electrosoft

With Microcenter offering 9070xt reapers on the regular for $599.99 aka MSRP, that's the way to go for bang:buck. All other 9070xts have dropped in price including the mighty Asrock Taichi down to $679.99 and Sapphire Nitro+ regularly down to $719.99. Plus Newegg has added black friday protection to Asrock cards even at $679.99 for the Taichi and $619.99 for the Steel so I am expecting even further price drops probably to $649.99 for black friday on the Taichi and $599.99 for the Steel. The gains in RT and FSR are very very good for AMD. They are here to play and with early reports of next gen GPUs showing a major architecture overhaul again with UDNA on the level of their move to RDNA. AMD is competing very well right now with the 5070ti on down with their stack. Of course AMD continues to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and those series of micro failures keep them from capturing the mindshare from Nvidia fans. Nvidia has its issues, but it continues to deliver on most fronts including the most important, performance and AMD is not afforded the luxury of Nvidia missteps like Intel to finally conquer. Steve went on a little too long about it but the points are sound. Ray tracing is definitely the future along with DLSS making massive inroads but I'm afraid so is FG but if Nvidia can make the same performance increases like they did with RT then FG may reach a day where it has zero latency penalty. If we reach that point, I welcome it too. As for the connector, unfortunately it is here to stay. All we can hope for is line protection/balancing mechanisms enacted to keep them balanced properly on both ends. I look forward to my WV2 Pro. I'm thinking of picking up the Asrock 1600w on sale that is populated with not only 2x 12v-2x6 connectors but also 8x 8 pin PCIe connectors. $199.99 is a good price. It also has Newegg's black friday protection I said it before and I'll say it again. 🙂 5090FE is a SFF engineering marvel but that's where it ends. In every other category I'm going any other card and depending on SFF size you can even fit an Astral in there but the perfect compromise is the Ventus 5090. Coming off an Astral, I literally opened the box to check if it was in there when we left MC because it was so much smaller and lighter and a true 3 slot card vs the Astral and the Vanguard which is similar in size to the Astral. But the Jonsbo Z20 can fit all of them in a mATX SFF form factor. Well, depending on games especially with RT the 5080 can definitely provide a tangible uplift. Even if you wait for the Supers the 5080 and 5070ti aren't really getting a legit performance uplift just an increase in tdp which you can do on just about any 5080 flashing the astral vbios (sans 5080FE). Checking Newegg, the only 5080 they have with Black Friday price protection is the PNY 5080 which is already down to $999.99. This will probably drop to $899.99 or $849.99 for Black Friday so you would be refunded the difference from NE if you're looking to minimize your "cost to play" with something new and better. But I can completely see holding onto your 7900xtx which is nice and blocked up already running the Aqua vBIOS. As much as I loved that Astral, it had to go back for almost $3600 after tax. Waiting paid dividends and I snagged this Vanguard for $1971 open box and even that is a stupid amount of money for a GPU so I get the cost factor too but the uplift from your 7900xtx, especially in RT, would be massively substantial.

Yeah, the best bet might be to hang onto the 7900xtx unless you have a specific need you're targeting for upgrading outside a new fun toy. 9070xt, depending on use case, is a side grade at best as is a 5070ti. Anything worth the squeeze is going to be a 5080, 4090, 5090. 4090 and 5090 are very expensive. So as you've found it is all about the 5080. I'd still wait and watch sales heading into black friday. I've been tempted to pull the trigger on a few pieces including another 9070xt for my SFF build but I know there will be some decent sales coming up.

LOL, that would be the sane move. I think we should count our blessings we got in on the 5090s when prices were low. Your Zotac Solid OC is out of stock everywhere and the cheapest price atm is $3279.99+ on Amazon. Even open box used is going for $2612.... New base price on Newegg when in stock is back up to $2899.99 It is better but won't give you that massive upgrade uplift you like to experience true. With black friday specials starting to activate earlier and earlier now, keep an eye out for a good 5080 sale which is bound to happen or do as @Papusan suggests and hunt down a used 5080 on the $750-850 range depending on model. Which model(s) did you have in mind for the 5080?

5090 Stock is severely drying up and base prices are up These are all sold and shipped by vs BB and Egg having their "marketplace" BS. BB is new to the game but they need to have an option to tick "Sold and shipped by BB" as you have to now wade through everything to find which models are sold by them. MC has 4 models in stock. Cheapest = $2999.99 Egg has 4 models in stock. Cheapest = $2849.99 BB has 3 models in stock. Cheapest = $2999.99 Amazon is all over the map as always. Cheapest = $2649.99 (Master) I'm sure those Masters will sell out just like they did on BB. If anyone is in the market for a 5090 atm, sooner than later is at hand.... --- Memory prices are absolutely bonkers stupid right now. So glad I bought that backup set of Kingspec 8400 M die 2x24GB sticks in June on the recommendation of @Mr. Fox for $140. They're actually a hair better than my TG 2x24GB 8200 sticks I picked up in July 2024 for $278.99 which are now $329.99..... The Patriot 8200 sticks I bought and returned because they couldn't even do 8000 without erroring out on TM5 were $189.99 and now are $274.99. --------------------------------------- Just placed my order for the WireView Pro II. Only FedEx is available for S&H no DHL so this should be fun when it eventually ships..... I'll switch my wiring up then to bottom run cable versus the top/over style I use now since the Vanguard uses the normal clip (non reverse) WV2

There is definitely some user error in the equation along with inherent balancing issues. Luckily with something like the WireView Pro II we now have a proper tool just in case to monitor balancing AND it can handle higher loads along with a serious warranty. Once shipped, it definitely dims the light on the Astral a bit. AMD made a major mistake and damage control is in overdrive. The sad part is if the tech media and users hadn't responded so negatively they would have continued with this business as usual. They may change course but the destination is still set and that doesn't bode well. Like Steve said in the video, "I said earlier this year don't %*%*% up AMD!" That's all they had to do. They had the momentum and actually sold way more 9070xt/9070 cards than expected and had their best sales ever in quite awhile then proceed to make dumb mistakes like this.

This really makes you think with everything done right, and oodles of power slammed through the connection, it is just fine. I would say it is human error coupled with potential QC, but I also believe after the 4090, OEMs/AIBs definitely test their connectors under high stress conditions including MSI. I also still stand by the fact lighter colored connectors will show scorch marks much easier than black connectors and to see if a black connector is degrading you will need to either get it to a point of melting and/or have the actual pins scorched too. I would posit that there are probably equal parts black connectors scorched out there as there is lighter color connectors. You just can't detect it as easily with the naked eye. I do not subscribe to the "yellow tip disaster" theory quite yet. We are talking anecdotal meets the potentially lowest level of confidence. It just doesn't fly. I do subscribe to the "a very small segment of connectors in general burn but we just quite don't know why yet" theory which applies to both Nvidia and AMD cards that have adopted this connector and includes MSIs cables along with other ones. In that line of questioning and wondering about cable/tentacle QC, how many founders edition 5090s / RTX 6000 pros have burnt up using the supplied Nvidia adapter cable? You would think their adapters would be the gold standard in all of this....

At least AMD suffering the problem lets us know it is a spec issue and not an Nvidia GPU side issue but still.... Score another for a lighter colored connector showing clear and visible scorch marks..... The blessing and the curse is my closest MC is ~60min away in St Davids. Close enough to where if I really want to go it isn't that far away yet far enough away to keep me honest and not habitually dropping by "just to look" (translation: Coming home with new goodies more often than not). An hour is a medium sized commute. Very doable. Your poor wallet AND you get access to a newer store vs ours which opened in 1991.....

With the newfound relationship between Jensen and trump sky is the limit now for selling AI hardware so might as well re-direct those 5090s to the AI segment. AMD has zero answer for Nvidia this time around and next time is looking to potentially "match" the 5090 which is nice but what about the 6090? 5080 beats everything AMD has to offer, period. This makes sense too as 5090s are not only going back up in price but drying up at all the sellers atm from newegg to BB to amazon and even MC. St David's MC is down to only 4 models of 5090 in stock atm. I've never seen stock so low except during the initial launch drought. Cheapest model in stock atm is $3k Newegg only has 4 models in stock and cheapest is $2850 Best Buy actually has the most in stock, 9 models, and the cheapest available is the Aorus Master on sale actually for $2599.99. That's actually a decent price for a Master and actually in stock if you wanted to go big time @Raiderman Were they both 550w EVGA models or two different variants? I'd jettison the 7900xtx especially with the head games AMD is playing atm. I'm pretty disappointed in them and they're only back tracking because of consumer outrage but the damage is done. They can't stop kicking their own ass..... Like @Mr. Fox said, go for the cheapest model that has a block available you like if you're focused on the 5080. It does offer the best bang/buck if you can get one fairly cheap (IE MSRP) or a touch below. You could also wait for the Supers next year as @Papusan said, but in the here and now either: Go for the cheapest 5080 that has your block du jour or Go ham and grab a Master from best buy for $2600 There are several 16GB 5080 models available from several sellers for $999.99. I can't imagine paying 30-50% more for a Suprim

The crazy part to me is how they have disabled the powered USB-C port on 7900xt/x reference designs too. This was one of the primary reasons I was thinking of one to power an external 18-24" USB-C LCD display a few years ago. Imagine suddenly losing that to stay somewhat current with drivers on a card that is still being sold by many vendors including Best Buy? I know if I was a 6000 series card owner I would be pretty salty over de-prioritizing a card that was launched less than 5 years ago and being sold new as recent as three years ago and sooner....

I watched this earlier. I think I'm going to order one too. I really like the design, approach and refinements since the 1.0 variants. Much better than Ampinel and with a warranty that will extend to your card.

**Exactly** what I said was going to happen during the summer and by mid September low prices were going to bottom out and prices slowly start to rise so if you wanted a 5090, mid September was the time to snag one. Luckily everyone in this thread who wanted one has one by now. Anyone planning on two of them? @Mr. Fox maybe to replace his other 4090 eventually? 9070xt has definitely come down in price here in the US. $599.99 Reapers are routinely in stock. Taichi is back to MSRP and Sapphire Nitro+ is back to and routinely under MSRP.

The best thing to take from this is him lending to the idea of using the best CPU for the game at hand and that he is CPU agnostic and owns and uses them all from CPU to GPU. For some games, Intel is better. For others, X3D is god mode. This has always been the truth. Fallout 76 runs substantially faster on X3D than Intel. In certain places, gobsmackingly so.... I still think Intel handles the critical lows of WoW better than AMD but since the 9000 series, the dip/chunk is gone with X3D. I like owning a 9070xt and 5090 I like owning that SP109 14900KS and 9800X3D I *want* to own a 285k platform but the 275HX Alienware 18 will have to do for now I know if a nicely priced, well binned 285k popped up I'd probably do something stupid and buy it like an idiot. 🤣 Timestamped: -------------------- Overall, though, Jufus needs to understand there is "hardware enthusiast crowds" and "normal crowds" and most people (like 99% if I had to guess) are just going to go buy their laptops and desktops, plugged them in, install steam, epic, blizzard, MS, etc.... and play their games. They are never, ever going to get under the hood in any way, shape or form. They literally freeze up at the idea of updating their BIOS and will come to someone like us or take it to a Best Buy/MC of sorts for any type of problems or upgrades. This is why his attacks on HUB and other mainstream sources routinely do not make sense to me. This is also why his channel has been stuck at sub 40k subs forever growing at a snails pace. Not that it is a bad channel. I enjoy it. It is because his target audience is a tiny fraction of the audience that watches channels like HUB, JZ2C, LTT and more....

Another board repairer basically saying stay away from the 5090FE.....yikes I will say it again, 5090FE is the best "set and forget" compact design on the market that is perfect for ultra compact SFF builds. Outside of that? No thanks. If I was going to block a 5090 or building out a desktop, I would pick just about any other card priced close enough. But again as a SFF option? It is beautiful and perfect (outside of the extra bit of coil whine and electronics noise they tend to bring vs other models). I mean, it's like they read my mind!!!! 🤣 I mean, we are at the tail end of diminishing returns with a block and EVC2 so every bin up matters. But this is another case in point that voltage matters as you're able to goose the voltage up and just like that higher clocks and more power draw. I said it many months ago how much voltage matters for 5090s and in many scenarios even at the 600-650w point depending on card but some would argue against it but as has been shown over and over (and over) again, higher binned voltage cards are consistently rising to the top. You can push this to the extreme with an EVC2 and goosing the juice to let you pull even more power. Now you see many realizing this to the point depending on how the 6090 faires, looking forward to binning cards based on clocks AND vmax. Luckily, EVC2 exists so you can compensate for this if you're willing to tear down your card and solder one on along with might as well throw some shunts on it too. 🙂 (gets off pulpit) 🤣

That is awesome! EVC2 is great because it compensates quite nicely for silicon voltage lottery and just like that an extra 250w of juice to play with. @tps3443 maybe hook one up to your FE to goose the 1.075v cap on it? I wonder how something like @jaybee83's 1.02v cap would respond being goosed up to ~1.10 or greater considering his max clocks are being held back even at the 600w cap.

We need more options like this state side. We desperately need another EVGA stat..... Basically letting you push voltage to 1.15v and 2000w via software and vBIOS is beautiful. We shouldn't be needing to rip our cards open to shunt and attach an EVC (especially on cards sub ~1.095v) to enable functionality like this. Crazy the XOC vBIOS still hasn't leaked almost 10 months later. We're creeping up onto a year soon since launch. I agree on the waterblock purchase too. It will not only let you push this beauty, but will help with resell value later.

Are you asking if a laptop you bought from an ebay seller is bios locked and can it be bios unlocked? If so, it depends on the make and model of the laptop.

When the cache is your enemy.....

I was listening to a YT go on about the connectors and he did note that many black connectors could be scorched too but you just can't see it. That gave me pause.... Outside of the discoloration, many of the burned yellow connectors are not physically changed (while some clearly are). It makes me wonder how many have scorched their connectors in daily use and don't even know it? Good early detection system. Maybe in the future all makers should make the actual insertion portion white/red/yellow so you can clearly see if there is some scorching or discoloration going on in daily use.... Nah bro! Your worst decisions allow us to continue to live vicariously through your purchasing decisions! 🙂 Looking forward to your results and $800 over an Astral actually isn't terrible seeing as the XOC vBIOS hasn't shown up for us mere mortals in almost 9 months and counting.... I think I said this before, but once you exhaust that cache things can get wonky depending on the game but if the game can 100% sit in that cache it's lights out wins for AMD every time. Problem is games are getting bigger and bigger and texture active and look ahead calls can tank that cache super fast. AMD (and Intel even) need to increase that cache size even more now. But for AMD and X3D you need to tune your system just like Intel so when you do fall outside of the cache your system is ready to minimize the hit as much as possible. Take a game like Fallout 76 due to the engine age everything sits in the cache at all times and it just destroys Intel and scarily so. Ironically, their GPUs can't hold a candle to Nvidia's cards in Fallout 76. Best combo continues to be X3D + Nvidia GPUs. WoW on the other hand started off with Intel having such smooth, consistent lows that the overall gameplay was better but recently with newer updates across the board, I'm no longer getting that chunk or stuttering with AMD and I haven't in quite awhile after switching to the 9800X3D. On the other hand, that tuned 59/45/60 tuned SP109 14900KS in the wife's system and 9070xt at 1440p Ultra 10 max RT is an absolute beast and with the newest drivers from AMD and refinements from Blizzard in Tazevesh it is locked at 165fps just about everywhere now. All the previous issues with AMD cards on WoW are a thing of the past and I continue to be very impressed with the 9070xt. 275hx in my Alienware is holding it down nicely keeping that 5070ti mobile pegged to 100%.... Basically, shut up and play.... 🤣 Looking good! Is there a particular reason you decided to downsize one of your Gigabutt boards and keep smashing your noggin against the wall trying Apex boards over and over....and over? 🤣 Hopefully with next gen AMD chips really addressing the fabric issues in a major way, this will be a thing of the past and we'll get cache on both chips. While it was a pipe dream for the 9950X3D with both CCDs having X3D, logically with its latency and fabric issues, it just didn't make sense.

All I'm saying is the math isn't mathing....and luck is not at play in engineering fault tolerance testing. Plus with the user reports all we have is their subjective takes ("I swear I checked everything right before going to church and feeding the homeless!") usually rife with oversights and human error we do not know or see. All we see is the end product which is a burned cable and/or fused connection. Then people run with it..... If the connector was that flawed, those who routinely push their cards should suffer a much noticeable higher rate of failure yet amongst the enthusiasts on the forums the rate of failure is minuscule if even that. I've long thought this since the 4000 series and it continues to prove itself out over and over. I frequent the various enthusiast forums, enthusiast FB tech message groups, tech focused Discord along with clans and guilds chock full of 4090 and 5090 owners gaming 8-12hrs/day and more waiting for this influx of burned connectors amongst the various types used considering how hard the hardware is being pushed even on non shunted cards running max OC's constantly hitting 600-650w....yet......much ado about nothing. I ran my 4090 OC'd from start to finish. I am doing the same with my 5090 too. One thing I do for my cards since Ampere is I run them max Underclocked when not gaming/benching then Max OC when gaming. Look, it's a cheap part to replace for the cable. I can swap in numerous types or models if I want. That isn't the issue. Zero loyalty to a damn connector cable 🤣 The one and only time I had issues was with the CM adapter cable I was going to use and it kept black screening and crashing and it turned out to be severely problematic and was a legitimate issue even outside of human error or potential inherent problems. The replacement one they sent me is still sitting sealed in its pouch on my shelf. I am really curious about the Ampinel and am almost 100% I'll be picking one up just out of curiosity. And you're correct, many on OC.net DO spend more money on quality products than normies. That just adds even more weight to my argument. With all that being said, I still wish they had stuck with 8-pin PCIe connectors but I guess with the way power consumption is going, we would end up with cards with 4-5 of them if not more at some point on certain models. Imagine a HOF with 8 8-pin connectors..... 🤣

The gift that keeps on giving across all spectrum including PSUs, tentacles and AMD and Nvidia! Ugh.... On the flipside, has anyone in this thread experienced a burned out connector? Over on the enthusiasts forums it is indeed rare to encounter a burned connector especially at proper 600w spec. Why can you have some throw 800w+ through their connectors on the regular or bench at 1200w+ and no problems and Bobby the Basic User burns up their connectors? Even in that realm, it is a small sample across all connectors.... How is it we all ran XOC last gen and not one burned connector among any of us? Why is this?

As soon as I saw this, I thought, "Oh, he's purposely trying to trigger @Papusan and @Mr. Fox!" 🤣 Looks good! I, too, loop my connector(s) over the top of my GPUs when able so you can see the whole card and it takes a bit of the downward pull off the connector. I've done this since Ampere as an additional reason on top of aesthetics. Hmmmm, I wish you had the other board too to see if you could reproduce this on two of them. Might need to talk to other X870e owners to try to recreate a similar test scenario to see if they can trigger a memory fail.

Love by the sword, die by the sword @Papusan!! Time to order your pair (or two!) ASAP! 🤣

It didn't even cross my mind l2c vc controller support would be an issue so I understand. Hopefully they can provide an update or if your other one is supported. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- More MSI connector woes, but again with the sheer amount of cards being sold, it does come down to potential user error or one off issues. This was on a Gaming Trio (not like that matters) This isn't like the CM debacle which was much more prevalent and seemed like a daily occurrence with a crap ton of units showing up at repair shops across the world. Lightning striking the second user TWICE is just odd...... The bulk of users over on the forums shooting 800w+ daily through their units having zero problems. The vast majority of 4090 users never having a problem. Just like my 4090 I run my 5090 full tilt. The one bonus about using the supplied OEM tentacle is if it burns, you're completely covered from the OEM/AIB unlike if you use a third party connector. I will always continue to use the supplied connector. I might pick up an Ampinel simply because it looks interesting as a protection mechanism.

I'm so glad the damage was material only and everyone is safe and sound @Papusan!! Material items can be replaced / covered. Loved ones can not. Good fortune it didn't hit the house or do even worse. By chance, was your collection of Crocs maybe caught under the tree? Maybe? 🙂

Claims of turning a 9070 into a 9070xt have been greatly exaggerated.....as always..... Agreed, the juice isn't worth the squeeze on that one. Eventually a time will come around where you might have a scenario where you can test it in transit, but with everything set up as now? Nope. So both the 9950X and memory are retail rolling the dice? Good luck! My experience with EXPO is similar with some kits. They work as rated, but if you lower the frequency, they suddenly become unstable. This was the case with a Crucial 6400 kit and G.Skill 6000 kit. I've also had several needing more voltage on the Aorus B650i than rated versus the x870e Hero. I can see why kits get returned with such unstable variability. In the end, I just end up dialing each and every kit in manually. Same as I did for years on Intel. That, in turn, shows the variance between even "same" kits which made me realize (you too obviously) that binning also exists with memory kits too to go along with CPUs, GPUs and depending on how hard you're pushing even motherboards. Ugh... 🤣