electrosoft

Was fortunate enough to pick up a used MSI Shadow 3x OC 5080 for $825 shipped. Currently running the Asus 5080 Astral vBIOS. Zero coil whine again. I'm seriously starting to think it is the triplite + 1600w EVGA I installed at the same time in August 2022 that is helping out more than I realize. The odds of scoring ~12 GPUs in a row both AMD and Nvidia tested with various MBs and CPUs in the mix all producing low to no coil whine can't be a massive streak of luck. 🤔 It's pulling more and scoring more in WoW and fps have gone up by ~17% in my testing spot (that's good for anything not a 5090) vs 5080FE at launch: 5080 FE at 99% 4k Ultra max scoring ~122fps stock launch drivers: MSI 5080 Shadow 3x OC running Astral 450w vBIOS stock 577 drivers scoring 143fps: Driver refinements also adding in too. I could always install launch drivers and see how they compare to really differentiate the two.

3090 vs 4090 vs 5090.... that 3090->4090 uplift was crazy but 5090 is still good too.... @Talon Jarrod really loves the Acer Predator Helios 16S 275hx + 5070ti ...... 🤣 5070ti is capped to 115w as is the CPU to ~95w and a 230w PSU tops comes with it. It scores lower across the board vs similar, bigger, stronger versions of that same combo. Curious to see what the 5060 version has in it and what it is capped to on the GPU when it finally arrives.

Happy anniversary @Papusan! You are right, time does fly by. 35 years is a wonderful milestone! Slow down and smell the roses and enjoy every day with your loved ones.

This is exactly what I was implying/asking in one of my posts. What changed? It went from serious restrictions to a personal meeting with Jensen at the white house to even less restrictions on Nvidia than even the Biden era and trump literally singing Jensen's praises at an AI summit. What changed?

Agreed, MSI 4k panel just ended it for me along with apparently a poor panel overall. The IPS panel on their lesser model seems to be better. The $5k sticker price also is a deal breaker and like he found out in the review, the fans can have a mind of their own and are aggressive. ECO Mode helps a bit though. In the overall scheme of things, we're talking not much of a difference between the 4090 and 5090 mobile when the CPUs are allowing a last gen GPU to catch up and make it a wash with a current gen GPU. Hopefully the OC options on the Alienware will be decent or at least enable XTU. I agree. I still very much like Jarrod's reviews and he's my go to for laptop reviews now hands down. It was just that instance of most likely OEM/Intel pressure or restrictions causing him to eliminate any 7945HX3D gaming results in his comparisons because he did include 7945HX3D results in his other graphs just not gaming.

X3D laptop dominance overall on average at 1600p: When you have the 7945HX3D + 4090 basically matching non X3D + 5090 laptops in gaming and then winning 1% lows against all of them accept the 9955HX3D + 5090 model. Again, it makes sense why Jarrod conveniently omitted 7945HX3D results numerous times when testing the 5090 models for gaming benchmarks. I asked a few times why with no response....I lost a lot of respect for him about that. He's right about the keyboard on MSI's though. Steelseries is average at best. I greatly preferred the NH55 keyboard and the Alienware keyboard Then again, I think Apple's Macbook Pro Mx 16 series of keyboards are garbage too.

I'll take a look later when I get a chance to really play with it hopefully sooner than later. Not really sure it needs any type of repaste atm but we will see. For example, just recently had the chance to meaningfully put the Raider through the ringer from top to bottom with the new July BIOS and newest MSI Center to get the fans under better control but it may need a repaste/PTM because the CPU runs pretty toasty. On the other hand, this Alienware is running ice cold in comparison. Even in full overdrive mode pulling as much as it wants, it caps out at ~170w, temps cap out at 68 and it scores 38368. Compare that to the Raider w/ a 285k out of the box needing some love. Overheating like crazy, pulling 200w+ and only scoring ~35k in R23. Could be cooling, TIM and a bit of silicon lottery at play on my end. Timespy balanced with fans not even really reving up CPU topped out at 80 pulling ~102w and GPU topped out at 62c pulling 175w. Real test is when I settle in for an extended session of WoW and FO76 where I expect the Raider to beat it clearly in WoW and flat out trounce it in FO76 because of X3D and FO76 ideal combo is X3D + Nvidia. I would need overheating/high temps to even want to repaste with the temps I'm getting. Running in balanced and gaming, I am just gobsmacked at how quiet it is even with the 5070ti pulling 175w. Just seems odd that before recently meeting with trump, trump wanted to break up Nvidia, enforce pre-existing restrictions from the previous admin (which was an addition to his term one restrtictions) and add more down the line. But after the meeting? Singing his praises, lifted pre-existing H20 AI restrictions and is buddy buddy with him including at a recent AI summit....why is that? So which is it right now in this scenario? Is Jensen the problem? trump the problem? both? Maybe a bit too much anti-china sentiment? It isn't logical or objective thinking to think you can just shut down a country economically with a blunt instrument like China which is massive. Looking at Jensen's background, he barely spent any meaningful time in Taiwan before moving out of the country with his family as a child. I wouldn't attack him on his upbringing or origins, but corporate greed? That's fair game.

Looking around this Alienware's BIOS and it looks like it has some overclocking functionality. I flipped the switch to see if it was enabled and it is so that's the next fun time seeing how stupidly cool this CPU runs even in overdrive mode. Dial in the CPU and AB and see where this modest 5070ti (aka 4080) can go. No option to disable BIOS updates (just option to disable downgrades), so for now I'll have to put a stop to that through update settings.

I've been dual booting for years now with originally RH and then mint and using Kali as needed for work. I prefer a pure Windows environment when needed and a pure linux environment as needed but I can see also using Linux primarily and Windoze in a VM too. Point is to use Linux whenever possible IMHO and WIndows whenever necessary.

I agree. I had their old chunky black models years ago and tablet mode was the way to go with Windows 8. I then tried a Surface Pro 7 back on 2020 and it was better but still nowhere near the seamless perfected iOS (now iPadOS) at the time. So five years pass and I'm test driving the Surface 12 2025 and first thing I look for is its "tablet mode" and it's not there so now it just feels like an odd Windows laptop that can't run a crapton of software out there. On it's own, it is just like I said "clunky"

Good 9955HX3D vs 275HX shootout. As expected, X3D is a beast. Figures considering 7945HX3D w/ 4090 is beating 5090 equipped systems in gaming benchmarks on the regular to the point Notebookreview AND Jarrod conveniently omitted the results from their 275hx 5090 initial reviews. Jarrod has done it multiple times now. I'm sure they'll be back for his 9955HX3D reviews 🙄 Their 275HX is getting 39603 at ~210w in CB23 but those are some great temps at 78c. @win32asmguy what are you getting in R23?

Intel needs something for a 2025 refresh...... On the other hand, this is classic Intel seeing as the 12900KS, 13900KS and 14900KS were all just binned chips with slightly higher clocks.... Might as well call this Ultra 9 285KS Edition.... @tps3443 was thinking of shunt modding his Acer Predator 4090 18" Maybe this will push him over the edge to truly unleash the beast to see where it lands in comparison?

Alienware pulling 175w on 5070ti GPU in Balanced mode: Alienware pulling ~170w CPU in Overdrive mode:

Yeah I watched this last night. I absolutely refuse to use Armory Crate. Last time was on the wife's system and pure laziness setting it up decided to give it another chance. She kept getting stutters and freezing in games and random BSODs. It was a clean install and the only difference was Armory Crate. I removed it and everything went back to working like normal. I installed it again as a test and the crashing and game issues returned. This was with as minimal of an install as I could get on there for RGB controls. I ended up just nuking the whole thing again and used SignalRGB and smooth sailing since. You definitely need AWCC to control the power modes. Balanced is king. CPU is almost to max and the 5070ti pulls 175w. I didn't even know a 5070ti could be rated this high. I thought it was 140w. In Overdrive mode the CPU pulls 170w+ and the GPU drops down to 140w. Everything just stays so cool. Hardware wise, Dell knocked it out the park this time but I agree with the forced updates. I'll have to check to see if there is an option in BIOS to disable BIOS updates. The redesigned AWCC isn't that mad or intrusive. What is intrusive is all the other Dell custom software crammed on there as always. The 5070ti in there performs like a 4080 mobile even down to the benchmarks. I used an Asus Strix 18 with a 13980hx in it and a 4080 before so performance is good. It can't touch the MSI A18 Raider's 23k+ 4090 Timespy with it's 18k+, but still gets it done. I wish they offered an 18" version of the Hydroc. I see it will have a 9955HX3D option soon which is nice! I expect the 9955HX3D to come in like the 7945HX3D and rule the roost..... 9955HX vs 275HX is a wash. Both are fantastic mobile chips:

Usually antagonizing and/or inflammatory post, even steeped in some truth, are frequently removed. Sometimes you have to know your audience and think about what you're saying and how it is presented. I say this not even knowing exactly what you posted 😁

I've been quietly putting an Alienware Area-51 18 2025 sent to me through its paces and Dell/Alienware has an absolute winner on their hands this time around. If the BIOS was at least somewhere between Asus and MSI/Prema for customizing, I'd declare it near perfect and their first worthy 18" since the Alienware 18 I had w/ the 4940mx many moons ago. One downside for many is the lack of an mLED or OLED display. On my laptops, I'm fine without either and sticking with good 'ole IPS. This one is rated for up to 500nits. I could only get a 5070ti variant but beggars can't be choosy and I'm not going to look a gifted horse in the mouth. MSI could learn a few things about cooling. How it is able to handle 170w+ CPU power and also allow the 5070ti to pull up to 175w and make that level of noise and stay that cool is damn impressive. Zero overheating anywhere. Build quality is the best I've encountered in an 18" laptop in years. Much more solid than the Acer Predator 18, MSI 18 4090 or Scar Strix 18 4080 I've used or tested in the past. Imagine if/when they find a way to allow you to properly undervolt the Ultra 9 275HX in this thing.... It's already hitting ~38k in CB23 in balanced mode. Loving all the ports on the back now except for a card reader and headphone jack on the side. 5070ti is hitting 18k+ in Timespy out of the box. Can't touch the 23k+ of my MSI and it's 4090 but it does it much quieter. Decent review of the 5080 model:

Makes total sense 13th and 14th gen laptop variants are equally susceptible to the degrading issues since they really are just clock/power downed desktop variants at this point.

While trying "new things" with the desktop I built him a few years ago, my nephew managed to nuke all his drives (sans the one mechanical 1TB drive I put in there and told him to use it to backup everything important which he did) on top of his system running oddly. He was trying to learn how to install Linux and use Mint. The more he did the worse it got till eventually his mom dropped it off for rescue work. They live 2-3hrs away. I ended up upgrading his system with the components I picked up from gtz over on OCN: 12100f -> 13400f A380 -> 3060 12GB 128GB boot -> Samsung 980 Pro 1TB Gave it a most needed cleaning from head to toe (it was chock full of dust and dog hair), recert/tested all his components. Replaced a faulty Sata cable, discovered the distro he was trying to use failed sha256 checksum, created a proper mint distro install for him and reinstalled Windows 11 and made a proper dual boot Mint system for him along with reorganizing his data properly. He will be pleased. Games wise, this is a pretty decent upgrade since he games on a 25" Dell 240hz IPS 1080p display I gave him along with his system 🙂 I closed up my desktop. Glass and front panel back on signifying it is in final AMD boss form. The 9800X3D and 9070XT run cool enough that I only have the three AIO fans on the 420 as intake and everything else passively exhaust cooled and the case is so big and porous enough and the 9070xt doesn't pull the sun into orbit like my Astral 5090 did that temps are the same even after hours of gaming on the 9800X3D and 9070XT. In addition, my computer room doesn't turn into a 1970's sauna within an hour of playing.... I just can not get over how well the 9070xt handles the lows/fps when the CPU is being assaulted with all that player data. It can never soar as high as a 5080/4090/5090 when being fed properly, but in WoW how it handles the lows is most important and routinely in Raids, PvP and ORBs, utilization drops under 100% same as the other cards and that is where it shines.... One thing I do miss though is the locked 240fps in delves. That was just a super, silky smooth experience on the 5090. Fallout76 on the 5090 was beast mode too.

About time! Looking forward to the results. Intel CEO is accepting real world realities. The fact is their fabs and semiconductor standing has fallen so far behind and financially they are in such dire straits that they can not commit the time or resources attacking that AND trying to compete IP wise. AMD realized this years ago and sold off their fabs and focused on IP advancements and using superior fabs to deliver their products and it paid off big time. There is a reason the US is trying to get TSMC fully integrated in the states. It not only puts the premiere fabs state side but also ties us directly to Taiwan while China continues to threaten a take over. Intel brought much of this on themselves not innovating but instead extending and milking product lines like they did for decades until AMD caught up and surpassed them in many ways. Throw in 13th/14th gen woes and it just worsened. Intel has to figure out a way to continue to innovate CPU wise, regain trust and push hard in their GPU department because that is one area they are doing very well. ------------ As for Jensen, like many corporations, he's all about the $$$ and appeasing shareholders. If the US government hadn't started to force corporations to look elsewhere, these corporations would keep on with business as usual to maximize profits using China's cheap labor to the detriment of the US and the world. I'm not saying the last 3 presidential cycles were the best in the US (people keep ignoring the fact Biden was also extending and enhancing the trump 45 policies on China), but one thing across both political parties was consistent and that was checking China. I still do wish that trump was a bit more reserved and pragmatic in his second term approach to tariffs and world economics and focused primarily on China first then rolled out the next phase a bit more structured. ------------------ As for AI, anybody with a few firing synapses could see the writing on the wall with AI workplace replacement. It is the ultimate production tool both white collar and blue collar workers. Automation on a sweeping scale but we will reach a tipping point where that automation will cause humans the inability to properly participate in the economy....then what? Intel is where Nvidia was at the start. All open arms and welcoming anything and everything to break through and gather market share. Given time and if they somehow make a dent against AMD and Nvidia, you will see those same control freak mechanisms slowly return. Remember, this is Intel. The same company that used to either bribe or coerce resellers and OEMs to not offer AMD and forced parts down their throats. The same Intel that priced their CPUs continually upward and left us with stagnant nodes and core counts till AMD was a viable threat. The same Intel that persists on tossing out chipsets every few cycles forcing consumers to upgrade their motherboards. There are plenty of other examples.... ------------------------ Nice roundup of 9070xt models. XFX Mercury is the best all around cooler by far. Gigabyte Gaming cooler is taking some hits but it is the smallest, shortest model in the mix and clocks aggressively. No way I'm paying $200 more for a Mercury over my Gaming though ($859.99 vs $656.99).... Albeit the Gigabyte Gaming makes his least recommended list heh....

Also knowing some EVGA engineers went to Sparkle is good to know. I'll put them on my to watch list. Nvidia is just a greedy tyrant now and the only reason they are allowed to run rampant is because they do have the superior product from the 5080 on up and mind share and good products from the 5070ti on down. They also dominate AI but AMD is steadily making gains and all it takes is a series of mistakes and Nvidia can be Intel'd very quickly. Also nice to know that Intel is literally selling out consistently of every GPU they can get out the door. They are consistently sold out everywhere at MSRP. I remember when some were saying Intel was shutting down their GPU division after arc..... tsk tsk tsk.

*** SOLD *** (again) 🙂

That's a slick idea. Kudos to both playing. My wife is going on 5 years strong soon playing WoW since Fall of 2020 during the pandemic. Find something that can at least play it but draws low power to WoW it up while on the road! My daughter uses an Acer Swift Edge 16 OLED 7840U w/ a 65w charger that can handle WoW and even Hogwarts on lower settings. I'll have to float that idea by her when we settle in for fall travel. It never even crossed my mind!

We know exactly why this happened.....some just don't want to open their eyes unfortunately. 😞

You understand why this is a fallacy right? Like, you get it..... Cooling procurement is irrelevant. On a hardware level, the 6000 is superior to the 5090FE and every other 5090 out there. Just because you can douse it in water to handle shunted power draw doesn't change that reality... If the dude who binned 16 of them and plans to either modify or fab a WB finishes up his project, you will see the reality of your fallacy.... 🙂 Price:Performance? Absolutely. Overclocked/WB/cooled vs out of the box? Absolutely. But you still understand why that way of thinking is flawed. It's the 2080ti all over again like I said before. 🤣

But the 96GB of VRAM! I will give Nvidia a little leeway depending on yields of near perfect dies versus the much larger margin of error for 5090s along with 96GB of VRAM, but not 4x the price worth vs the 5090FE. I think the market agrees as 6000 Blackwells can be ordered for $8k at multiple locations and are continually in stock.