason for too many years. Lots of near misses and always the same or similar explanation for it. Too hot, too much power/voltage needed, just need to work on better drivers, just need to work on better firmware, just need better support from partnering hardware vendors or game developers. I think they would if they knew how. I think the real problem is they don't know how to win, and don't hire people that know how to win. Part of the time is was lack of financial resources, but that's no longer an issue... so it leads me back to not knowing how, and not really understanding what some of their prospective customers would require as prerequistes for entertaining the idea of changing brands.

I am glad you liked the benchmark scores. I had fun for the first time in a while last night. No need to send money. I don't know if you are being silly or not, but you have demonstrated generosity more than once. That is a great character trait. If you buy the NUC I'll count that as payment for the benchmark scores, LOL. 🤣 Part of it is Intel and NVIDIA are very sore losers and exhaust financial resources on winning. That includes the people they hire, and what seems to be an indication of "winning is more important than how you play the game" mentality. The other part of it is AMD seems to lack experience and drive. They talk like they want to win, but are not willing to do what it takes to score. Using GDDR6 instead of GDDR6X is an example of that. Just that one change would go a long way in closing the performance gap between 7900 XTX and 4090. Using GDDR6 on their flagship GPU in 2023 is just lame. They've been playing in the console sandbox for too long. They're out of touch with PC gaming and overclocking enthusiasts. They hire people that aren't advocates for overclocking enthusiasts and don't really have a clue what is important to us. And, they may not care. Their drivers leave something to be desired.