electrosoft

9070xt installed and clean install of Windows 11 Pro for the next few days as my daily driver. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Day 1 and I'm finding a lot of things I like an don't like. Likes: GPU is stupidly quiet with no coil whine GPU runs crazy cool under load Boosts to 3ghz+ right out of the box. Highest I've seen so far is 3230 While it was rumored to have the weaker 304w vBIOS, it actually has the 340w variant and has pulled up to 371w Minimal lighting and is quieter under load than the 5080 FE and Astral 5090 which were both already very quiet Very stylish looking Dislikes: Terrible issues with flickering with HDR enabled. The 5080 and 5090 have them too but nowhere near like the 9070xt. I just keep HDR off till I want it on for gaming. Same as I did with Nvidia. While lower than many other 9070xt's I've seen, the hot spot in the 80s along with the memory hitting 90+. Yes, I know that's within range, but I prefer my temps lower. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In WoW, it is hitting ~98fps in the new test spot 4k ultra RT max with 99% utilization: This puts it at: 9070xt = 98fps 9070xt OC = TBD 5080 FE = 115fps (~18% faster than 9070xt) 4090 = 125fps (~28% faster than the 9070xt) 5080 FE OC= 126fps (~29% faster than 9070xt) 4090 OC = 135fps (~38% faster than the 9070xt) Astral 5090 = 186fps (~90% faster than the 9070xt) Astral 5090 OC = 210fps (~114% faster than the 9070xt) 5090 OC vs 4090 OC = ~56% faster (whoa!) I'm actually very impressed with the 9070xt on the newest Adrenalin drivers released a few days ago (25.4.1). It has cleaned up a lot of issues in WoW including the stuttering and chunking with RT on. I spent a few hours playing and zero problems. If things stay the same right now, and I was a WoW player and MSRP was in effect, I would pick a 9070xt over a 5080 FE because the price:performance is just better. If price wasn't too much of a consideration, I would then go with the 5080 FE. If price is NO object, the 5090 is just a wrecking ball. The 9070xt is faster in WoW than the 7900xtx and the 5090 just obliterates it in the scariest fashion. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- @Mr. Fox Deus Ex MD problem fixed. After a lot of trial and error what was happening was playing around with MSAA in the pre-launch menu was for some reason sticking even when disabled for some reason dragging performance down once in the actual game. Here is a video giving the 9070xt a proper run with all the options checked in the video menu before benchmark so you can install 25.4.1 and give it another go and double check my work: And the actual results: ----------------------------------------------------- Lastly is Fallout 76. I happen to find a few spots that push the 9070xt to ~96% util which is good! I have my bud with the 5090 FE actively trying to find the most graphically demanding spots in the game to see how hard we can push the 5090. I plan on joining the hunt when I switch back. Stay tuned....

PX1 results on my 5080 FE Stock boost lock = 2827 / 1.015v MaxV slider = 2887 / 1.035v Sub 3ghz across the board = decidedly average (maybe a touch below at sub 2900) but still a beautiful card. 🙂 5090 is ~62% faster than my 5080 FE stock for stock (186fps vs 115fps) 5090 is ~~67% faster than my 5080 FE OC vs OC (+300/+3000 on both 210fps vs 126fps) This is the first test with both capped out to 99% on the same drivers (576.02) / install. This Astral 5090 just wrecks it and applying the same OC, the gap just gets wider with the much better silicon in the Astral and cooling. I'm going to install this 9070xt next and give it a proper clean install to give it every chance it has to get where it needs to get to shine as bright as it can. WoW results with the 5080 FE: Stock: OC +300 / +3000 (same as Astral 5090):

Where does it land with zero voltage adjustments? If I were you, I'd sell/trade it for better silicon and more normal PCB AIB model to block and then have fun vBIOS hopping then crank up the chiller for some weekend outings. You can wrap the 5090FE price around yourself like a warm blanket, but it's going to eat away at you. but then again..... .....buying a more expensive model doesn't guarantee you anything and it really is all over the place with these cards. I swear it feels like CPU binning a bit. People will start asking for tested/binned variants sooner than later. It happened with the 3090 and 4090. My 3090 bins were....ok. 4090 was a very good GPU bin but just a kinda good memory overclocker topping out at +1600 max for benching. The other identical 4090 liquid was absolute trash and couldn't do over 2900mhz'ish full OC'd and memory conked out at +700 if I remember. The variance is bonkers. Still, in the end, a 5090 is a 5090 and the worst bin is absolutely a monster of a card. No coil whine is a 100% win in my book. Prices also went up on their low end cards. The $599.99 9070xt's are now ~$659.99. The Gigabyte 5070 SFF I actually had queued up for on launch with B&H for $549.99 is now $604.99 and they emailed me that it was available for buy. Gigabyte gaming OC 9070 not-XT is now $669.99.... Asrock Taichi 9070xt went from $729.99 to $849.99 on NE These are all sold and shipped by BB and NE.

Good find! So silicon lottery is in play again as always.... 😞 If someone is dedicated enough I can see binning cores and memory (if we're ever allowed to exceed +3000) to compete. I mean, I'm clearly not sad for my Astral but still. I think we always have to remember all that is promised out of the box is the advertised performance... ....we also have to remember most products also come with a 15-30 day return policy or you can sell them off (like CPUs) to friends/family/clients who will never, ever overclock and a 5090 is a 5090 is a 5090 to them. What does your FE say boost locked with PX1 w/ and w/o 100% slider? For me, it comes down to coil whine. I'd have to hear it at >200fps+ and TS GT2 run to see what it's working with coil whine wise. 50% fans on these FEs is definitely audible but then again I'm running an open case. True, even the most average FE should beat a good sample 5090 if it is blocked and shunted. 🙂 Looking forward to before and after results.

I know over on the OC forums and 3Dmark, XOC/Shunt modded cards are dominating. For @tps3443, that block is crucial for shunting considering the, ah, tight margins on the FE cooler. Here is my Astral vBIOS. Give it a whirl everybody....hopefully you all get awesome performance out of it. Oh you dropped it. Here you go... 🤣 Astral5090.rom

Banger of a card @johnksss especially if you block it. My Astral is in the neighborhood but your clocks are the chef's kiss! Mine is clocking very nicely, so I know yours is going to go to that next level especially if you block it and shunt/XOC it. (FYI, this is my first time punching either boost lock or voltage slider) Stock boost lock: voltage slider in "fun times" mode: Do you plan on getting a block though? Are you going to shunt first and run it on the stock HSF? It's gonna kill me seeing you tear it apart especially as I'm sitting here showing my buddy over FT how quiet a FE CAN be with the 5080 FE.

Hoping it's a banger @johnksss, but then again with your past work on so-so/average hardware..... I knew your Founders stood no chance of staying in its pristine condition! 🤣 Like I said many days ago when you were just talking about adding pads or something along those lines.... "and it starts." 😁 Definitely can't wait to see it shunt modded and blocked bro!

So the PNY Epic-X Overclocked ARGB 5090 at $3399 now costs more than the Astral at $3359?? Hmmmm, I will have to watch a review on it. I have no idea what the game or premise is about. Well yeah, if you're pushing clocks a crash is obvious but the idea is to be able to recover without a hard reset which I've found to be the case with 576.02. Maybe things will change when I actually start pushing voltages and power limits vs everything now being at stock power config? Dunno....

5090 + 9800X3D WoW 99% utilization Stock vs OC (+300 / +3000) = ~13% uplift. Yeah, I'll take that. I didn't realize my OC was only +300 when I took that first OC shot in Oribos so some room to play with later. 5090 OC 210fps (+300 / +3000) vs 4090 OC (+210/225 / +1500) 135fps = ~56% uplift. I'll confirm this by testing the 5080 FE here and extrapolating vs 5080 FE stock vs 4090 OC. Also test 5080 FE stock and OC in the same location too vs Astral 5090. I expect the gap to close down to ~45% Stock: OC: Whoa..... Just give it a clean install! 😁 noice! congrats! I keep telling myself the same thing with this expensive piece of gear aka Astral 5090: "You know the last 4 cycles since the 1080ti, you've sold all your GPUs after a few years for as much if not more than you paid....6090 will probably be a train wreck....AMD sucks again for WoW compared to Nvidia with problems galore on the 9070xt....240fps in delves at 4k Ultra with the 5090"

lol, I'm just glad to have a new testing spot that can cap out this 5090. My old spot, especially overclocked, just had the 5090 giggling.... "MSI Suprim 6090 with 48gb of memory now on sale for $3999.99!!" I'll be curious to see your results, but since 576.02 zero hard reboots. I just give it a few seconds after freezing and it recovers. I will readily admit, I didn't expect the 5090 to have the extra room in the tank.... Oh, TSE is my overnight 6hr run since it simulates a max length (in theory) gaming session for moi. My final boss. It is probably a holdover from when I used to use P95 for my CPUs and an hour or so would pass, but 5-6hrs would root out instabilities. Same as my CPU and memory final stress tests. If I can pass a 6hr run, I are super golden to my standards. I can't get onboard for 24hr runs for some reason like others for CPU/GPU/MEM. 1/4 of that is MORE than enough for myself. Still, an hour is probably good enough..... 😁

We found it! 5090 99% Utilization in WoW even overclocked! Oribos, my old friend (Shadowlands) to the rescue! The former stomping ground of GPU slaying rises up once more. 🙂 This will be my new test spot for GPUs in WoW from this point on. If it can bring a 5090 OC'd to its knees (well, I mean 210fps but still), can't wait to see how the 5080 FE does....

It really comes down to having the ability to extract as much performance as possible out of your 5090 by being able to flash vBIOS from other makes and models without being restricted by Nvidia. I mean, it is their in house model being offered so I get it, but they've done this before. No way I'd run 1k as a daily, but fun benchies? Yes please. Beefy enough heatsink to handle it? Double yes please. As @jaybee83 pointed out, lack of dual bios on the FE is a negative too just in case..... The blessings of the FE HSF design is also its curse. Absolutely great for SFF, compact to fit most cases and quite beautiful and stunning in person (I also thought the 4090 FE was an absolutely stunning slab of industrial metal). It's curse is limited thermals resulting in much higher temps overall at similar settings for both memory and GPU temps. In spec? Sure, but it limits you. You can't out Physics, er, Physics... For me, a monster heatsink just lets me run a full tilt D2D OC and not have to worry about extreme temps. If I could keep my room cooler, that would mean even better temps.... that screen shot of a few hours of WoW where my room was heading closer to 90 than 80 still were great temps in the sauna box. If I could keep my room at 70f? Mmmmmmm. Maybe I should get a window AC unit.... For me, it will always be 3Dmark TSE GT2 that for some reason looped will eventually get my GPU. I use Heaven when tuning on the fly to see when I start to artifact but I've found recently on 4090 and especially 5090 I don't really artifact. I just freeze/blank and sometimes recover (recover almost all the time with 576.02). I used to use Kombustor (aka Furmark'ish) but not recently. Then I throw games at it but only the games I play. My general rule is, "I'm stable till the next new game." For WoW, I use that high GPU location, and in previous Xpacs back to Shadowlands, I used Ardenweald which just brutalized my GPUs and hit so hard. I need to revisit that. I did also use Wukong this last time. Fallout 76 can't tax anything lol and it ran fine up to +400 / +3000 at max settings to give you an idea. --- 5090 is just a beast. It really is. I'm pretty much locked into a +325/+3000 D2D now and playing WoW earlier with the wife and that extra bit of ooomph does help shore up the lows a bit more. Since coil wine on this card is so good, I've abandoned 140fps frame lock and now keep it at a proper +238fps for my 240hz OLED display. There's pockets when playing, especially delves, where it is so silky smooth.... --- Again, locked down BIOS controls and no dual bios switch? Hmmmm.... For $2k though, like @tps3443, I'd rock it six ways to sundown all day everyday.... 🤣

That's exactly what it means @tps3443..... Only an FE vBIOS variant will work on an FE not an AIB. 😞 I thought I remember reading that before with FE cards that's why I was asking because I was thinking of flashing either the Astral or Zotac vBIOS if possible on the 5080 FE. Go ahead and flash the Astral and see how it turns out. 5090 FE really is just not designed for a proper D2D OC and/or vBIOS optimizing from other AIBs. Irks me a bit with the 5080 FE to be honest. Best bet is to grab the cheapest non-FE if you want to vBIOS hop, slap a block on it and get to work.

Well, this answers the question 😞 Strike 2....

Is the 5090 FE capable of flashing other vBIOSes?

Hmmm, that is a possibility too. I am just going to give it its own cozy, comfy fresh install drivers only to start and go from there. Office is looking clean and organized! Yeah I'm at +3000 / +325 for pure stability without adding any PL/V fans on auto which is how I would run it D2D gaming/rendering. Stress testing, I started at +400 and that quickly dropped to +350 and extended testing dialed it to +325. Next will be retesting with PL/V limits pushed to max. (You know, the "hard stuff" 🤣) Might need to dial in a "Winter Mode" and "Summer Mode" at this rate of hades. 🤣 Ugh, as much as I want to see the FE on water It is going to pain me to see it dismantled from its stock, factory fresh beauty feat of engineering lol..... Can the FE's cross flash vBIOS? If so, that and a block will really let it fly.... 2nm Intel does get me jonsin' for it so we shall see.

Thanks @Mr. Fox! Yeah, something is off. My 9070xt: Maximum is in range, but Avg and Min is off. Compared to my 5080 FE same rig: Your numbers seem to be more inline with what I would expect to see fro a 9070xt. 5090 doesn't count. It is over here taking the wind out of everything...... The 9070xt was slapped in on a pre-existing install that has seen 3-4 graphics cards swapped in and out. I'm going to give it its own clean install and see how that does for re-testing.

It is a small office and I always keep the door open. It is even by the blower/intake but I found the 3090 was ok. 3090ti was not as it tipped over that point where the open door could keep it cool. I think somewhere in this thread I even noted the potential issue of the 5090 turning my computer room into a sauna seeing as the 3090ti already did it and it was pulling ~500w max. Crazy as I was playing watching the temp on my wall clock just keep climbing lol. 4090 was perfect as it always came in under 500w unless benching even pushed in WoW. 5080 FE obviously is even better never going above ~325w in WoW. It was only ~80f outside today. This will be unsustainable in the summer where it will routinely be 90f+ daily and in the 80's at night. The one good thing with a good overclock is better lows even with fps capped to 144 to keep temps down but sheesh. Even the CPU temps went up. When the room stays around 70f, CPU temps are in the high 50s but with the room hitting 83f+ it was hitting ~65c. First World Problems.... 🤣

NOTE: This was playing completely uncapped as I was searching for a GPU Util >=99% spot while playing. If I cap it back to 140fps, all these # will drop accordingly while also boosting lows OC'd. --- And as we start to head into the warmer months (and it is going to get MUCH warmer), my biggest fear (and previous downfall) is ambient temps in a small computer room with a portable furnace pumping out 550w+ of heat..... I had this problem with the KP3090ti when it was pulling ~500w playing WoW OC'd and now here we are with 600w. It was one of the factors of why I sold it off as it was basically unusable as is in the summer and I had to UV it to make the room usable. 4090 ran cool enough with a UV that the room would usually only heat up maybe ~5c tops overall as the heat output equalized with the cool air exchange via the door to keep it relatively even. Room started at 68f and less than a few hours room was 84f and climbing playing WoW which causes the GPU and other components to heat up lol....Every once in awhile the central AC would kick on and push it back a degree or two but then it turned off because the rest of the house wasn't roasting on Satan's arse..... When I stopped playing within ~30min it had dropped down to 73c and falling.... Stepping out of the room into the rest of the house is like stepping from outdoors on a warm to hot day into AC.... This was not a problem with the 5080 FE obviously as it ran cooler than even the 4090. This is less than two hours of WoW +3000/+350 no PL/V adjustments and the room is flat out toasty and yes the door is WIDE open. If I have to apply a major UV just so my computer room doesn't go KABOOM! What's the point? Wonder if I can find a device that will fan my door back and forth? 🤣

Maybe "fun stuff" would have been more appropriate.... 🤣

I honestly did not think a 5090 could NOT do +3000 hmmmm.... I haven't really collected a lot of data yet, but I also assumed everybody could do at least +300 (I assumed every 5090 out of the box could at least do +3000/+300 as a starting point) and most could do +350. I can do +3000 / +350 with zero PL/V adjustments and that is just how I've been running it the last few days rock solid with PX1. I was going to start testing for max PL sliders / voltage next week to find the "hard stuff" That was my bad for not collecting results like I normally do with CPUs......

This in spades. Get *exactly* what you want within the criteria you want. There was a reason I had the FE, Suprim and Astral (small, medium, large) on my list with their own criteria each. I said it months ago, whichever one drops first at MSRP I'll grab it. Only exception really is if you plan on blocking the card then grab the cheapest one possible that supports cross vBIOS flashing and the block you want and go. This test is noise normalized so not exactly representative of top end cooling, but it still gives you a very strong idea of controlled cooler strength. Like I said @tps3443 you can't out argue physics. 🤣

@tps3443 this is your one friendly wall of text to answer all your posts. 🤣 ----- You gotta stop bro! This has always been your Achilles heel. 🤣 You will "Gosh Golly!" a product you own to S tier like a pro! 🤣 Yeah, I saw the FE at 104% +3000 in sustained action and those fans had to RIP and it couldn't sustain the clocks long term playing even Fallout76 at 4k Ultra which hits much lighter than WoW. With a good UV it is giving you the bulk of that performance at much better, sane temps and less noise. That is where it shines to compensate for the lack of cooling vs an AIB (and MSRP price). That's the problem. It isn't in the same league on every level in terms of cooling. It just isn't. Physics have spoken. Optimal cooling is not its strength. I spent over two hours working with his and him with mine and in the end, he wanted to trade even more. Even at stock, my 5080 FE can spin up like a champ gaming and it's almost half the power draw of a 5090 FE which is only packing ~250g more mass internally than a 5080 FE. See that WoW shot from earlier? I left it there running and the clocks were pegged to 3262mhz the entire time with temps never breaking ~63c. That is +3000/+400 and PL 100%, voltage +00. I haven't even touched increasing power levels or voltages yet in all of my testing so far. The strength of the 5090 FE has been and will remain its compact size and ability to contain that heat adequately enough to perform to spec at a proper MSRP. It's very design screams for a UV which you dialed in nicely. Take the win on that one. When the XOC BIOS hits the Suprims and Astrals are ready as shown already with the shunt modded Astral able to handle 1000w on 100% fans and still sit at 70c. Think about that...... Playing WoW with a daily profile hitting +3000mem / +400 3262mhz no PL/V adjustments, temps stopping at ~66.8c and fans sitting at 50% or less and leaving the 9800X3D choking for air to try and keep up with it. This MAY change if I can find harder hitting spots that can tap out the 5090 at max settings. Think about that.... Blocking it? Yeah, that levels everything but there is no way I'm tearing apart an FE to block it. Then it loses everything magical and unique that makes it an FE. I'd run the FE immediately with a UV and have fun testing it in SFF builds when it wasn't in my desktop doing a perfectly average job but doing it well enough. I've discussed this numerous times in my breakdown on my preferred 5090 models. FE is price and compact size = SFF dream card. Astral = cooling and all the little extra bells and whistles including pin monitoring. Suprim because I like MSI and it fits nicely (or did) right in the middle price wise and I love its design too and it has a pretty beefy heatsink also. I think all three cards look fantastic and FE price is MSRP so saving ~$1400 always feels nice. 🙂 Did you miss the part where any thoughts of trading with him IMMEDIATELY went out the window when I heard that coil whine. I'm not sure if it wasn't a mix of coil whine and the electrical noise that's been reported. I know on my 5080 FE I didn't hear anything even remotely close to what his 5090 FE sounded like. I actually was on YT trying to find similar coil whine. It was close to my 3090 FE. I haven't heard yours yet at >200fps yet, but I know it can't sound like his (or does it?). Low to no coil whine is my #1 criteria. I've said this for years and that will never change. It could be the most golden of golden samples hitting 3500mhz out of the box spitting out Jensen signed leather jackets and I would still jettison it ASAP if it has too much coil whine. It could be the worst clocker in the history of 5090s, but if it has no coil whine at all I'm all in and would keep it no questions asked. I was literally holding my breath with my Astral when I pulled up TS the first time because at that moment you will immediately know if you have a quiet card or a coil monster nightmare. If it had bad coil whine, I would have returned it immediately and sullenly waited for another FE, Suprim or Astral at MSRP to cross my path. I guess your logic is to trade for the 5090 FE, resell it, pocket the $$$ and wait to pick up either another 5090 FE, Suprim or Astral at MSRP and play the noise/coil whine slot machine again? Plus we don't know where the markets are going right now either? No thank you on that.

Agreed, there is zero argument for price:performance for the FE models relatively speaking. 5090 FE is crazy sleek IMHO (I just love the way 5080/5090 FE's look), SFF ready (you're gonna need a direct pass through to immediately vent all that heat) and the price can't be beat. Those are its strengths hands down, no questions asked. My original list still remains: FE, Suprim, Astral. I'd be happy with any of them and for different reasons for each. Wow, a blast from the past! Cablemod strikes again.

That is EXACTLY what I told him to do! 🤣 but he doesn't like the idea of having extended downtime looking for an Astral at MSRP with current market conditions. If you find someone who wants to trade an Astral (either model) for a 5090 FE, let me know. I can't think of anyone who would want to do that seeing as the Astral is superior across the board except in price, but you never know. BB did have a drop on the 17th of 5080 FE and 5090 FE and people did get the call for VPA this last week as noted before so they're back to dropping them so that's a good sign. Glad to see BB back in the loop too so they're pumping them out. If I was him I would sell that coil whine monster for $3.5k and wait for an Astral to drop to snag it. The fact the FE's sell for $3.5k isn't because they're an FE. It is because ALL 5090's command at least that much regardless of model. Scary to think they used to sell for $6k+ at one point. Shows the market is still normalizing.