electrosoft

Definitely a big *IF* with the 9070xt, but we know major advancements (for AMD) in RT for the 9070xt and if it is within 5% of a 4080 performance that puts it more towards 7900xtx than not. Then it comes down to pricing. $700 for near 7900xtx / 4080 performance and major advancements in RT? That is viable pricing depending on how Nvidia comes in with their 5070ti pricing. I hope ithe 9070xt comes in around $550 - $600, but I'm thinking $700 because "Greed is Good". If it is in the 7900xt range, $600 or lower is viable. Nvidia is just too strong on the top end 5080 and up. Maybe even 5070ti and up so Intel and AMD will go to war with nvidia on the lower and mid levels. Let's not forget the 5070 is capped again with 12GB of VRAM so it looks like 5070ti is going to be the potential main competitor to the 9070xt. B580 12GB 3060/4060 slayer for $250 is a major shot across the bow. Hopefully AMD keeps the party going mid range. My potential options: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have no problems picking up a used 7900xtx if I go that route. Based on 4070 Super performance, I'm definitely curious about 5070 performance 9070xt will be interesting to see what it brings to the table As always, I may not be able to resist the call of the 5090.....kicking myself as I place the order for a kings ransom 🤣 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I think a lot of it is with the 4070 Super I've had to turn off RT and I'm not really missing it (but still would take it). Even with a 4070 Super, I'm seeing CPU limitations in Raids and PvP which might just be a reality of the WoW engine it is so poorly threaded. Fallout 76 as noted before runs like a monster on X3D chips and the 4070 Super is pegged at 100% all the time on the 14900KS at 59/46/50 so I know I'll need something beefier to get a consistent 120fps everywhere especially on the 9800X3D as Fallout 76 does dip into the and 70s in multiplayer scenarios with the 4070 Super pegged at 100 unlike WoW.

I will admit while I use this 4070 Super as a stop gap device, the Radeon 9070XT intrigues me. It feels like when Nvidia went totally bonkers with pricing with Turing that I took a time out and skipped the 2080ti and picked up a 5700xt and used that exclusively till the 3090 dropped. It kind of seems that is happening again. The 9070XT is now reported to use standard 8-pin connectors again (some models will use up to three), is within 5% of the 4080 so in striking distance of the 7900xtx, much improved RT and if AMD can come in at $600-700 price point and match the 5070/5070ti, they may have a very viable alternative on their hand. Either way, a very exciting CES coming up soon!

So I picked up a 9800X3D combo deal from newegg because I'm a glutton for punishment.... ....but seriously, I'm seeing pockets of GPU utilization dropping into the 80's on the 4070 Super (which we have to remember is performing like a ~3090-3090ti depending on game) even with the 14900KS at 5.9 8400 tuned so I'm just going to have to itch this scratch which I attempted before but had a bum 9800X3D and a defective open box x670e Hero so I took the @Talon route and scooped up an X870e Hero + 9800X3D + free 48GB G.Skill kit + $50 discount from Newegg to give a whirl making the total combo about ~$950 before tax when all is said and done deducting the cost of the free G.skill sticks and $50 discount. This is also turning out like my adventures in laptops and DDR4 where I can't seem to NOT have at least 3-4 laying around at all times even after sell offs. Now I have my TG 8200 2x24GB, G.Skill A-die 2x32GB, G.Skill 2x48GB, and Crucial Pro OC 2x16GB 6400. For DDR4, I am finally down to one last DDR4 board in the house (my original Z690 Strix D4) and one last DDR4 2x16GB (Awesome B-die kit I picked up from @Mr. Fox running at 4100 tuned on the Z690 Strix D4). Same plan still in effect. If I stick with the 9800X3D rig, I'll give my wife the entire 14900KS setup and sell off her Z690 12900k setup. Nice boost from 5.2 to 5.9 all core for gaming and 4100 -> 8400. I can return the 4070 Super all the way up to Feb 3rd, so should have some clarity from Nvidia on the 5090 by then.

If they can get to the level of an MSI Titan w/ better cooling and better pricing that is a solid step in the right direction. Still can't see why a full fat x670/x870 laptop hasn't been made considering the bulk of AM5 chips can run no problem sub 200w unless their one foray into AM4 laptops was a sales disaster.

Agreed. While X3D is important to me, a double binned 9950X3D would be equally important. The lesser binned CCD always rubbed me the wrong way when I had my 7950X3D.

Pretty much confirmed single CCD X3D on the 9950X3D..... 😞 https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-ryzen-9-9950x3d-cpu-z-specs-leak-max-5-65-ghz-clock-170w-tdp-and-single-3d-v-cache-ccd On the bright side, it looks like both CCDs might be the better bins and clock up the same so there's some hope there:

Merry Xmas everyone and Happy Holidays!

Using standard thermal paste after a delid for DD is like buying A5 Wagyu and cooking it to well done.... 🤣 What block are you using now? Adventures in water cooling continue for moi..... Also @Mr. Fox picked up a large assortment of G1/4" on OC. 7 pairs should cover me there (for now). Pump/Res combo is in from XSPC. Just going to use industry grade soft tubing from Home Depot or something like this. Thinking of this Alphacool for the front 420mm Rad 15% site wide and that in between thickness. Still debating back and forth between the Alphacool Alpha and Heatkiller IV Pro Pure Copper blocks.

For many systems and testing, I still use a couple of 2.5" Samsung SSD 860 drives so I don't have to taint the NVME slot while making sure the MB is worthy for whatever it is being deployed and I really am pressed to feel the difference in most scenarios. I have 3x 980 Pro 1TB and 2x 990 Pro 2TB in my collection for my systems and I only recently upgraded to those 2TB because I run my storage tight but the games I have had my 1TBs struggling for breath so I upgraded both my desktop and primary NH55 laptop to 2TB each when they were on sale. The wife still runs an SN750 500GB, but she's due for a clean install soon (same install for about 1.5yrs now on W10), so I'll move one of the 1TB into her system.

If anyone is still in the market for a 285k, Provantage has tray 285k's in abundance. https://www.provantage.com/intel-at8076806419~7ITEP9HR.htm Earlier this week they had ~ 1252 in stock and they've only sold ~54 of them, so they still have a healthy 1198 in stock and the price dropped a smidge to under $600. With the 285k in such microcode/W11 flux at the moment, it will be interesting to see where final performance lands around summertime. Besides gaming, I do think it is a very solid CPU all around and in most instances provides better performance than the 14900k. Still waiting on the 9950X3D and CES Nvidia 5000 series unveiling. Edit: They got more in stock today. Current inventory count = 1587. 🤣

They are definitely easy to work with and usually have multiple customer service reps working on your order. I've received updates from multiples many times. This. I keep my driver installs as lean as possible. Looks like a double win, w00t!

They're a much smaller operation than a normal online e-tailer. You can always call. When I ordered from them, I found out they do zero work on the weekends and your orders are just queued up for processing on Monday so if an item is in high demand you never really know and that includes ordering on Friday. I actually placed my order on a Friday and heard absolutely nothing from them when I ordered a 9800X3D before snagging my Newegg one. It sat in limbo all through the weekend and into the next week till I contacted them and it was backordered by that point even though it showed "in stock" when I had ordered it so I cancelled my order. You might want to actually call them or email them to get clarity.

Joining me on the sidelines? 🙂 I'm rocking this 4070 Super with a 60 day return window if needed. It is doing well enough that I could limp along with it for months on end if needed. No coil whine, handles FO76 just fine, WoW can get dicey sometimes but not a deal breaker at 4k but had to drop it down from 10 to 8 and now 7 w/ RT off so I'm feeling it and its small bus and less than half the 4090 power. I've already decided if the 5090s are just beyond stupidly priced with idiotic tariff adjustments in place to top off insult to injury, I'll just ride this for an indefinite length of time or return it and then pick up a discounted Aqua 7900xtx for my loop build out or 8800xt depending on price/performance.

GPU out of memory was directly linked to 13th/14th degrading issues and/or bad/unstable OCs. I could force one on my 13900KS by running it on its edge with my substandard cooling. I never have encounter one on my SP109 14900KS.....ever. Only used Zoom on my 12900k systems (laptop and desktop) and zero issues.

Makes sense. Amazon was taking 9800X3D orders and kept pushing the delivery dates out till they reached early February and stopped taking orders. That was a few weeks ago. I'm fine waiting and seeing where everything goes. Gives me time to finish selling these last few things and hunker down till Feb/March for a potential 5090 and make space while slowly piecing out this water loop over the next month or so. Pretty sure I'm going to go with a 420 in the front and a 360 on the bottom to keep the rest of the upper portion clutter free for working within it with soft tubing.

And as expected, Newegg messaged me totday to let me know the 9800X3D isn't in stock and won't be for the foreseeable future so they're refunding me the entire balance. Thus ends my current AM5 saga. 🙂 Back to the "lowly" tuned SP109 14900KS.... I have to say I got so used to the 4090 at 4k gaming, I was used to seeing both X3D and Intel gasping for breath and the 4090 rarely hitting usage cap in both WoW and Fallout (especially Fallout, where it would drop to close to 60% many locations), but 4070 Super? 99-100% just about everywhere but very playable especially in Fallout. Like I said, in Raids and PvP I had to begrudgingly flip on the Raids/PvP graphics option so I wasn't dipping into the 50s in WoW. 4070 Super is taking a pounding. WOW FO76

So I've been using this x670e Hero to tune back in my 6000 on this 7600x. Set up some other profiles, and get it all ready for the hopefully replacement 9800X3D. I go to test out some fans on it and the bottom three fan headers are defective and keep shorting with fan(s) plugged in. Other fan headers work ok. So in summary, Amazon Resale x670e Hero: 1. Missing CPU heatsink brackets 2. Missing thermal pads 3. Previous owner used some type of thermal grease I can not get the stains off the heatsinks 4. Lower three chained 4 pin fan headers are defective Fun re-tuning the memory on it though. Back to Amazon Resale it goes.

Nice! So @Mr. Fox you are our official AM5 delidding service now? 🙂

Nice! Yet another reminder why I'll be going with soft tubing. It always looks great but I'm in and out of the systems too much 🙂 @Mr. Fox I'm leaning towards the Alphacool Core 1 Aurora as it seems to be on par with the Heatkiller and is compatible with AM5 and Socket 1700. Any insight or is the Heatkiller compatible with both too? Igor shows ithe Aurora basically equal with the Heatkiller for 13th/14th and a smidge better on AM5.

"I want to acknowledge that we got caught participating willingly and gleefully in predatory lending practices to pump up our valuation, dump old stock and please our new investors." - A more fitting statement....

On your recommendation, I went ahead and picked up the XSPC Photon D5 aRGB model since it was on clearance and had an additional 20% off making it a total of $137.69 after discounts and cashback. I think it is a mix of both. My son in law (bless his heart) wanted a gaming PC so badly he rented one from Rent A Center which at least was "rent to buy" but by the time he finished all the payments it was going to cost him $3k for a $1.5k PC. I told him to take that POS right back and built him the equivalent for $1.2k with a better GPU, CPU and more memory. He's not alone in that mentality and not thinking things through. Many focus on "can I afford the payment to have this item now?" versus doing the math and exploring better financial methods to obtain those items because they can't or won't think long term. I've even dealt with that mentality with family and friends trying to explain to them how much money they will end up losing and many times their response is, "I just want it now." Then you throw in companies like NZXT who take gross advantage of that mentality to absolutely abuse the financials of buyers to such gross extremes it HAS to be called out and luckily we have "tech influencers" (gag) with enough clout and standards to make companies change their ways because the tech sector is a finicky beast and sales can turn on a dime. --- GN has its issues. Steve is not the best presenter, long winded and prone to sensationalism but he does get the job done and is thorough in his fact finding and bringing companies and organizations to task. He has a few times stepped over the line a bit and was reeled back in though. Good example is GN vs LTT. He had the momentum but then went a little too far and could feel his crowd turn on him a hair so he dialed it back.

Thanks! I'm leaning towards the XSPC but AC would work too. The magic of binning! 🙂

Everything has shrunk! Asrock Z790i Lightning + SP109 14900KS + TG 8200@8400 sticks + 990 Pro 2TB + MSI 3x Ventus 4070 Super CPU went from gasping for breath to waiting for the 4070 Super to catch up. 🤣 @Mr. Fox and @tps3443 on a serious note, I'm looking for the best bang/bunk (aka cheap but performs relatively well) AM4/5 / Socket 1700 CPU block and D5 pump/reservoir combo. Thinking of pulling the AC LF 420 and putting a 420 + 360 Rad on the bottom loop in the case.

The king is dead! Long live the king! Boxed up my Liquid 4090 to ship off to the new owner tomorrow so I snagged a Ventus 3x 4070 Super locally from best buy to hold me over for the ~58 days. The Liquid X gave me almost two years of rock solid service and I can honestly say it has been my most favorite graphics card to own even more than the Kingpin 3090. Just a beauty of a card. I'm still holding on at 4k Ultra in WoW but barely. I had to begrudgingly turn off RT and there are some wicked dips into the 50s even with RT off so I suspect I'll be inching that Ultra 10 down to a consolation 8 sooner than later. 🙂 **Bring on the 5090!!** So adorable..... 🤣 No coil whine. It might be the quietest gpu I've own ever. Closest would be the KPE 3090ti. That was ridiculously quiet. WoW went from being rarely being pegged at 99% GPU to almost all the time 99%.