electrosoft

Instead of watching paint dry..... Gonna hit up that area with Fitz one more time.... Like IT and The Shining, I need the SHINE.... Watched a good Stock vs Expo vs ULL vs tuned DDR5 shoot out. instead.... As always, tuning your own ram rules the roost: I like this guy a lot. He's really passionate and grinds out a lot of good data.

As was I watching this head to head shootout from Jarrod seeing the traditional Asus PBO overclocking controls: I'll make sure to run it through the ringer, but for that price I just had to grab it if only for comparison and data analysis when it arrives. That's a good approach. If 6000 just isn't working, optimize in the opposite direction and tighten timings and find the sweet frequency to really lower VSOC. What is the most the 9955HX3D can pull in the MSI? I know in the Asus, it can pull up to 75w performance mode, but like the MSI balanced is 55w. I'm fingers crossed with G-Helper but probably because of the tailored, specific nature of their laptops, I don't have my fingers crossed. X3D, especially in laptops, just gives the business to Intel depending on the games you play good for WoW and especially Fallout 76. Really? Well, that sucks. Maybe down the line for next gen they will, but if there is no 3D-Vcache on their mobile chips, X3D will continue to reign surpreme. Hopefully on desktop that bLLC is going to level the playing field and then some for Intel. I know I'm definitely picking up a Nova setup once @Talon grabs his on day one and gives the early "yeah, this rocks," feedback. 🤣 Sad you had to jump through all those hardware mods just to use your damn GPU and eventually someone broke through and let you do in software what it should have done all along. Bring on the Chiller.

Direct from the bowels of Asus..... I've been running the x870e Crosshair Hero since January 2025 so ~1.5+ years with a 9800X3D and I have to say I've had no real problems with it outside ebb and flow with various BIOS updates trying to constantly extract as much performance as possible and the LCD display starting to flicker on the lower right corner. Functionally irrelevant but aesthetically an issue which after the swap I'll most likely RMA it. The much maligned Q Latch was much ado about nothing so I am expecting a continuation....but then again for free I'm only going to complain so much.... I do like Asus moved away from sharing the primary PCI-E with the aux M.2 on the Dark Hero and is getting with the program like most other MB makers. One reason I didn't populate the secondary slots. Nice ethernet updates to Wifi 7. Power delivery has been upgraded to the glacial levels. RAM fan included with the ability to position as needed that mounts from the top. Another nice little upgrade. I'm sure I'll find more QoL enhancements as I dig into it during the next week. Basically, it is an Asus Extreme board without the fancy LCD displays..... Decent comparison between the Hero and Dark Hero: JCustom's unboxing video: Nice refinements and updates overall and I do like the new LCD panel and "Crosshair" lettering. Having just eval'd a TUF laptop refresh and now the Dark Hero, I am liking Asus's new boxing / accessories approach. If everything goes as planned, this will be my new main board with the delidded 9850X3D. I plan on running it on the test bed for several weeks while I re-tune all three sets of my memory and see where this 9850X3D can go. It is still sitting on the shelf sealed up waiting for this board to arrive so all new adventures.... At that point, the 9800X3D will go in the SFF unless somehow the Asus G16 w/ 9955HX3D + 5070ti works out then I'll end up selling off everything (9070xt x 2, 9800X3D, Hero after RMA, etc...) and stick the 5080 in the wife's system. Also swapping her to the 9800X3D + Hero and selling off her 14900KS SP109 which still rocks on an AIO running at 5.9 and runs nice and cool, MB and DDR4 is also on the table at that point. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Happy birthday @Papusan! Hopefully it is a good one and shout out to Mrs Papusan! -------------------------------------------------------------- 4k only WoW testing to see if I wanted to upgrade/switch the wife's SP109 14900KS + 4000 Bdie tuned at 4000 vs 270k + KB 8400 tuned at 8400 (both passed TM5 Extreme). Tuned up the 270k at 5.6ghz with the KingBank 8400 sticks ran some vs tests with the same settings as the wife's 14900ks DDR4 tuned system and the 270k officially equals the 14900ks at 4k with the exact same CPU bound results even with a 9070xt in areas (fixed spots out in the world devoid of player data, namely Eversong Woods) dropping to 91-93% whereas the 9800X3D can lock it down to 100% on those same 9070xt cards. This is setting up two platforms and the 270k running the Powercolor 9070xt Red Devil and hers running the Gigabyte OC Gaming 9070xt. Swapped cards back and forth, basically the same results. In same scenarios, Red Devil runs 3200+, while the Gigabyte runs 3100+. Red Devil pulls ~18w more stock for stock too. Gigabyte = SK Hynix Red Devil = Samsung Overall, even in raids, scary just how powerful the 5090 is and how much Blizzard has improved their optimizations for GPUs but they really do need to to where I can cap out the 9070xt easily in raids on X3D at 4k and even push the 5090 close to cap out many times even with all the FX going on and seeing 70-98% utilization depending on encounter and situation. I must reiterate how much the Intel anything + 9070xt is dogwater for Fallout 76. Running the 270k + 9070xt again is just the worst...... ------------------------------------------------------------------- Couldn't resist and picked up an open box Asus G16 9955HX3D + 5070ti for $1800 from Amazon Warehouse to do some testing especially in Fallout 76 since the Alienware 275hx + 5070ti was grossly underfeeding the 5070ti in spots in QHD most likely due to the architecture and inability to tune memory / support much higher speeds. Need to see if the 9955HX3D caps it out properly at QHD and at what fps. Pros: The Asus bios for AMD supports full Overclocking options for AMD versus the Intel counterpart. This model is known to run dead silent on light/ no load for desktop use Actually has a lower sound profile under load than the Alienware Cons: No out of box BIOS level memory tuning for the 32GB of DDR5 5600 memory (2x16GB). If the 9955HX3D caps out the 5070ti in Fallout 76 in QHD, which I expect it to do considering a 9800X3D caps out a desktop 5070 in QHD, it gives more weight to a potential 9955HX3D+5090 laptop. @win32asmguy how goes the Raider tuning and testing? ------------------------------------------------------------------- Still waiting on Asus to send the X870e Dark Hero so I can set up a test bench with it with the delidded 9850X3D and collect more WoW/Fallout 76 data testing all my cards: 5060, 9070xt x 2, 5080, 5090, 6000. It's the linchpin to start moving other parts around and get the SFF going too. ------------------------------------------------------------------- @tps3443 Titan Rig has a nice open box sale on an Astral GPU block if you want to block your beast: https://www.titanrig.com/openbox-alphacool-core-geforce-rtx-5090-rog-astral-gpu-water-block-with-backplate.html

Basically a stack shift to shoe horn in a very poor card where a 9060 should go while those former prices have all shifted up and will most likely continue to shift upward. This card is bad for the price. If it was $199.99 it suddenly becomes an ok budget card but $280? And this was the 8GB version..... I can imagine the 4GB version is just going to be extreme trash versus just normal trash on this one. WOW......I mean I'm glad to see the fuses doing their job but damn..... Hopefully this will be a quick and easy fuse swap and upgrade, but yikes.

I used Asus Astral 5080 vBIOS before since it has a 450w limit on the MSI 5080 I had last year for a bit but all three fans worked. I'm going to end up flashing it again on the SFF OC like yours. That and Melon should open them up like a beast especially yours on water so a fan not working won't be an issue for you. I wonder if a different version might wake up the non working fan since there are three variants floating around for the Astral 5080 (Black, Noctua, White) The tight knit community is alive and well. Crazy how enhancements and QoL are being implemented Fast and Furious.....

Final (ish) analysis of the whole can't boot / memory problems: Motherboards: Asus X870E Crosshair Hero (still waiting for the Dark variant to be sent out) HP Omen 35L Prebuilt B850 tower (8400F, 5060, single Rage 6000 DDR5 stick, 512GB NVME) Asrock Phantom B850i Asrock B850M-C CPUs: 8400f 7500X3D 9800X3D Memory: Kingston Rage (Rage) DDR5 6000 1x16GB SR Teamgroup (TG) 8200 2x24GB Kingbank (KB) 8400 2x24GB Corsair Vengeance (CV) 9200 2x24GB --------------------------------------------------------------------- Rage memory boots and runs in every motherboard with every CPU TG, and CV boots and runs with every MB and CPU except the 7500X3D KB boots and runs in Hero and HP except with 7500X3D . Total no go in both AsRock boards. This is a two fold with conflation: KB known issue with Asrock boards so they're a no go atm....it was conflating an issue with the 7500X3D. 7500X3D has a dud IMC and can't handle 24GB sticks in single or double config. None of the 2x24GB sticks will post on Asrock boards in single or double sticks with the 7500X3D. They will post on HP and Hero but trying to get to desktop they keep getting BSODs and exception errors on the login screens over and over tested from 4800-6000 it doesn't matter. BSOD city on the MBs it can actually boot. It has no problem with a single stick of SR 16GB Rage memory. All MBs are functional. It was the KB issue and 7500X3D IMC being faulty causing all the problems. Returning the B850i Phantom (popping it in the mail tomorrow) and send the 7500X3D to AMD for an RMA or see if MC would allow a replacement but it will work itself out one way or the other. I plan on running the SFF with my 9800X3D now anyhow and put the 9850X3D delidded into the new Hero Dark when it arrives. In a "we're blessed" moment, Imagine not having a decent amount of hardware to swap and test to log data and diagnose problems all because of a flaky/dud IMC on the CPU and hidden but known compatibility issue with KB sticks with some AsRock MBs.....crazy. ------------------------------------------------- Smart play when you want a third decently powerful GPU in play since you run three rigs usually at all times. Odds of scoring a secondary 5090, unlike the 4090 days, for a somewhat sane price (less than $3k) have long flown the coop. $1100 is super close to MSRP. Did you snag a WF OC SFF or normal? Unlike some of the OCN forum members who continue to pick up new 5090s, that's too rich for me. I'm going to ride this Vanguard into the ground as my main rig gem. This. I'm more than content with my Vanguard since it is a 1.125v sample right out of the box, but the 5080 tops out at 1.040 so that is going to be major fun OCing the 5080 for funsies to see where it goes. Just hoping Jensen doesn't shoot us the bird right back and find a way to lock it out in a future driver revision. I can just imagine Jensen screaming, "THE MORE YOU SPEND THE MORE YOU BUY MOTHER%$*$)($S!!!" and smashing his keyboard against a bunch of GPU displays...... 🤣 ---------------------------------------------- Jensen right now watching everyone celebrating having control over our own hardware to push the voltage where we want:

"New" system coming out for 2026......rerelease of 2021 hardware.... https://www.bestbuy.com/product/acer-aspire-xc-1715_czn-ub13-desktop-amd-ryzen-3-5000-series-2021-8gb-lpddr5-512gb-usb-keyboard-and-mouse-black/JJ8V8HY7FJ/sku/6679698 Regression at its most finest to compensate for the AI gear hoovering atm.... --------------------------------------------- It makes you wonder why a 2-dimm board would introduce extra length to the traces and chance for signal errors at high/tight settings unless the spacing is compatible for a potential 4 dimm version too? Yeah I'm right behind ya with a Newegg RMA. I already got my RMA to send back the Asrock B850i Phantom. Basically shares the same BIOS as the B850M-C and both are trash IMHO that are having the exact same problems that extend beyond the whole KingBank fiasco. Even with a fan with an open case raining down AC cooled air, if my temps in my room rise....which they most certainly will with a 5090 at work.....an on the edge OC on my memory will crash and burn sporadically especially gear 2 8000+ Another reason a CPU/MEM loop has me interested. I've thought about a window AC unit to offset the fact my computer room routinely gets much warmer than the rest of the house to keep it a rock steady ~70 in here vs the inevitable temp creep when I'm gaming and the 5090 is a portable heater. Seriously, just like the 4090 but moreso, in the winter months I shut the door and use it to really heat up my room when I get cold.

TM5 is primarily Memory and some CPU. Windows Memory Diagnostics. I just toss it on top of the pile with MemTest when I'm just hitting it different ways but less intense than Karhu. If I can make it past TN5 extreme I'm usually good but many times toss Absolut on it for that extra lock down for at least 90 minutes on either.

Here's a crazy odd problem for ya courtesy of Asrock.... So remember that Asrock board that refused to boot with the $237.50 combo with the 7500X3D from MC? On the last return day to MC, I decided to roll the dice and keep it and see if it or even potentially the 7500X3D was truly defective or some other issue. I considered it a sub $250 fun project plus I didn't want to have to burn another $15-20 in gas.... I had ordered the B850i Phantom ITX from Asrock (<== major clue) and it wouldn't boot either. Swapped three different CPUs (9800X3D, 8400f, 7500X3D) and four different kits of memory. Same no post issues. Odds of two faulty motherboards is slim to none. Common denominator was Asrock. Had that HP Omen 35L HP sent me a few months back on the shelf (8400f, 5060, 16GB Rage memory, 500w PSU....such power) so I decided to open it up to use as a test bed in this "why won't Asrock work?" fiasco and of course everything works in there. 9800X3D? Sure. 8400f? Yep. 7500X3D? You betcha. KingBank memory? Boots right up no problem right along with all my other sticks. Did some googlin' and..... Issue turned out to be my KingBank 2x24GB sticks which I found out are known to have timing issues with Asrock boards even at Jedec. But wait, there's more. Testing those sticks first every time would load in the problematic timings and basically somehow wreck all the subsequent sticks I would test to the point I couldn't even blind flash the bios update on the B850i. Everything had to be completely reset/reseat and you could not start with the KingBank sticks or the same vicious "doesn't matter what sticks you put in here now, I'm not working" cycle would start again....even a single stick wouldn't boot. If I start with a known, working stick of memory and boot but then power down and install the KingBank sticks it won't work but I can at least go back to another set of sticks and they will eventually boot. It is only when I install a new/different CPU and start first with the KingBank sticks that everything goes to poo. This is with both boards running the newest 4.43 bios from Asrock.... Here is one chap with the problem, others who knew about it and Asrock offering a beta bios to fix the issue at least for his Nova board: I'm still testing and retesting to lock it down but either way, I won't be using the KingBank sticks in the Asrock boards. I'm going to swap out my TG 2x24GB 8200 sticks in my main rig and put the KingBanks in there even if they are overall inferior. If I can really lock this down and have total confidence in the MC combo for my C26 portable build, I'll send back the B850i, but we'll see as testing continues.....

Very nice! Chip looks to be a banger! When running on that edge, those little segues into instability from what was previously stable are frustrating. If I can't do at least 8000 I would stick with 6000 super tight (or as close as I could get to 2200/6600) but that's just me. 🙂 I keep a 140mm fan on my memory too but even with that at 8000+, temps are an issue in my AC cooled room hence contemplating a CPU/MEM loop. I know I would be paranoid about water dripping on my GPU and would most likely get a vertical riser kit so if water were to suddenly leak it would miss the GPU... Hey, at least the 12vfail is running nicely!

You're absolutely right CO can definitely trash your memory OC but we also had this to a lesser degree even back to 6th gen Intel I can recall experiencing having to adjust my memory OC to reflect core OC. Had to strike that synergy between memory and cores but back then I focused on clock OC then would shape my memory OC around it. Since the advent of AM5 and especially AL, I tune memory first and lock it down then lock down a D2D core OC shaped around that. As for curve optimizing, I tend to test static OCs first to try and get an idea of what can be done fixed then work with CO around that. I started doing that when testing 5800x chips and found static and CO all tended to lead to the same place but CO gives you better per core dynamic performance and you can have your cake (all core OC) and eat it too (even higher per core boosting).

Really depends on what level of stability you're seeking, but I usually start with a basic 90 min run of TM5 to kick off anything as that usually covers all my bases for basic D2D use. If I find memory errors or issues gaming pop up, almost like clockwork TM5 will flag errors. Just for first tier testing, I toss in WMD and even memtest and OCCT. If I can pass all four, for me personal needs that is usually good enough. I'm not going to subject my laptops to Karhu or similar but if you want to make things spicy you can give that a whirl.

You misspelled "God Mode".... 😂 Does 1.25 make it completely stable or is 6000 still problematic? Really looks like that 9955HX3D wants to settle in at 5800. Not the end of the world, but meh.....I know the 7945HX3D had no problems with 6000 in a similar dual die setup. It was a straight full assembly swap and not a panel only swap? Makes it much easier for warranty claims in the future to swap back easily but that is a strange bug too. I like the eventual @Mr. Fox drift to a new primary platform. Whenever you have two chips of the same ilk, that is the dominant platform. 270k has finally supplanted AM5, so it now rules the HenHouse. 🙂 Eventually AM6 and/or Nova will slowly move in and either AM6 will replace thje Epyc and/or Nova will replace the lesser 270k..... Yeah, I thank the stars daily for pulling the trigger when I did on various items especially memory. The upper tier stuff is disappearing completely or becoming bonkers expensive. I see you're well enough to lift those abominations into the box for a photo shoot @Papusan 🤣

Whoa, didn't see that coming, congrats @Reciever! Not sure you'll be able to handle all that power man!! That's a huge step up! Keeping it in the family is always a plus 💜 -------------------------------------------------------- Having delidded dozens of CPUs over the years, this is always the first thing that smacks you in the face the instant insane cooler running..... ------------------------------------------------------- Makes total sense with the price hikes and 5090s trickling in.....at least from Asus's perspective. Prices are in flux real time. There's no realistic backstock to fall back on.....thanks Nvidia! We know what's incoming..... Asus and Gigabyte raising prices by 20% in Chinese channels Gigabyte raising prices by up to 40% in Japan GPU Prices up by 30% in South Korea Prices are also on the rise 5080 on down. Microcenter has officially raised prices and something like the GB WF SFF 5080 I picked up open box for $983 less than three weeks ago is now officially "$1599.99" with some old stock marked as on sale atm or clear out, but this is a portend of things to come. 60% over MSRP......crazy. Cheapest 5070ti is $989 and those prices haven't been adjusted up yet but basically (may be worse but at least): 5080 $1599 new low price incoming 5070ti $1199 new low price incoming 5070 $699 new low price incoming 9070xt's are supposed to get a price hike soon but the problem is nobody is buying and they really should at a certain point with some of these prices. I seriously think AMD is the only reason Nvidia is somewhat not blowing up 5070 and 5070ti prices even more like they are doing with the 5080 and especially the 5090. --- With the contraction of the overall PC market, the logic here for MB makers is.....charge more because those who were going to buy will buy anyhow? Maybe Intel with Nova Lake, but AMD users will just keep their AM5 boards and upgrade their CPUs if they feel the need..... https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-gigabyte-and-msi-reportedly-plan-motherboard-price-increases-for-q3-2026 Don't forget memory is officially booked through 2027..... Good times!!