electrosoft

I've been running the 9070xt and then the 5080 for over a week now as I slowly test and certified the Dark Hero "ready for deployment," and moved it into the Phanteks so I've kind of got used to playing WoW and Fallout on the Dark Hero with the 9850X3D running at 5600+ with the Corsair Vengeance 9200 sticks tuned to 8000. The overall setup is basically a tighter, slightly faster refinement over my Hero + 9800X3D + TG 8200 sticks on all levels. I do like how the Dark Hero drops the primary GPU slot down another notch. It really centers the GPU in a nice way depending on case or gets it even closer to bottom fans for stronger air flow which will be the case when all this moves into the H9 Flow Then I slapped the 5090 back in there yesterday and was quickly brought back to reality just how much better it is overall in every way.... I'm also running the Lian Li 360 Lite now after having run the Noctua 420 for several days. The Lian Li actually fits up top on the Phanteks and after adjusting the pump curve (same as I had to do with Noctua) it is running just as quiet. Fans aren't as quiet but quiet enough. Continued testing back and forth and the Lian Li runs just as cool as the Noctua and both trounce all my other AIOs so I'm going to send back the Noctua as it isn't worth the $300 vs the $85 Lian Li with AM5 at least. I do need to set up an RMA with Asus to replace my x870e Hero due to the flickering/dying RGB logo panel. Doesn't affect the board at all, but for resell it will put a dent in its value for those who care. 19 months of solid service handling 8000+ like a boss.... ----------------------------- Yeah, the sudden lack of 5090s on the shelf and price spike followed by the leak from a factory. Classic Jensen. Trust me, Jensen will continue to pillage the consumer sector to feed the AI segment as the GB203 full fat die is already used in the RTX 4500 with 32GB of memory. If that card was in greater demand on the level of GB202 cards, Jensen would have no problems gobbling up those dies. If Nvidia suddenly introduced let's say a RTX 4600 with the GB203 and 64GB of memory for $7500 and it became a smash hit being sucked up like the 090 / 6000 cards, 5080s would suddenly shoot to 2000+ to start if not more and stock would start to dwindle fast. ------------------------------------ 5080 24gb rumored for January as 5080 is discontinued and the 5090 goes through an "allocation change" vs a flat out discontinuation which makes sense in case the AI bubble collapses they can just go, "Hey AIBs! Look! GB202's are back!! Kiss the ring!" https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-rtx-5080-24gb-reportedly-launching-in-q1-2027-board-partners-still-waiting-for-details

Personally, I think prices are going to go higher. 5090s will now dry up everywhere and be hoarded for personal use or those who reach a, "I can't say no," offer will sell theirs off for what will most likely be AI deployment either domestic or abroad. Locally, there are a few buyers openly offering $5500 cash for any and all 5090s. They will come to you, test your card, hand you a fat stack and carry on. When they say, "Any brand, as long as it is working we pay $5500," you have a pretty good idea of where those cards are going.... Pricing will be fractionally in sync with the RTX 5500 and as eventually GB202 5090 dies are limited, even the RTX 5500 will go up in price along with the 5090s still out there. Basically, as long as purchasing and converting a 5090 into an AI card makes financial sense / profitable, pricing will continue to trend upward. Luckily, I have this sub $1k 5080 and 2x 9070xt (one being in the wife's system) cards so if the right offer suddenly appeared, I can't see myself turning down $7k but not till next year at the earliest and probably summertime at that. You also have to think that this EOL is fresh and brand new and whatever stock is out there is going to evaporate quickly and then the second hand market turns into a resource strapped buy/sell with prices trending up. Like I said above, I'm still holding onto mine for a few reasons and one of them being I expect prices to trend up a bit more before leveling off in relation to the RTX 5500 pricing. I'm still playing on the 9850X3D + 5080 config atm as I've been too busy/lazy to break down the current test setups and start the transition to final boss form. The performance hit is real in WoW. I'm not used to seeing full utilization and sitting under 100fps quite often but for the right $$$ I could live with it but it has to be a price point that is high enough to override going years with a significant and noticeable performance drop. $6k which would be a $4k profit won't make or break me in any which way, shape or form and I don't need the money, so is it worth the loss of superior performance for the next year+? I still get aggravated when buyers get salty over pricing. I've come to realize they fully understand current market conditions. They are just hoping to sob story / brow beat you into giving them yesteryear level pricing....

I was out of town for NYCC, so I just got a chance to watch this. I liked what I saw. He's coming into it with rested, fresh eyes and open to BTF and other changes. That's a good thing. He isn't jaded. You KNOW those parts are binned AF especially with his buddy Shamino working there. I am sure that 9950x, 270k and Astral 5090 BTF are gonna RIP. Cardboard boxed MBs including 2x AMD and 1x Intel. Asus basically sent him $10k worth of hardware and you know what? I'm ok with it. Dude is a legend and I'm glad he's come back home. Oh they most certainly will except as much pricier AI cards. 5090 resell values will be directly tied to the pricing of GB202 formerly 5090 die cards so they will plateau around $6k-$7k unless prices continue to rise for the AI 5090 aka RTX 5500 which is estimated to cost ~$9200 with 84GB of memory but I suspect it will go for more and rise quickly and 5090s could eventually hit ~$8k. Eventually 5090s even on the second hand market will evaporate as they are snatched up for AI. If they start to resell for $7k+ by next year, there is a very strong chance I will let mine go but we will see in the moment. Either way, the 5080 GB203 is fully tapped out so the only way to see a true xx80TI card would have to be an even more cut down GB202 but with the way AI is snatching up everything, that ~15k core count card would probably be paired with 64GB of memory and sold as yet another AI product at this rate. Ironically, it is the limitations of the grid that could be one of the factors that slows down the onslaught of AI. It will hit a wall either through lack of buildout resources, debt fatigue, failure on ROI or all of thee above. Bad enough when they would message you telling you "a friend" had what you were looking for and to email them at *****@*****.tld, but now they're trying to use the old phishing approach of making names appear as close as possible in messaging. Definitely going to snag that. The amount of adjustability and features being unlocked recently is awesome. Everyone checking their ASIC scores? 🤣 I suspect they did it because the GB203 in the 5080 is full fat and to offer a 5080 Super in the future could only be a power bump so they went ultra conservative with its power profile. Of course if current rumors are true and they discontinue consumer level 5080 and 5090 models and only offer a 5090 24GB model, it will suddenly be a 600w capable unit too.....thank you Jensen....

And it starts....as predicted 5090 discontinued 5080 16gb discontinued Incoming 5080 24GB as the new flagship gaming card... I would not be surprised to see it for $1499.99 moving forward... Get ready for the 6080 24GB as our new "flagship", no 6090 and needing to spend blackwell pro levels of $$$ for what would have been 6090 performance bump but Nvidia putting all gaming "gains" behind DLSS and FG.... "According to a notification from the factory, Nvidia will no longer manufacture any RTX 5090 models, including the D variants," a message cited by @hongxing2020 reads. "Going forward, the highest-end GeForce graphics card will be the RTX 5080 24GB, while the RTX 5080 16GB version will be discontinued. Please spread the word." With the rumors showing AMD bringing the heat next gen, I have no problems moving back to AMD for, oh what would it be now, the 5th time over the last 10+ generational leaps since 2000? Pretty disgusting if this pans out.... New eventual product stack at this rate till 2028: 5080 24gb 5070ti 16gb 5070 12gb 5060ti 8gb 5060 8gb 5050 8gb

I get this way too with wallpapers. The motherboard is the conduit to all and if it is system themed wallpaper, it has to be to that AIB. I am also open to mash ups...like I'm running an Asus MB but with an MSI GPU...that's worthy of a mash up.

So I'm in need of a Windows 11 Pro key. Has anyone used gvgmall or ggkeys to purchase a super cheap one? I won't script auto activate, but I'm sure as heck not paying retail off the shelf prices either.... ------------------------------------------------------ Current rig is in "ghetto" mode with the 5080 and X870E Dark Hero running on the Noctua 420mm in the soon to be departed Phanteks. I ordered an NZXT H9 Flow to replace it from best buy on sale for $109.99. The Phanteks has no room up top to seriously mount anything 420 and 360 blocks access to the top part of the MB along with the case being so wide/long that any AIO that needs to front mount has to have longer tubes. Noctua and Lian Li both have too short of tubes to reach. It could use more room in the back too. I've used it for 5yrs and 8 months. It has earned a worthy retirement. I've been testing the Noctua 420mm against several AIOs I have on hand (Yes, I have a problem): Lian Li Lite 360 Lian Li Galahad Performance Arctic LF II 420 ID Cooling Frostflow 280 (hottest of the AIO lot) Arctic LF III 360 Performance (mid 70s...this was disappointing) eK Nucleus 240 Asus Prime LC 360 Trofeo Vision 360 Paladin EX400 Air Cooler Stock AM5 OEM cooler (Insta throttle for shiggles) All with a center dot of KPX Tested on AM5 9850X3D delidded Pure stock (~150w-160w max load) Final verdict? Noctua beats every other AIO from 4c to 10c EXCEPT the $85 Lian Li Lite 360 ARGB which tied with it at ~66.5c. I think I mentioned before the Lian Li Lite 360 was getting best in class temps in testing last year and rave reviews. Downsize is the pump noise but tuning the curve in BIOS to 50% took care of that when not under high load. Don't let the Noctua fool you. That pump is loud. It has three manual selections on the pump high balanced and quiet and only quiet truly made it near inaudible. The other two it is very easy to hear. Fans it is no contest. Noctua is crazy quiet under load vs the Lian Li, but at low loads both are quiet. Difference is the Noctua is near dead quiet. The secret sauce to Noctua are those fans. Under load, the Lian Li fans are definitely front and center. Not a deal breaker but under load the Noctua fan noise level is that of many AIOs at idle. I'm going to switch to the Lian Li Lite 360 for a few days and see how it fares for normal D2D usage vs the Noctua. If I like what I see, I'll probably return the Noctua but we'll see....

I love my PC hobby, but I've been Mac and iphone as my core setup for years now for work along with an iPad. With all the cross platform tools, there's a reason many of the big houses now deploy Macbooks for dev work. I agree with @Mr. Fox on this one @Papusan. You have to attack the problem on all levels and the reason Microcenter implements a one per household / ID checked policy on many products IS to prevent scalpers and also in this case straw buyers and agents from buying up 5090 products and just either finding a way to sell/ship them as is or ripping the cores and memory off the board and shipping them that way. This isn't much tighter than their valid ID on file / One GPU per month quota they had during the Pandemicryptoboom. It is also why Microcenter routinely has items in stock while you can't find them any place else online because bots don't work when you can only reserve items online for pickup and then have to eventually enter the store front to purchase and pick up in person. In short, on any level, any potential scalper/straw buyer/agent that is turned away by this new requirement opening up even one unit for a legit customer is a win. I agree the main culprits are the corporations and big AIBs/resellers, but would you rather scalpers and straw buyers be able to walk in and just buy out everything they want? Toss out the baby with the bathwater? Trust me, if Microcenter decided to go all Newegg/Amazon and just volume sell online, their stores would be even barer than they are now for many products. $7k desktops anyone? It is the one thing still hanging on atm for 5090s..... As for the 5070, at MSRP to me it was one of the sweet spot cards I called around launch. Yeah for a bit there it was running like dogwater.... I just load it up and go get something to drink... 🤣 I usually don't complain. I know you guys are all over it when you get time. Ruh Roh! You tend to keep things in threes.... This means either one of the Apex's is on its way out or you're heading towards being done with AM5 before Nova drops 🤣 Looks nice! Again, I was tempted to snap it up but I've yet shockingly found myself with a pile of hardware again that I will have to wait till January to downsize. I'm on the cusp of kicking myself up into another tax bracket because of this year and I definitely don't need that.... Or I am going to have to go the local/FB/CL route which I haven't done in a bit to offload some gear.

K|NGP|N coming back to the OC scene: "K-Pop Kung Fu Class" as a reason for switching studios was not on my bucket list of reasons to move to another location.... Looks like he's going with Asus..... New OC channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClS4F_eKD3PCihwI9ZvrdwQ Welcome back! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Same boat.... I thought about selling but I switched to my Power Devil 9070xt then 5080 in my main rig for a few days and watching those frames seriously drop and sitting at 100% util more often than not in WoW 4k ultra 10 sent me scurrying back to my 5090. Yeah, I could pocket $3-4k+ profit right now and then what? Sit around and bitch whine and moan about being capped out and not getting the performance I want for the next 12-18 months just to see the prices of the 6090 requiring a kidney assuming it launches by Q1 2028? I'd rather enjoy the here and now with state of the art performance for the next 15 months if not more.... Have you given your 5090 the mvolt+ treatment yet? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- That is awesome news @Reciever! Know your worth and demand no less. Sometimes you have to be proactive and other times those around you will see and acknowledge your quality work and reward you thusly. Now, just go ahead and finance that 5090..... 🤣 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Glad to see you taking the small, but meaningful, steps to right the ship and being able to drive again has to feel good. Losing self autonomy is never a good thing on any scale and driving is a big one. Just keep trying like you said to stick around and keep us up to date on the tech sector doom and gloom. 🙂 --- I am not shocked at that EVGA report. Nvidia and Jensen needed AIBs and gamers years ago but at every chance afforded to them well before the AI BS, they made sure to put the screws to AIBs and cook the books with crypto and continue to push prices as far as able while casting their illusions of MSRP and deliver less for more each and every cycle. EVGA went out on a high note with their GPUs and Motherboards and downsized to peripherals. I don't blame them one bit. --- The cable, according to TG data collected so far with the WVP2, is the primary issue regardless of MSI burning up or other makers like the PNY reported a day or two before this one. It was an Asrock PSU. In the comments: He literally recommended over and over to his friend to get a WVP2 or at least a better 3.1 compliant PSU. With the WVP2 I am pretty sure he would have immediately seen a high imbalance on a pin or two but without a WVP2, or a 3.1 PSU that reports pin monitoring or an Astral. Without any of these reporting protections, you are basically piddling blindly in the wind every time you use your 5090. Before my WVP2 and MSI sending me an Ai 1600T PSU, I purposely used the included tentacle just in case for warranty claims. Switched to the MSI PSU and its included 12vhpwr cable keeping MSI completely responsible for the warranty chain and then added a WVP2 and their warranty on top of it for extra added support. De8auer said they haven't had a single report of a WVP2 burning up yet from WVP2 to GPU connection. At this point, anyone running a 5090 without a WVP2, a pin monitoring compatible PSU or at the least using the tentacle to keep any burning issues warranty claims valid are playing with fire. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ditto, I'm holding onto my 5090 for at least another year if not more. Zero reason to sell. I'll re-evaluate the landscape next October/Nov when the 6000 series is potentially on the horizon. Hopefully the AI bubble will have popped or at least deflated a little by then. That makes sense with the 5090FE. The value proposition of it getting it for retail was its main draw by far. Price not being an issue, Astral is a sick card and removing price as a factor, I'd take an Astral over my Vanguard all day everyday on industrial aesthetics alone albeit I did find my Vanguard had the best silicon in my testing between it, the Astral and the Ventus but I would have to rerun those tests in the here and now with mvolt+. Whew, I'm glad you kept the overall better sample with the best fclk. It did seem the best on paper. Have you done any 8000+ testing yet? I agree on pressure. I was having issues with the delidded 9850X3D and the TG Heatspreader with 8000+ testing suddenly failing. One flaw I've found with the TG HS is heat expansion and cooling eventually loosens up the screws a bit. This might not be a problem with a tight pairing and a block keeping the pressure where it needs to be, but right now I'm still sorting out the Z-height issues so the pairing isn't as tight as it could or should be atm so eventually over the course of hours or days, my memory settings will fail. I dug through some older AM5 compliant heatsinks I have on the shelf and found a set of shorter by ~2.5mm non-spec standoffs I plan on swapping in to compensate to see if that helps along with shoring up proper pairing pressure to get temps to be a bit better. At the moment, I am not super pleased with the TG HS, but we'll see after this final testing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I still need to get back to the G16 for some Bios tuning and testing but my desktop has been my focus atm. Yeah, three of them showed up. Two sold for $3500-3700. One was delisted but it had scam written all over it at the time. Do a completed sales history search on 9955HX3D 5090. Purchasing from an official outlet definitely was the way to go and get that three year warranty. With the way the market is going and offerings, it will be the best overall for the next few years. We won't see a 6000 mobile refresh till 2nd or 3rd quarter or 2028 at this rate. I plan on playing both retail and forever. I've always played Paladins since launch but I also alt druids and hunters from time to time. During Vanilla, I was all about my Paladin, priest and hunter. Priest had Benediction in Vanilla and Hunter had Rhok'Delar. I was guild leader with a top raiding guild back in the day and once we had MC and BWL on farm, loots eventually trickled down since we ran DKP globally and once everyone was geared up enough I let alts tag along for runs to get some good loot too. We had a server first Hand of Ragnaros but could NOT get the second half of the binding to drop for Thunderfury! 🤣 I burned out halfway through BWL and went casual after that. WoW stopped being fun and became more a job and managing egos. I'm pretty sure I am going to main a druid this time around and alt a hunter again.

De8auer going over data from problems detected with the WVP2.... ~9 months in production data sample window compared against WVP1 dataset Sold 5x as many WVP2 as WVP1 WVP1 reports of melting/issues ZERO reports of melting WVP2 units 98% of the cases are cable issues 2% were WVP2 replacements for various reasons up to and including a faulty connector 0% were the GPU connector itself... Noctua edition has beautiful refinements and obviously runs quieter. Noctua uses a different heatsink and PCB for full PWM control vs just DC control on the original. Original WVP2 price on TG website is $140.28 Noctua Edition is $222.18 So Noctua is ~58% more Extrapolating on Amazon, the current WVP2 is 169.99 so expect potentially to pay ~268 on Amazon when it finally arrives.

100% I do think Nvidia came up with this new standard because they could see: A> The writing on the wall in regards to power consumption and the idea of running 4+ 8 pin connectors wasn't feasible space wise which leads into... B> The rise of AI and multiple cards all using a single power cable for arrays of AI equipped Nvidia GPUs... The issue is the connector is problematic but again how many connectors do we see blowing up in AI farms running thousands of these cards? Too many variables on the end user front and I'm not saying the connector isn't chock full of fail (it most certainly is), but it is a big Venn Diagram of problematic connector to the left and user error to the right.... Best bet, again, is to run the tentacle or at least get a PSU that is the same brand as your card so if something blows up, the company can't point fingers elsewhere. It pains me to side with PNY on this one, but since PNY doesn't make PSUs, running the tentacle would have kept the warranty responsibility on them. Unfortunately in today's market it really is a good price and that is why they sold out ASAP. 😞 And yes, for personal AI work, I would take a 5060 Ti 16GB over a 9070 XT atm.... As for cables, while that sucks, the warranty chain is entirely on MSI and yet again a reason to make sure to use the included adapter with your card or at least use a PSU that is from the same 5090 AIB so any melting connector issues are entirely on them. If you are using a 5090 with a third party power cable for vanity sake then things can get muddled when something melts down. Many times it isn't even the 12vhpwr connector itself but cable that blows and takes your connector with it. Again, I ran the tentacle religiously on my 4090 and 5090 till the WV2Pro AND getting an MSI 1600w PSU. How ya feeling these days @Papusan? Health on the mend and getting better? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Somehow Gigabyte shanked it with their 16" 9955HX3D 2026 laptops (they opted to replace Intel with this refresh from their 2025 variants). Insanely loud fans, subpar performance..... But as the game performance charts show, when X3D shines, it insanely shines. Part of this is due to some games loving that cache. The other part is the absolutely atrocious memory settings and adjustability on 15th gen Intel laptops.... Some OC controls in the BIOS but no CO offset like MSI and Asus.... Timestamped for 9955HX3D vs 275HX

They do have a point, though..... It is one reason I purposely used the MSI included 4 headed dongle of death originally with my Vanguard and my Suprim 4090 because if anything were to go wrong, it is on MSI. Worst case, the connector melts. Best case, just one of the tentacles (or more) melts down which is an easy replacement. Either way, the entire chain is on MSI. Now I use an actual MSI PSU AND a WV2Pro with two layers of warranty claim protection if my 5090 goes POOF! In this case, what caused it? The connector? The Asrock Cable/PSU? Both? Looking at the pictures, it appears to be an Asrock issue as it is burned on BOTH ends. Not that it doesn't suck, but I'm going to agree with PNY on this one and the owner now needs to go after Asrock and loop them in on the claim and see where things settle.

5090 resell prices are reaching peak insanity: Current bidding on a 5090 Vanguard on eBay hit $7k @tps3443 last few 5090 FEs sold went for ~$6k!! Average selling price is $6k+ and climbing.... In a few Facebook PC hardware groups discussions, those selling their 5090s are literally putting them up for ~$6k and selling immediately paid in cash or zelle. We all know where they are going, but still...... To say the temptation to sell my 5090 Vanguard isn't strong would be a lie 🤣 At this rate, I would basically be swapping my 5090 for a Mac Studio Ultra.... But the question is, can I be happy with the massive drop in performance vs my $988 5080 or $720 9070xt? If you sell your 5090, you're basically resigning yourself to the 5080 or 9070xt moving forward for the next ~2 years and depending on how the 6000 series pans out, it could be longer.... ------------------------------------------------------------- WoW Forever is a hot mess on Macs atm so devs have a lot of work ahead of them considering retail runs decent on the M4 Max. I picked up the Forever Edition since I have oodles of in game gold sitting there and just converted a chunk of it to real $$$. I've done this for the last I think 4 Xpacs? Mac Mini M4 (10 GPU cores): Macbook Pro M5 Max (40 GPU cores): ------------------------------------------------------------ Yeah, I am still accumulating parts / waiting for a few back ordered parts for my AM5/5080 SFF buildout, but right now the G16 is really checking all the boxes. I could see downsizing to just the Clevo PE60 at this point. I saw a few more 9950HX3D/5090 raiders pop up on eBay but at the moment I've lost my zest for them with the Asus atm. Are you going to play WoW Forever? I am, but the wife isn't feeling it as retail is her comfort zone. Even with the QoL improvements, it is still vanilla / classic so it might be a little too hardcore for her so we will see. ------------------------------------------------------------ Always a chance you take when you purchased open box / used items, but even laptops being stripped of their memory and SSDs: https://wccftech.com/msi-vector-a18-hx-amazon-listing-32gb-ram-ssd-missing/

M5 Ultra vs a 9950X3D + 5090 kitted out PC: CPU: Bonkers, next level CPU performance. Absolutely trashes Intel and AMD at 150w with their 36 core model both single and multi. Single core: ~44% faster Multi core: ~80% faster All this while consuming 25% less power in a small, compact box that makes zero noise 99% of the time and even under load is a fraction of the noise a typical PC generates. You're going to need a Threadripper 9970x (32 core) to compete, but not beat, at this point on multi. To flat out beat Apple, you will need a 9980x. On both, they absolutely get destroyed for single core performance. On Single, Intel and AMD are going to have to bring some serious magic in their next gen CPUs or Apple will just continue to dominate and I don't think they're going to even get close to catch Apple in single threaded performance. Looking forward to the 52 core Intel Nova "Open all salvos!" Lake beast vs the M5 Ultra. Heck, even the 28 core might get close in multi. Blender Render = M5 Ultra is ~72% faster GPU: Time to come back to reality Apple vs Nvidia..... Optimized for Nvidia, 5090 pulls ahead showing Nvidia's strength in terms of raw power, vertical integration and software stacks. LLMs: If memory isn't an issue, 5090 is a beast but obviously 32GB can't stack up against 96GB or 256GB. Toss in an RTX 6000 (or two or three) and it's game over but then again you can score a fully kitted M5 Ultra with 96GB of memory and 1TB storage and max CPU/GPU config for $6799.99 for less than half the price of an RTX 6000. You can score a 256GB model for $10799 which is 2/3 the cost of a single RTX 6000 at this point. In the end, Apple's massively upgraded Neural Processors are no match for Nvidia's raw power but their unified memory architecture is where they have always shined. Expect the 512GB model (not available yet) to cost ~$17k as the 256GB model is currently $10,799.,99 and upgrading from 96GB to 256GB is a $4k up charge. So you end up with a 512GB M5 Ultra for what is quickly becoming the cost of a single RTX 6000. Video editing, M5 Ultra: DaVinci = tied Abobe Pro = M5 Ultra finished in less than half the time Gaming: Time for a brutal reality check. Even Metal optimized, 5090 just trashes the M5 Ultra and is over twice as fast. M5 Ultra looks to be right between 5070ti-5080 in gaming performance but looking at some of the results that are actually taking advantage of the 80 core GPU, there is some optimizations to be had but....yeah, the 5090 just drops the hammer on Apple....just like Nvidia dropped the hammer on AMD with the 5090. My final verdict? M5 CPU architecture is next level. Absolutely next level. GPU has really come along way even vs M4 and its strength lies in its unified memory bandwidth especially in these AI driven days. For my personal use, target LLMs for particular use cases the 5090's 32GB is working out just fine and this is where it absolutely shines. If you need more than 32GB, performance scarily drops off as expected and you need to start looking at the 5080 based 4500 card with 48GB or even 5500 (barf) up to a 6000 to match the 96GB config from Apple. 256GB config for $10,799 really makes a compelling config for many small AI shops, startups or individuals because it costs less than a single 6000 by almost $5k and you get over 2.5x the memory. I suspect the 512GB will also be a very compelling buy for those on a budget but needing 512GB of memory.

Yeah, the 5080 really has the headroom too fully appreciate overclocking at what tops out at an extreme but "sane"ish type level vs the 5090 requiring a nuclear reactor. Extrapolating, that Steel Nomad is like scoring ~ 21k+ on a 5090... That Timespy score is bonkers both GPU, CPU and combined... I see you right behind Jwick on the bot in the 2 slot a few times, lots of top 5/10 finishes and #1 in TSE! Excellent work!

Holy crap..... 825w through a 5080?! Sheesh.

Technically, it comes down to what resolution and detail levels you want to run and expected fps and then apply DLSS5 over it. If you're running 1080p medium you can drastically adjust down to even a 5060 paired with a 5050. If you're wanting to run 4k ultra the same rules apply and depending on game, a 5090 paired with a 5070ti would be optimal, but looking at that WoW video, it is paired with a 5070 and handling it ok too. So far, it looks like when paired properly, you achieve close to your original fps with DLSS5 enabled using a second card to handle DLSS5 only. DLSS5 is known to up the power draw overall (there have been some reports of burning cards trying to run DLSS5 on the same GPU) but what else is new? But if you're off rendering DLSS5 that would, in the case of the 5090 at least, leave that extra headroom for a standard 600w card to extract maximum performance and then have your lesser card render DLSS5 only. I haven't come across someone running dual monitoring or a HWinfo log to see how much is actually pulled. The beautiful thing is with the current wrapper, even 9070xt supports DLSS5. As always, it will trip anti cheats so you either have to play single player games only or as Jansn did, pass through the output externally for processing and display. How is GPU utilization overall running QHD with the 5090m and 9955HX3D? So many think WoW could run on a tin can and it definitely does not. So many times zipping around in WoW at 4k ultra RT enabled and I routinely see the 5090 hitting 90%+ utilization which lets me know a 5080, like the 9070xt, would be sitting capped out more often than not at lower fps. I even see some utilization spikes into the 80s even in the city with the 9800X3D tuned up. Since those initial runs I posted for your comparison to your monster MSI with the same CPU, I haven't gotten back to the G16 yet but I'll get back over there for more tuning and gaming sessions. I have 6 days to return it, but I'm definitely keeping it for several reasons. First and foremost is how quiet it runs and the only way I can get it to get the fans going is to put it under meaningful stress. Two, I'm not hating the smaller PSU and much smaller and lighter chassis. It reminds me of the Clevo NH55 12900k + 3070ti in size and weight. I really like the 240hz display. It isn't as bright and in your face as the Alienware, but much more balanced. It is flat out beating my Alienware with the 275HX in gaming in WoW and especially in Fallout 76 in my test spots. Lastly, cost.

World of Warcraft current retail Midnight DLSS5 using a 5090 primary and DLSS5 external rendering with a 5070.... Talking to Oglethorpe over on OCN, apparently the 5090 pairs best with a 5070ti and a 5080 with a 5070. 5090 + 5080 is slight overkill but that's ok. In current market conditions, 5080 + 5070 is going to be the sweet spot methinks.... Once we get around the anti cheat problems and external DLSS5 rendering refinements, this is going to be the god mode way of playing.... Same goes for Fallout 76. Same anti cheat problems atm, but here is Fallout 4 (same engine and basically graphics) with DLSS5 enabled. Absolutely gorgeous. More realistic (IE not modded to the gills) Fallout 4 with DLSS5 is still crazy good looking: I said it before, but I'll said it again. DLSS5 is such a more radical leap forward for graphics fidelity than Ray Tracing it isn't even in the same galaxy.

Not that we're surprised and it was fully expected, but possibly no new GPUs from AMD and Nvidia till 2028..... If the market demand keeps up as is, I wouldn't be surprised to see a fall 2028 release and an almost full 3yr cycle vs 2yr. https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-geforce-rubin-and-most-amd-rdna-5-gpus-reportedly-not-coming-until-2028 ---------------------------------- Another nifty tool that raises the power limits of Nvidia laptop GPU: https://videocardz.com/newz/modder-creates-tool-that-raises-rtx-5070-ti-laptop-gpu-power-to-180w-rtx-5090-up-to-225w Not sure what we will see, but I know my OC'd Alienware 5070ti at 175w wasn't much, if at all, over my G16 9955HX3D 5070ti OC 140w. @win32asmguy push that 5090 to 225w..... ----------------------------------- Might need to put a bit of clear tape over your serial # moving.....the serial # isn't stamped somewhere on the PCB too?? Regardless, common Nvidia..... -------------------------------------------------------------------- DeepSeek is the answer to preventing total AI dominance by a single company or a collection thereof? https://wccftech.com/deepseek-engineer-stuck-in-self-destructive-loop-says-building-ai-to-replace-him-is-the-only-way-to-stop-openai-anthropic-from-creating-a-cyberpunk-2077-society/

Checkmate on the consumer grade 5090 availability. 😞 Now at least we know why 5090s have been drying up AND prices going up. If AI shops are converting 5090s to AI farm cards as is and with extra memory, why not just re-direct those 5090s into RTX 5500's with 84GB of memory which is close enough to the RTX 6000 with 96GB of memory and charge $12k? Scary thing is if demand doesn't abate, all pricing will continue to scale upward.. Demand is so high, and memory capacity so important, that they are now scavenging their top end consumer grade GPUs..... We already have the RTX 4500 using the 5080 (GB203) die with 32GB of memory for $4500. If Nvidia decides to bump that to 48GB+, we could see a sudden shifting of even those dies at this rate. Just wow..... That is a hard NO. I mean zero chance. Zilch. Nada. Nunca. Nyet. I wouldn't even pay $4k let alone $7-8k for a 6090. I can't begin to tell you how hard it was to swallow that $3399 I paid for the Astral which I LOVED and returned purely based on price alone. Snagging a Vanguard for sub $2k and a Ventus 5090 for $2k last August was lightning in a bottle..... I'm kicking myself for not keeping the open box Ventus 5090 for $2k from last August 2025..... 🤣 You might be kicking yourself a little too for not holding onto the 5090 FE considering how much the net now. But everyone has a breaking point and if 6090s are $3.5k+ at launch which is A> Extremely conservative and B> Assuming we even get 6090s seeing as how the 5090s are being redirected into AI sector level cards due to demand, who knows? Who even knows if we get a 2027 launch as 2028 is looking more realistic unless AMD brings the high heat (which rumors are still saying YES). It really feels like Nvidia is trending pricing up and next gen the 6080 will slot in right where the 3090 used to be price wise at $1499.99 and it will be basically our top end card next go around. 4080 Super is basically on the heels of the 5080 so a performance bump for the 6080 to maybe 5090 next time or at least between the 4090 and 5090? More AI tech as it refines to continue to boost performance and visuals while working on latency. Meanwhile, reserve the top end dies for the RTX 6500/7000 class cards for AI. But yeah, when we get to the point of $5k+ 6090s at (paper) launch and memory kits hitting $1k+ for 2x16GB let alone CPUs and MBs combos of meaningful SKUs hitting $1.3k+ it is time to downsize and look to longevity of current hardware if that. I can see a time where I sell off everything, quietly step down to 080 (or lower) tier hardware and mid tier CPUs and GPUs and work with that with these crazy climbing prices. Once you adjust your enthusiast POV, you suddenly find yourself building out much cheaper systems that are quite capable. I'm to that point I won't even spend more than $3k on a PC laptop tops and even there I tend to trend lower than higher. I had the opportunity to pick up an MSI Raider like @win32asmguy has but it was $3650 + tax and I walked away especially in light of the $1800 for this G16 which takes a major performance hit (~18k TS vs ~26k TS) but is holding it down at half the cost with a 9955HX3D inside. My costs incurred this year for problems and issues is mind boggling from incidentals to a financial and working stake in a small start up. The hits just keep on coming. 🤪 Quite honestly, the smart move for me is to sell off almost everything and pick up a Studio M5 Ultra w/ 96GB as the 48GB in my (albeit contractor issued) current M4 Max is hitting a wall for the small startup I'm involved with as a side project atm. Whoa! Very nice and a good price in these trying times! I'm glad to know that site is legit and I'll be adding it to my list of places to check out on the regular, good find! Do you plan on putting better heatsinks / water cooling any of your sticks? You already have a good loop setup so it would be fairly straight forward to get them running uber cool. Our local MCs still have these in stock along with a few 5090s namely the GB Infinity for $5400 and I saw an Astral 5090 AIO for $5229. I just checked and there's a couple white Astrals for $5k+ but I also saw a 5090 TUF for $4699.....because that's kinda a "deal" atm? Ugh.... MC sells the Asus bundle for $10829 = ~$11.5k after tax. That. Is. Insane.

This is the growing theory and something we discuss in a few think tank groups. Right now, Nvidia has such tight vertical integration they rule the roost. They also lead in performance but the integration and software is key. Rest assured, AI focused companies like OpenAI, Claude, Anthropic, etc... are working towards common stacks to integrate ASIC for hyperscalers to get off of Nvidia's teet along with smaller operators. On the other hand, you can see the writing on the wall with China and them slowly, but surely, moving everything in house or how DeepSeek took everyone by surprise showing a potential future of better optimizations and larger, wider scaling. Right now, Nvidia is IBM circa 1975-80ish but it won't last forever. AMD is working feverishly on their next gen AI products. Nvidia is entering the CPU foray because they realize eventually CPUs will increase in importance for AI performance in the long run. We're still in the wild wild west phase atm, but the moment normalization/common models are established and/or open standards, Nvidia is in trouble. Throw in some ASIC level computational processing? They're in REAL trouble. One thing that won't change is the need for high bandwidth memory but a sudden and abrupt shift in needing expensive GPUs to ASIC like devices like what happened with crypto mining would be beautiful to behold. Right now, I wish the 5070ti (even some 5080) and down potential customer base would all switch to AMD for the cost savings alone and when Nvidia looks up, they've lost major market share going forward for when that day comes but as we saw with the last market reports, Nvidia actually gained back half the market share they lost to AMD in the consumer gaming sector.....crazy.

WoW with DLSS5. Big frame hit, but hopefully they sort out a solution up to and including adding in an additional GPU to off render on the secondary card. Visually much more impactful than RT ever was IMHO Absolutely gorgeous and yes I would run this in a heartbeat when playable... Maybe see about slapping the 5080 in to run along side the 5090 if required. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Somebody snagged it already lol. Did your other kit from that other site ship yet? I do remember him vividly along with his multiple bannings. Sorry to hear of his passing. AMD chips are sensitive odd ducks in that I've found more often than Intel chips that too much voltage can cause more instabilities and lowering definitely helps including macro voltages like VSOC to micro voltages like VDDP. This is regardless of thermals where you can have them locked down and those overvoltages can be just as destabilizing as undervoltages. It does make me wonder how your two follow up chips would have run on the Dark Hero but then again it could have been a dud board too considering it was a return. Glad to see #2 and the 2200 has the stronger cores. Still #3 is the clear winner for 1:1 overall but if #2 rules the roost at 8000+ I would still go with that one. I know BB sent you two, but did they note on the invoice/receipt the serial # of the one meant to be actually sent to see which one you could actually return? Worse case scenario, you can just sell off the second one though.

Ouch, well as I've found over the years, wife requests override personal projects. 🙂 I didn't even know they "refreshed" the 2025 SKU with a 2026 SKU so I went and took a look. So basically, a 240hz->300hz display and jacking the price up from the original MSRP of $2499.99 -> $3299.99....yikes. Yeah, mine was open box for ~$1800 (1805.28 to be exact) listed as "used, acceptable" but arrived looking brand new with all accessories. Only the box was a little beat up. I realized I hadn't done anything with it and the return window is less than two weeks away (22nd) so I went ahead and finished setting it up and ran some basic benchmarks before I start tuning with the BIOS OC controls. Timespy performance is basically equal to Alienware performance mode just the G16 pulls 35w less. 9955HX3D definitely beats my Alienware 275hx in performance mode CPU wise in CB23. I said it before and I'll say it again, Asus fans have some of the best pitch I've heard on laptop fans. Definitely front and present, but max for max, I've always preferred their overall acoustics. Reviews were right. Even in Performance mode, this thing is nearly dead silent doing everything not stressful and even then the fans didn't really kick up that much. It took Turbo to bring it to life and Manual to really let you know it can move some air. All tests were run on a flat, hard surface with zero rear elevation which is how I would normally run it on the go with some laptop balls. I'll end up spending tomorrow playing and comparing Fallout 76 and WoW with my Alienware data but I expect the 9955HX3D to pretty much own it badly in Fallout 76 and beat it overall in WoW because of the lack of tuning available for the 275HX and dog slow 6400 memory. The real performance question will be can the 9955HX3D cap out the 5070ti in QHD in Fallout 76 because the 275HX couldn't only in pockets so we shall see. If it can really cap out the 5070ti, that makes a compelling argument to get a 9955HX3D + 5090. If it doesn't, then the G16 it is. Some data to compare against your Raider with the 5090 before I dive into the BIOS OC options.... Performance (default) mode: Turbo Mode: Manual Mode (All sliders to Max): ------------------------------------------------------ Nice snag! I was away from the forums over there so I just checked and saw the poor arguments for the price being asked. If they think prices are bad NOW, wait till next year..... I'm always on the lookout for good sets to grab, and I would have grabbed those and jettisoned my KingBank's to eBay or similar (or sell them in a parts constructed system). Actually, those KB sticks in the 265k box did 8933 so I shouldn't poo poo on them too bad. It's just their poor AsRock and Asus fails that has me salty. 🙂

AMD 9070xt officially AMD's most popular GPU on Steam....at least some buyers understand it is the best bang:buck on the market by far --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newegg is sold out of all 5090s (shipped and sold) except a combo deal with the Asus 20th edition combo along with a 9950X3D2 Amazon shipped and sold out of stock. Just scalpers scalping as always..... Best Buy is completely sold out of 5090s BH Photo is completely out of stock My local Microcenter only has three 5090s in stock with a grand total of 4 units on hand all $5k+ and the Gigabyte Infinity has gone up $100: @Papusan how is the stock situation over in the EU? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Man.... if you had just held onto it a bit longer you could have gotten 50% more for it.... That lack of BIOS flashing was the deal breaker.... Astral is still the best looking card this generation IMHO but I do love the lit up Dragons on my Vanguard. While you did pay a bit more over an already inflated MSRP, the fact it goes for $5k now if you can even find it in stock was a good call if you wanted to ride the 5090 to 2028. -------------------------------------------------------------------- @win32asmguy DLSS5 on WoW looks pretty bonkers graphics wise, wow..... Any updates on the Raider? I haven't had time to really play with the G16 9955HX3D + 5070ti but it's still sitting on the table waiting 🤣

Crazy how when Nvidia needed the PC market and enthusiasts they were there with all the crazy ideas and letting AIBs do what they wanted because they needed the market share and us, yet as soon as they capped off dominating since Pascal, they have slowly but sure tightened and locked down all that made them great. Jensen really gets on stage and spews that tripe and expects people to eat it up. But alas, the golden rule continues to be in effect and right now the Nvidia product stack reigns surpreme. It very much reminds me of Intel at the top forcing new chipsets every cycle, rehashing old nodes and technologies, spoon feeding us performance increases and locking out features to maximize profits expecting brand loyalty till AMD came in guns blazing and now Intel has had no choice but to bring it all to the table each and every cycle and now they're going to offer socket longevity because, well, they have to to hope to recapture and hold consumers. Heck, we're even getting bLLC to compact X3D! This all reminds me when AMD legitimately scared Nvidia with the 6000 series and lost market share. With that fear lighting their fire, 4000 series brought everything they had to the table full tilt (and a cost to match) and they just left AMD in the dust. 5000 series has extended that overall performance lead, but again, all reports point to RDNA 5 being a wrecking ball...... Being fancy for the sake of being fancy........ problematic connector and the revised edition still problematic. Maybe third time is the charm?

Despite Nvidia trying their damndest to kill off SLI, dual GPUs are all the rage now for offloading rendering and especially in AI boxes with software designed to patchwork them together quite effectively. Another technology that will require more and more powerful cards ala early RT days and justify future purchases.....at higher costs of course at this rate. All reports really do lean towards AMD producing a monster on the level of the 6000 vs 3000 series days. Fingers crossed! Sucks but still a good set of sticks for someone looking to run 1:1 6000 tight. At 6000, tuned, do they run better than your other sticks tuned at 6000? That is where they could shine. I saw that price for the 2x32GB C26 kit and ran away as fast as I could! 🤣 Oh I know you will!! 😁 Hmmm, I have never ever heard of that place, but it seems to be a good used market front. That's a good price on those sticks and they should be a good bit better than your current sticks at 1:1 nice find!