Mr. Fox

That is a totally loaded question. It really depends on what you want and what you intend to do with it. There is no single right answer. Gamers that don't care about overclocking buy things like an AMD X3D CPU, drop it in a gamer motherboard, run it stock or with an undervolt, then decide how much they want to spend on a GPU. As long as it plays the games they want to play at a decent framerate without overheating or throttling, they're good to go. This does not require the best and most expensive parts to do that well as long as they are healthy parts. The GPU is the most important component to that type of person, and they generally need less than what all of the marketing hype would suggest. If they buy a high end halo GPU like a 4090 today it should last them at least 4 or 5 years before it struggles with gameplay, longer if they don't expect to max out every available setting. If they go cheap on the GPU, they'll need to update the GPU (with something new or used) every year or two and keep using the rest of the system until a component fails and has to be replaced. Gaming doesn't require expensive CPUs, motherboard or bleeding edge memory. Fast storage and a mid-range GPU will get the job done. If you're an overclocker that love chasing numbers, there is still no single "right" answer. If you are always trying to beat yourself and set impressive scores, it is a never-ending pursuit of the cutting edge parts that you can push to the edge of functionality. If you are looking to set records for specific hardware, you can do that with old parts and collect hardware points. For example, if you grab a GTX 690 GPU and do hardware/firmware mods and go to great lengths to keep it freakishly cold and install that in a modern high end motherboard with a wicked CPU overclocked to the edge of functionality it will blow away all of the old high scores for a GTX 690 GPU. If you are a cutting edge hardware junky that craves the best of the best and feel compelled to stay current whether you actually use that hardware for something important, or not, just because that's what floats you boat, then you're just screwed... real bad. You're either filthy rich and blow money without a care in the world about it, or you're in bondage to an addiction that you can't afford. If you're in this last category there is nothing that will ever be good enough because nothing remains static. Today's most insanely expensive parts will be obsolete tomorrow and worth a small fraction of what you paid for it yesterday.

One more added to the list... based on the benchmarks, at least in this video, the 7900 XTX doesn't really offer much benefit over the 7900 XT (in some cases less to offer) and the 4070 Ti appears to be a closer match to the 7900 XT/XTX performance than the 7900XT/XTX is to matching the 4080 FE. It is interesting that we don't see comparisons to 3090 because the difference between 3090 and 3090 Ti is too small to matter and the 3090 Ti is/was nearly irrelevant in terms of market share. The bottom line is, if you own a 3090 or 3090 Ti, there is no point in spending any money whatsoever on a GPU upgrade for gaming. There is nothing to be gained from it for gaming. Gaining 10 or 15 FPS when you are already north of 100 FPS for $800 to $1000 is truly idiotic. If you want to run benchmarks and legitimately feel like you are benefitting from spending a buttload of money, then the only real option for a 3090/3090Ti owner is to blow a significant portion of your monthly income (more than what is disposable income for most people) on a 4090. If you own something less than a 3080, then any of these GPUs are a legit but overpriced upgrade. It is unfortunate that we don't see any AIB options for NVIDIA GPUs with 3 or 4 of the legacy 8-pin power connectors. I don't want an AMD GPU, but I like the fact that they did not adopt the new 12-pin cable.

I have not tested streaming with Steam games, but I will. I suspect it will work as well as, or probably much better than, a Steam Link or NVIDIA Shield (both of which are utterly anemic products in terms of computing power). So, you shoud be able to use it fine for remote-play gaming in that manner, even with more demanding AAA titles, as long as the host PC is powerful and you have a strong network connection. I have this for use with the TV and it is also a really good option that costs very little, especially with the 20% off code. The entire top surface is metal and it feels solid and heavy. It is a much better product than the similar Logitech keyboard+touchpad it replaced. The Logitech device was flimsy plastic garbage. I hate using a touchpad, but for the limited scenarios like punching in a password using a TV it is way better than pressing buttons on a remote a bazillion time to navigate an idiotic on-screen keyboard. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FSKZVRG That looks really nice. I have liked that case since the first time I saw it. It looks great. The only thing that holds me back from buying one is the limited space at the top. I have been tempted multiple times, but I remind myself that I have the same issue with the 5000D Airflow. I do not understand why the stupid people that design enthusiast and gamer focused PC cases cannot see how detrimental it is to limit that space in such an idiotic way. If someone is worried about it being "too big" they would not be looking at a full tower case. I find that not being able to install a fat 360mm+ radiator under the top panel sandwiched between fans in push/pull and still having plenty of space for reaching in to connect fan, RGB and EPS cables with ease is just inexcusable from a design standpoint. But, it seems to be a very common lack of intelligence among many brands and models.

Thanks. If you already have a monitor or plan to use it on a TV set for audio and video and web browsing, I can't identify a cheaper option for no-frills basic computing. Using something that sucks is less painful when it costs so little. The normal pricing of a NUC is absurd and not a good value. But, for less than $200 including tax it is hard to find too much to complain about as long as you're not expecting anything amazing.

If you're going to go BGA, best to go cheap. It's the only way of getting more than you expected. This one costs less than half what most of these little turdboxes typically sell for at $169 with $30 coupon applied, LOL. Make your TV a PC. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0BMX9NK6Y

The thought of buying any modern laptop is much like what I would imagine the experience of eating a piece of dog doo would be like. Disgusting. And, the idea that it would be an Alienware turdbook is like washing it down with a glass of warm cat pee. I can't think of anything nice to say about laptops in general, and only expletives come to mind when I think of the Alienware brand regardless of the form factor.

Is it a coincidence where you have positioned Superposition on your screen, or strategic?

That's a solid motherboard (same as I am running in my work desktop) with the only Achilles heel being the 6400 limit on RAM overclocking. I have tested about 6 different pairs of UDIMMs in it (including the A-die) and in every case anything above 6400 produces errors and random BSODs. It's solid at 6400 though. It will boot and bench with M-die at 6800, 7000 and 7200, but fails all memory tests with errors. Edit: Sorry, that is a Z590-E. I looked at it wrong, mine is Z690-E.

What? So now we have anime, manga, pink, white and black. No yellow? What about a brony edition? And, no rainbow "pride" option? I am so offended. They must be racists. I'm going to upload a TikTok video to express my rage. I am waiting for the 4060 Ti @ 5W TGP for Chromebook. That will run my favorite PopCap games without stuttering. Bejeweled will be better than ever. On that note...

It seems like science has been redefined as a blind acceptance of information that is assumed to be factual based primarily upon whatever is a most popular agenda in secular atheistic social media circles. We've seen many recent examples of tyrannical rule by decree and fiat under a façade dubbed "science" by unworthy authorities and plain old goofed up weirdos.

I suspect that is exactly what it is, and it is the only logical explanation. That is why I speculated about the undocumented backdoor telemetry thing. I do wonder what other information they might be collecting without disclosing it. Probably worse than we think. We live in a very dangerous era where techological capabilities do more to support criminal behavior and unethical, overbearing government than what is contributed to the betterment of society.

Yeah, that is totally ludicrous and another example of scalping. Splave was selling them on HWBOT Forum for $500 a pair, which is also insane. I got them on AliExpress for $131.00 each. I love that they easily run 8000 MT/s, but the M-die sticks that I paid $80 each for are still a better value overall. Here: New 16GB HMCG78AGBUA081N DDR5 5600B Desktop Memory Overfrequency 8000+ I will probably offer the 12900KS and those M-die sticks for sale as a package deal in the marketplace in case anyone here is ready for an affordable upgrade. I've never viewed the SP rating as reliable for the reasons previously stated. If it were reliable, it wouldn't change with firmware modifications, and it would be calculated based on physical attributes of a CPU. Unfortunately, it is the only measurement we have other than the MSI Force2 and they're not compatible, and they're only useful if you buy a brand and model that incorporates it. I wonder how much longer the ROG line will remain popular and relevant. There has to come a point when people stop buying defective products that lack respectable QC just because their firmware has a lot of obscure and undocumented menu items that nobody understands or benefit from. It is both ironic and sad that their least reliable products are their most expensive halo models that should be approaching perfection, but the shoddy warranty service applies to their entire product line. I see what feels like a growing sense of disapproval of the brand. I think it eventally has to catch up with them. Word of mouth reputation is usually what decides the fate of a business. And, their broken trash like Armory Crate and Aura certainly doesn't win them any extra points with the kiddos. They need their rainbow puke software to work.

Wow, that is an even bigger change than I saw. Massive change, in fact. Interesting that firmware can change something that much. In a way, it tends to dilute confidence in the reliability of the SP measurement. It can be manipulated if ASUS is influenced by external forces or ever decides to take on an agenda of some sort. I bet that CPU Brother@Clamibotpurchased from me would also have a really high SP rating now compared to what the firmware said it was when I last checked it. ASUS must have some sort of backdoor telemetry gathering data from all of the systems connected to the internet with a relevant mobo/chipset. If that is the case, I wonder what other data they are gathering. If not, then it begs the question of how they are getting the information that would cause the change over time. Glad to see you are on the mend. You must be starting to feel better now if you were able to muster the time and effort for this.

Huge improvement. More than a 30% reduction in maximum temperature and enough to make the difference between passing memory stability tests and failing them. As you can see in that screenshot, I ran TestMem Pro for 1 hour (200%) and maxed out at under 35°C at 8000MHz and 1.500V on the memory. Without the waterblock temps are generally around 42°C. With your normal gamerkid RGB memory with the fancy heatsinks heating blankets I would see above 55°C at 6800 and 1.450V. Memory errors begin to occur and you start losing stability around 45°C on DDR4 and DDR5. DDR5 gets hotter and gets hotter faster because of the much higher clock speeds compared to DDR4. I knew that about you. Even your wife is a WoW fan if I remember correctly. It is awesome that you've been a fan and playing since launch. I am much the same way with the Crysis Franchise. I used to be with CoD as well, but they strayed from the path enough that I am no longer interested in the last couple of installments to the franchise.

Indeed. And, that is with the 7900 XTX core clock roughly 500 MHz higher than the 3090 Ti. Is it because of the passion you have for WoW and FO76, which makes it particularly meaningful on a personal level, that you look specifically for those comparisons; or, something about those particular titles that taxes a GPU in a "Can it run Crysis?" kind of way? The generic green M-die was also vastly superior to the retail craptastick options. I thought that one of my pairs of M-die was slightly better than the other (which would not be surprising) and did more testing with the 13900K back in the Strix Z690-E and they're actually extremely close to the same. I got a good deal on a 13900KF for the Strix and will be selling my nice 12900KS sample that was the same SP92 rating as the one @Papusanhas. I saw no improvement whatsoever in memory overclocking, which was the reason I bought it. Well... as it turns out, the 6400 brick wall is actually a physical limitation of the Strix mobo. I never looked at the documentation until yesterday. And, yup... dammit... that is the highest supported RAM speed. It will boot and run (benchable) up 7200, but not stable to matter what voltage or timings I have tested. Stablity goes out the door as soon as I move from 6400 to 6600. I knew it was a gamerboy product and it is totally fine for my work computer, for sure. But, I was surprised to find 6400 is the maximum supported memory clock. Also interesting, my 13900K SP rating is higher than I thought. When I originally tested it in the Strix mobo it was SP95. Now it is SP103 with a significant improvement on the E-cores (from 73 to 83). The 13900KF is almost identical at SP102 (both are SP113 on P-cores, with SP81 on the KF E-cores). So, that was my real Christmas present. I wondered why my 13900K seemed so good with a mediocre SP rating. Apparently the BIOS on the Strix at that time was not dialed in correctly for 13900K. It was the first BIOS version for 13th Gen when it told me my CPU was only SP95.

OK, I think I got this dialed in now for my 24/7 overclock. It's so easy to run these generic green A-die sticks at 8000 MT/s. It's ludicrous in light of how many retail kits I RMA'd with RGB rainbow vomit and sloppy loose gamerkidz XMP profiles that cost double, were pure garbage and would barely even boot at speeds like this. Consumers are getting screwed real hard.

Yes. Yes, they are. So are the people testing and reporting on the "progress" LOL. Plenty of Kool-Aid to go around... bottomless supply of it for the bottom feeders. Their graph shows PL1/PL2 set at 253W. Why? Maybe because they only want partial performace? Or, maybe because it lowers the bar so that Windows 10 and 11 look equal? What would the graph look like with 4095W for PL1/PL2, and why do people even care about setting power limits? The answer to that question is the same as the answer to the question you asked.

Especially when it's paid for and does everything you need it to do. "I'm going to buy a new sofa that is exactly the same color as the one I already have that's in immaculate condition. I need it just because it's new. I will sell the old one at a loss to help cover the cost."

They would if they were honorable and cared what people think about them. Oh wait... We're talking about a tech company... Nevermind.

Just a tiny uptick, but only enough to make you realize you got screwed on the 3090, thinking you were buying the best the generation had to offer. NVIDIA: "Surprise! Faked you out, stupid consumer!" Me: "Surprise! Kiss my butt and die, Green Goblin!"

I was going to share that and checked first. I just watched it and thought it was pretty interesting (and sad). Happy New Year everyone!

Even Intel motherboards are grossly overpriced. Just a mid-range Strix board will set you back $400-$500 depending on which one you settle for. The only ones priced decently are the chintzy crap models for gamer-kidz that don't care about overclocking. If you want a real enthusiast motherboard, they're generally between $600 and $1100. Asus is the worst at overcharging, which is ironic since theirs are the least reliable and have horribly poor warranty service.

No. Half-breed is a 16GB Quadro. Wheezer was 2060.

I haven't really even tuned them yet. Just took an educated guess at some of the settings and there it is. This is on the new EVGA 2.06 beta BIOS. I don't know if they will work this well on 2.03 or 2.05. Thank you. C'mon over. Will make some fajitas and guacamole and wash it down with Chelada. Yeah, I am not liking that idea about retiring later. I wish I could do it now, but can't afford to. And, Brandon has already destroyed a massive chunk (2-3 years worth of retirement income) of my nest egg with his retarded economic agenda. I have lost almost as much as I made on my 401K while Mr. T was in office.