Mr. Fox

I hope Intel pulls their head out of their butt next gen and focus on higher core count, returning hyperthreading and elimination of crappy smartphone cores and the retarded chiplet crap. If they release something equivalent or better than 14900KS in terms of core and thread count and overclocking (CPU and memory) prowess this will be my last AM5 setup. If not, then it might still be and I may stop spending money on computers. Reliability is something everyone can appreciate, but overclocking is becoming very mediocre. Without excitement in that area my interest in computers totally vaporizes. 

I was going to jump on an X870E Apex when it drops. I still might if the temptation is great enough. I am having second thoughts because I am not really seeing a lot of meaningful variance in performance on AM5. It really seems like AM5 overclocking (CPU and memory) limitations are more at the CPU design level than they are motherboard design. I think their CPUs reach the edge of overclocking functionality long before the motherboard capabilities start to be exhausted.

We are living in one of the worst times I can remember for PC enthusiasts. Everything is pretty screwed up right now in terms of CPU and GPU performance, with extremely poor monetary value, stunted performance and stunted overclocking. I hope it doesn't get even more sucky, but I won't hold my breath. I suspect it will just continue on a path of regression, with less of what I want at a higher price for less than I am willing to embrace.

15 hours ago, electrosoft said:

(Timestamped)

Gaming is rapidly becoming a joke from every angle (hardware and software). Overclocking is swiftly becoming a joke as well. Computing in general is circling the drain. People love eating unhealthy garbage that makes them sick and purchasing compromised silicon trash so much that all there is to eat is garbage and the only things for sale are trash. The prices for both are exhorbitant. The consumer target markets are the idiots, ignoramuses and fools of the world that have access to money and shouldn't, and those groups of losers seem to have us outnumbered. As usual, we all get to have what the losers are willing to put up with. Idiots with access to money and an eagerness to spend gobs of it on trash really screws things up for the rest of us.

2 hours ago, Talon said:

I am beginning to hate Nvidia, their supply, the games being played, all of it. For the first time in a long time I've been pretty soured by Nvidia. 

Same. My next GPU, whenever that is, will probably be Intel or AMD. I liked my Arc GPU. I haven't ever liked any AMD GPU, so that tells you something right there.  I haven't ever liked AMD CPUs either, but I didn't approve of what Intel did with Core Ultra. So, I said screw 'em and so did lots of other people. It's not awesome, but also not terrible. Just kind of "meh" overall. But, the point is, Intel didn't get any money from me this time, and probably won't until they get their priorities straight and get back on track.

I know none of them care what I approve of, but I get to decide how to spend my money and I am not going to reward them for having dung for brains. I'm hoping (against hope probably) that there are enough people left that think like I do and if enough of us do not approve and make a conscious decision to spend (less of) our money on inferior brands they will have an ephiphany and pull their heads out of their butts, or lose a fortune, tank their stock and start losing investors. It will be what they deserve for being arrogant imbeciles with a false sense of immortality.

It happened to Intel. Nobody ever thought it would. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. NVIDIA is pushing their luck. It can happen to them, too. And, I hope it does... soon. Not so it can benefit AMD. I don't care about that. Just because they deserve it. They need to know what goes around comes around and it needs to cost them dearly with the only thing in the world they care about... money. They need to lose most of it and get a hard reset.

With the burning wuss-boy power cables, missing ROPs, betting everything on fake frame DLSS, AI bullcrap and whatever comes next for their fake performance spoofs, (plus who knows how many other gimps and latent engineering defects are waiting to be discovered,) they'll probably need less help than it would have required a few years ago. I hope we all get to enjoy watching the Green Goblin's lair get burned to the ground together. It doesn't take a big cut to bleed to death. Lots of smaller cuts will do the trick.

We need to stop behaving like lap dogs and start behaving like cunning wolves that hunt in packs, go for the jugulars, and take no prisoners.

7 hours ago, Papusan said:

 

US companies prefer China. And nothing can or will be changed. 

 

Again you see tech companies prefer China over the west or globally. Nothing will change bro @Mr. Fox 

 

AMD has opened preorders for the just-announced Radeon RX 9070 series. The preorders are available exclusively in China for now. The company faces an uphill battle to gain momentum in China’s GPU market.

 

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT leads over non-XT model in China preorders

 

 

All they have to do is impose the tariffs to go both ways so that China is forced to pay a very high tax on products owned by American companies to purchase products manufactured in China. The US and the rest of the world needs to grow some gonads and completely decouple from China socially and economically and let them implode. They are overpopulated and under-resourced, and ripe for insurrection and civil unrest.

More evidence of incredibly poor judgment from the Green Goblin.

37 minutes ago, Papusan said:

 

 

Spot on from Corsair Team. Straight from the textbook. People think a native 12+4 pin cable is the best choice. But nothing is better than the old 8 pin connectors. There is still a few people out ther that can use their brain bro @Mr. Fox

 

 

 

Being super stupid is the new normal. I am glad that Corsair isn't drinking the wee-wee flavored Kool-Aid.

The mere fact that as many sold at insane scalper prices as there were is a very sad testament to the abject idiocy of the average human being. Passion and desire overtake them and they lose the ability to exercise sound judgment and self-control. In this case the market is being driven by fools and extremely stupid people that have lots of money to waste or access to credit cards, but lack sufficient common sense on how to use either of them wisely.

7 hours ago, tps3443 said:

Great idea! I have a SPI programmer with a Soic 8 clip somewhere from my laptop days, I remember seeing it when we moved in to the new house. I need to dig it up wherever it is. 
 

So, I can flash the new bios and it will only update the bios, and not the firmware? 

It will update the BIOS (firmware) and CPU Microcode (firmware) but probably not the ME or not the EC (also firmware) if you use the SPI programmer. If you flash it normally and then use the SPI programmer the EC will remain on the newer version and generally the Intel ME will remain the same.

2 hours ago, jaybee83 said:

dual bios FTW! perfect for playing around with new revisions 🙂 one of the many reason is went with the Extreme board, one of the very few X670 boards that has two bios chips.

Indeed. I don't know why there are so few AMD boards with dual BIOS. Some aspects of that feel insulting to me. Like mobo manufacturers have the attitude, they're just AMD gamers and casual PC enthusiasts. They won't notice or care. It's downright sinful and inexcusable that a $700 board like the Gene does not. This should be an expected standard feature, like having USB ports and HDMI/DP, on all desktop motherboards and GPUs in all price ranges. Honestly, it should even be standard on turdbooks to have dual BIOS given the hazard that Micro$lop Updates flash (and sometimes brick) the BIOS on laptops owned by dummies that leave it enabled on purpose and noobs that don't know they can disable it.

2 hours ago, jaybee83 said:

no idea if ure already aware of that, but: with Asus its possible to downgrade even "non-downgradeable" bios versions via bios flashback functionality. the USB port for bios flashback is dumb, so it basically just flashes the bios file thats on the stick without any version checks.

 

i was able to downgrade a bios via that route, even though the changelog said that downgrading was not possible (verified that i wasnt able to flash bios the regular way). but bios flashback worked like a charm 🙂 

ASUS does block it sometimes even with BIOS flashback. But most of the time they do not and you can often flash unsigned firmware mods, depending on what was modded. What they do block is downgrading Intel ME and sometimes the EC firmware.

Interesting to see some of the latest AMD X3D chips burning again. I have seen examples of it a few time in the last week or two. I wonder if AMD rolled out a buggy new AGESA and SMU and those that burned are all the same version? Weird that everything was fine and then it was suddenly not OK for few people.

19 minutes ago, tps3443 said:

Should I update my bios +6 years? Asus just released a new bios here in 2025.. 😁 NOPE!!! In all honesty, I hate that once you update you cannot go back.. It really sucks. I mean, you can revert back to an older bios. But you cannot go back to an older firmware like with newer Asus boards. I updated the Bios+FW on my other Dominus Extreme, and I regretted it. I have to say, for such an old bios it gives me no trouble with Windows 11. Part of me wants to try this new bios, but I know there's no going back once I do. 

Don't do it bro. If you really want to try it then use an SPI flash programmer to save a chip dump to a .BIN or .ROM backup and use it to put back the old firmware when you confirm the latest sucks. If you do it that way the motherboard won't have any say as to what gets flashed. I used to do this frequently with unsigned turdbook BIOS mods.

If I am not mistaken using the programmer will not downgrade the Intel ME. You would be stuck with a crappier newer ME version. To avoid that you would use the programmer to flash the newer BIOS and that would leave the better older Intel ME.

That board has dual BIOS, right? You should not flash both chips.

10 hours ago, Papusan said:

 

Each to their own. A xx80 cards with half the cores vs geforce high end cards is just disgusting. Die Size 378 mm² is equal or even smaller than what is used for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. 

 

Yet another disgusting PSU design choice. No 8 pin connectors for Radeon or Intel graphics cards. But offer dual 12V-2x6 connectors for dual nvidia graphics. Maybe Nvidia have paid for the whole R&D ?🤔 Or maybe they subsidise this model? Damn disgusting PSU design choice for the power outputs.

 

 

1250W PSU and one lonely PCIe (6+2 pin). And that one will go to the MB as well. Thats'''' perverse...

 

 

https://www.guru3d.com/story/mpg-a1600t-pcie6-a1250gs-pcie5-and-mpg-a1000gs-pcie5-new-pcie5-power-supply-line/

 

Who'm should pay above $700 for a xx70tier card? @Mr. Fox ready to open your wallet?

 

AMD FSR 4 might not be as good as expected, far behind NVIDIA and slightly worse than Intel?

 

Whether it is RTX50 or RDN4, after finishing the evaluation, my feeling is that this generation of graphics cards is completely a generation of products for technical experiments. To put it bluntly, it is treating buyers as guinea pigs.

 

 

That will be a great deal for those that prefer (gaming) Jokebook. Because prices will be even worse for the US market. 

Trump's tariff on China is going up to 20 percent

President Trump now says that he's applying an additional 10 percent tariff to goods imported from China, and tariffs against Mexico and Canada will begin in March.

 

Trump has also declared plans to charge a separate 25 percent tariff on chip imports by April 2, potentially spiking prices even higher.

 

If you are in need for etc new graphics cards then it's time to buy it now if you can find one for sale.

I hope he puts a 1000% tariff on all transactions with China... buying and selling. Instant death to GPUs and motherboards assembled in China using parts patented and made by American companies. 💯 Buh-bye China. RIP.

1 hour ago, win32asmguy said:

FSR3/ULTRA

 

Funny how close it is to the 4090...

Yes it is very close. This game benchmark seems more CPU heavy than most as well, so the minor difference might be largely your CPU if the benchmark using more the available cores.

21 minutes ago, Papusan said:

Nvidia in a nutshell...

 

Somebody needs to deliver the message to NVIDIA. Roman and Steve (GamersNexus) are doing that, but the bottom line is NVIDIA don't care. They never have. The difference now is that they care less than they used to.

Hey, Jensen...

On 2/26/2025 at 3:16 PM, FlibbityJibbits said:

Wow, what an enormous price disparity between P4000 & P5000 for the Precision 7720. Under $200 for used P4000 up to $1,200 & only available overseas for P5000. Dang. So P5000 is that good, huh? I've seen various posters state that you shouldn't buy used models of these cards. Just regular buyer beware on used stuff, or is there a specific reason to steer clear of used P4000/P5000?

 

In addition, I thought this thread was mainly about the graphics cards for Dell Precision 7720's & similar. But I see folks mentioning graphics cards that I can only find for PC's/towers/full-size form factor boxes. For example, is there some version of a GTX 1070 made for a notebook? All I can find is this guy doing a GTX 1070 card...no clue where he got it from...on a Precision 7710, but sounds like some light modding is needed...

 

 

Unfortunately, I would not consider any laptop GPU as being a "good product" because they are all overly expensive for what little value and performance they deliver. They are all pretty lackluster products. The high P5000 price is likely a combination of scalping and having an unusually generous amount of video memory. Laptops are designed based on a premise and mindset that high prices, poor value, sketchy quality and compromises are status quo.

Probably the cheapest way to get your hands on an MXM P5000 is to buy a functional Precision equipped with one that is in very rough aesthetic condition for around $500 and yank the GPU from it to upgrade your own. Salvage whatever additional spare parts are worth keeping (or selling) and toss the leftover junk that isn't worth salvaging into the garbage.

Plus it never hurts to have a spare motherboard in your parts stash. It is the part most likely to fail on a laptop.

6 hours ago, win32asmguy said:

 

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.

Totally get that and agree. 4K is not great below about 27-inch. Text is too small unless you increase scaling above 100% and I do not like anything except for 100%. Increasing the scaling just makes everything uglier because it jacks up too many elements and makes them all out of whack proportionally. Even using 100% scaling for 4K on my 27-inch screen I increase the font size for menus and desktop icon text to make it as easy on the eyes as 1440p. My Precision 17 has a 4K display and I manually change the resolution to 2560x1440 and that works fine. 4K at 100% scaling is horrible on a 17-inch laptop... borderline unusable and miserable. And, I have very good eyesight other than a touch of colorblindness.

7 hours ago, Papusan said:

$100 USD too much. AMD and their partners want a bite of the cake. I wonder how much extra AIB partners can charge extra due AMD won't make own cards. 

 

RX 9070 XT starting at $699. No mid range card should cost $700 USD. And cheaper and slower GDDR6 vram modules shouldn't offer price premium. Rather the opposite.

 

https://videocardz.com/newz/microcenter-lists-radeon-rx-9070-series-rx-9070-xt-starting-at-699-rx-9070-at-649

 

10 minutes ago, win32asmguy said:

 

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.

Looking at it now. I like it all except for the white keys. Not fond of the look of that. How do you like yours? Not a bad price for a durable American-made product that would be used for many years. I do not like TKL so it is good they offer a "normal" keyboard. 

https://system76.com/keyboards/launch_heavy_3/configure

1 minute ago, electrosoft said:

 

Unfortunately they do not offer an 18" version. 😞

 

I've always been a 17.3" or greater type of laptop owner since the Alienware M-ALX 19" was introduced. Only twice did I use a 15.6" model in all those years as my daily driver. Alienware 15 (920mx + 260m on launch) and the NH55 (last gasp DTR'esque laptop).

I have never truly liked any laptop with a screen smaller than 17.3" (as the minimum) and I ended up not keeping anything smaller because I found them extremely annoying and unpleasant to use, not to mentioned being further compromised by the size reduction.

2 minutes ago, win32asmguy said:

 

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.

Is that keyboard sold by System76 on their web site, or is it marketed under another brand name?

40 minutes ago, Papusan said:

 

The main problem... This mess won't be only for  electronics and silicon trash. What can't be fixed won't be fixed. That's facts. You can't make a living cutting your neighbor's hair.

I can set aside my fondness of overclocking high-end computers if I need to. Stuff is so crippled now that it is looking like this hobby might be systematically eliminated for us by the idiots making the products we buy.

China doesn't offer anything the world actually "needs" when you stop and think about it. Unless cheap slave labor to make electronics and silicon trash for the rest of the world at the lowest possible cost and the maximum profilt possible is something of a "need" for someone. They bring nothing of value except for cheap labor for the manufacturing of electronics and that eliminates jobs at home. The reliance on them is created and artificial and they are actually expendable. They are reliant on foreign trade for some of life's basic necessities and survival will be more difficult for them.

Without help from the United States and a few other nations they will starve to death because they import most of what they need. Between 2000 and 2020, the country’s food self-sufficiency ratio decreased from 93.6 percent to 65.8 percent. Changing diet patterns have also driven up China’s imports of edible oils, sugar, meat, and processed foods. In 2021, the country’s edible import-dependency ratio reached nearly 70 percent. We should stop giving and selling them what they need to survive.

They are a third-world nation with a few wealthy dynasties and the most evil totalitarian government in the world and the most-polluted environment in the world. As a nation they only possess what they can buy or steal from other nations. I am OK with not having high-end computers and other digital rubbish this is not necessary like camera doorbells and eavesdropping digital assistants and smartphone operated thermostats.

8 minutes ago, Papusan said:

 

Yup, some will suffer thats for sure. And mostly those with less than others. We see it here home. And we will see it other places. Poverty will Increase. And many will only get the bare minimum to survive. 

COVID-19 was China's gift to the world as payback for including them and giving them a place to sit as the world's table. Now it's time to pay them back. Not too worried about electronics and silicon trash. The reset needs to happen or things will only get worse. Kicking the can down the road and leaving it to our children and grandchildren to fix things tomorrow because it is too inconvenient today never ends well. Too many stupid things have been allowed to happen for too long. I can do without my computer hobby if I need to.

58 minutes ago, Papusan said:

 

One thing for sure... Moving production of pc/data electronics over to US will increase the prices. Heavly. What @electrosoft posted below will only be the beginning of the price spirale forwards. Good luck being an computer nerd/enthusiasts. The inflation will increase. That's for sure. 

Sometimes you have to crack some eggs. But, it is hard to unscramble an egg. The problem was our short-sighted  government "leaders" in years past that allowed American companies to do business with China and offshore things to enhance profits. That never should have been allowed. Any ties with China should have been forbidden. Technology and information never should have been shared with them. They have never been a trustworthy nation and it was foolish to think sleeping with them (figuratively) would have a good ending. If will have its pain points, but also rewards and punishments will be earned.

This is potentially good news that might finally free us from our unfortunate dependence on Samsung or SK Hynix (China crap) for enthusiast memory needs with Micron being HQ'd in Boise, ID. I am 100% in favor of any opportunity I can find to stop giving money to China-owned companies and to companies that are not China-owned but have their products manufactured in China.

Micron has always been known for producing high quality products, but their focus has been on enterprise and mainstream consumer memory and storage (Crucial brand) rather than enthusiast products.

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/micron-unveils-ddr5-9200-memory-1g-process-technology-with-euv

8 hours ago, Mr. Fox said:

Dune: Awakening Benchmark Tool - 3090 Ti - Ultra Benchmark Preset

Compared with 4090 FSR3 and DLSSG

43 minutes ago, Papusan said:

More SKUs affected, but nvidia say still same low failure rate, LOOL

The failure rate would look very favorable if counting percentage of GPU cores produced to GPUs sold that the defect has been discovered. And, they are holding back retail distribution so the number sold is very small. That is an easy way to make the numbers look favorable.

If they counted GPUs sold at retail versus those found with defect and warranty claims the failure rate might not be so favorable.

And, whether they will actually deliver on what they say they are going to do remains to be seen. Sometimes companies find they can say whatever makes people happy. They earn Brownie points just for saying it, regardless of whether or not they act on it or pretend they never said it. The one thing that remains constant is the fact that if it has ROG or ASUS branding that guarantees it will be uncompetitively overpriced. They believe their own poop doesn't stink and charge as if that were actually true. They sometimes will offer a product unique enough to warrant paying a little extra, (like Apex and Rampage motherboards,) but this is absolutely not true of most of their products. Most of their products are average and offer nothing of value, sometimes less value, than a competitor's products. But they still charge a premium based on their branding. That's really stupid and I feel sad for people that believe they are getting something special when they are not.

Dune: Awakening Benchmark Tool - 3090 Ti - Ultra Benchmark Preset

3 hours ago, jaybee83 said:

geez, the more of these tech desasters surface, the happier i am with my current setup 😄 

Amen to that.