electrosoft

We'll never know how he applied it since he doesn't want to show anyone just in case they damage their card. One of his shortcomings is a weird fascination with information hording and bragging. It goes against the spirit of enthusiasts and sharing. If someone asks me a question about a setting or a hardware mod or whatever, I always freely share. I always have and always will. I was and am the same way with coding styles and algorithms. Whenever anyone asked me about how I wrote a specific part of code in assembly (WAY back in the day) or C or Pascal (I guess today would be Swift), I would just explain to them what I did and usually provide sample code because, why not? So when I bump up against other tech heads that get weirdly possessive about their methodology or information (outside of truly competitive arenas and/or financial stakes of course), they just seem strange and sad.

Yeah, MSI makes an 18" variant and Asus makes a 17.3" version. The one I'm picking up is the MSI variant. He uses liquid metal for the shunt but he doesn't want to show exactly what he did so others won't try it and damage their cards or some such nonsense..... I know I used an X-acto knife to etch for liquid metal for well over ten years now. I know I saw others who did it too and / or used electrical tape once and after that, the staining from that initial application of LM left a guideline so you didn't need to use tape or etching ever again and always have a guide. I actually used to clean everything up, reapply the thickest (prevent pump out or bleeding) thermal paste exactly as possible and remount to get as clean as possible an image of the working area before etching or masking.

In my arsenal atm: -------------------------------------------------------------- (These are all 15.6" laptops) Dell G15 13650HX w/ 4050 Asus Vivobook OLED Core Ultra 7 w/ 3050 Asus Vivobook OLED Core Ultra 9 w/ 3050 Acer Nitro AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS w/ 4050 NH55 golden 12900k w/ 3070ti Incoming: MSI Raider 18" 7950HX3D w/ 4090 --------------------------------------------------------------- I'm going to need to downsize the top list sooner than later. Even after my great laptop selloff in late 2023 (Sold 4 of them), I have the above.

It is worth the $50 to get a membership if you buy frequently. The return period goes from 14 days to 60 days which is a game changer. I do usually end up picking up enough items over the course of the year to make back the membership fees. For example, I needed a new GPS and the member price was $65 cheaper than non members and everywhere else so boom, cost covered. Obviously I was able to return my 4070 Super on the 60th day of use. And yeah, I tried and returned two G18 laptops. Loved the 18" display, but that absolutely locked down BIOS and more importantly needing to run Armory Crate to get access to the boost voltage for the CPU and GPU was a deal breaker. No advantages getting GPUs though. 😞 Best Buy did it a few times with Ampere and the user base went bonkers ape$(%& over it so they stopped that quickly.

What could have been with the 5080 FE lol.... Good seeing Jufus break it down and redo the pads, add liquid metal and power mod it....for science! 🤣

@Mr. Fox and @Papusan sitting on their porch, shaking their canes in anger and telling modern laptops to GET OFF THEIR LAWN!! 🤣

Are they doing an 18" version? 16 inch makes it DOA for myself. I love that NH55 (especially now with the BIOS unlocking), but the screen size is the only negative on it. ----- This is my favorite spot to benchmark WoW in the new Xpac since it will max out the GPU even a 4090 overclocked. I've used it across numerous systems in Hallowfall. It will max out even a 4090 and I can't hit my own personal frame cap there. Comparing my overclocked 4090 (GPU only, not memory) at 3135mhz fans at max vs my stock 5080 out of the box, it is 135fps (4090) vs 122fps (5080) on absolutely identical system specs so the 4090 overclocked to 3135mhz has ~10% lead over the 5080 stock. 4k 100% render scale, Ultra 10 RT enabled. Everything set to max. 4090: 5080:

Especially if you're not wanting the Ultra series in your gaming laptops that is as good as it gets for 14th gen laptops. Every bell and whistle you can think of and then some. Plus we know 5090 mobile is going to barely be better than 4090 mobile just like 2080 Super mobile to 3080ti mobile was a nothing burger. Actually, 3050 mobile all the way through 3070ti mobile to their 4000 series variants was a let down too. The only major uplift was 4080 and 4090 mobile. Plus, outside of custom variants, MSI has the best mainstream mobile BIOS on the market hands down. For me, it's all about 18" displays. I want the biggest displays possible on my laptops when able.

I mean, I guess that isn't terrible comparatively.... Better than the Asus combo which I can't say I'm shocked sold out within 5 min even at 6200 (~$6610 after tax)....sheesh.

There was an Astral 5090 combo on Newegg a few hours ago. It was ~$6200 and included the Astral, Asus PG32UDM, Asus Z890 Hero OR Asus x870E Hero, 1200 watt PSU, Asus Keyboard, Asus Mouse and their $600 Router. It was a legit bundle from Newegg. They lasted about 5 minutes actually but someone bought them! All 5080 Bundles are gone now too.

Looks like Gigabyte has raised their prices now too across the board based on NE prices. @tps3443 water blocked 5090 from them is now $2809.99 (or $2996.15 after tax for moi). Which models are you gunning for specifically? Or do you plan on grabbing whatever is available?

True, the 3090ti had it. I remember seeing it with my KPE 3090ti but I can't recall seeing it on my KPE 3090. We'll have to track down an elusive 5090 owner to see if it is there.

Nope, nothing for the 5080 I can see. Was there an option for the 4080? I thought it was only the 4090.

Yep, and it starts....and of course the poorest are going to feel it the worse confirmed by numerous sources. I can grumble grumble because some luxury toys are now even more pricier but I can weather the storm pretty easily. Others not so much. ----- In related news, looks like Newegg might have had a few 5090s drop tonight. Specifically Gigabyte Aorus 5090 and Gaming RTX along with the Zotac gaming Solid. Tomorrow is MSI's "official" launch day so if you're wanting one get ready at 9am EST for Newegg and especially Best Buy. Best Buy and New Egg haven't changed their prices yet but I'm sure they will before launch.

Yup, prices are officially rising from the AIBs: https://videocardz.com/newz/msi-and-asus-hike-geforce-rtx-50-series-prices-in-official-stores-now-up-to-3409-for-rtx-5090 Plus with the tariffs in play prices are rising on a lot of items here in the US for other computer items. I noticed even Asus peripherals have gone up in price in the last few days. I'll pocket my $1000, rock my 5080 FE which like my 4090 is being held back in WoW and Fallout 76 (9800X3D results not in yet) and keep it moving unless on a rare snag I get a $2k MSRP card. Anything else is just not worth it paying a almost 200%+ markup for 50% more performance on a card that is being bottlenecked for my two main games anyhow atm. I have several SFF builds in mind I can't wait to slap this into. 100% markup for 50% more performance? Ok, I can maybe swallow that....kinda but that requires an alignment of the stars and that doesn't rule out Nvidia raising the prices on their FE editions to $1100/$2200 or more. I'm not paying $2868 for a 5090 Suprim or $2975 for a Liquid 5090 after tax. That's insane. Absolutely insane. That is literally almost $2k more than I paid for my 5080 FE. Astral 5090 is $3284 after tax. No. Astral 5090 Liquid? $3635 after tax. **** no Just......no. --------------------------- For those of us who also enjoy laptops, I'm loathe to think of the new prices that we'll get. If Asus has already raised the price of the incoming 5090 laptop to $4199.99 BEFORE the tariffs, that is going to be $4500.00 for a 5090 laptop. No idea what MSI will be charging but they're routinely not that far behind. I'm sure the Titan will cost at least one kidney and a weekly quart of blood for a down payment. ----------------------------- It might be time to use common sense and just sit back and enjoy what we have or if you're really hell bent on getting a 5090, just suck it up and pay out the wazoo as soon as possible and hope to recoup a lot of that cost reselling your 4090....if you can score a 5090.

See? And that's why I'm glad you're here and actually bought one. 🙂 All I have to go off of are other people's results. So having owned and played with it for quite some time now, what is your overall comparison versus your tuned 14th gen and 9800X3D? Pick 3-4 games that favor either or and?

I will give the AIBs a pass on this one because of how Nvidia treated them in regards to leaving them in the dark till the last minute and literally giving them ~2wks to actually get the cores and do some semblance of QC testing. But Nvidia? They had ample time to work out the kinks with the 5000 series. They had already pushed it back from its normal launch cycle (~2yrs). They could have easily waited till June or even pushed it back another full year to the fall and launched it properly. If it helps, my 5080 FE is running smooth as silk and zero problems. Just the normal 4090 issues with the 14900KS still bottlenecking it at 4k more often than not where before the 4070 Super was sitting at 99% the vast majority of the time. Raids at Ultra 10 RT on leave the 5080 FE sitting well below 80% almost all the time and sometimes even lower. I am pleasantly surprised at the performance level of the 5080 stock. I haven't even begun to OC it yet. One last round of testing with the 14900KS and 8200 tuned before I slap in the 9800X3D tuned 2200/6400 1:1 for its turn and relegate the 14900KS to the test bench system till it learns its fate. (insert ominous music HERE). I love the comment section. A lot of salty, butt hurt 4090 owners getting testy where it really isn't needed....

I imagine this on loop while you refresh over and over in the darkness of your computer room.....

Potential plan of attack for myself: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sold mine for $2100 and prices are absolutely insane right now hitting 2700+ for the liquid. Picked up a 4070 Super to tide me over w/ 60 day BB return window Snagged a 5080 FE on launch Returned 4070 Super on very last day eligible (Feb 1st) 5080 FE has a return window till April 2nd (like that would happen) Plan on rocking the 5080 FE till an MSRP 5090 potentially drops If I managed to snag a 5090, hopefully sell off of the 5080 FE can cover most of the expense since I blew the last of my Fall sell off budget picking up @win32asmguy's beastly 18" 4090 laptop to travel. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you can stomach going without a GPU, sell it for a bit of profit while the market is ultra dry. Pick up a holdover GPU if needed. You had $$$ set aside for the 5090 anyhow, so use a good chunk of the 4090 sale and address other upgrades and needs or toys. 🙂 I know with the 5080 FE, those 99% utilizations I had all over the place with the 4070 Super are gone again and I'm back into 4090 territory with the 5080 FE being bottlenecked all over the place with the 14900KS, so the next big project is rebuilding out my main rig with the x870e hero + 9800X3D which is finally tuned up as tight as I can get it for my needs then let's see if this 5080 FE keeps laughing. I don't mind being GPU less for a few months or rocking a much lesser GPU. I rocked that 4070 Super for a solid two months and survived. When I sold my 3090 before, I rocked a 3060 for a month or two and survived.

Regression in performance for Ultra 9 285k even tuned a bit for gaming: ---- I was thinking the same thing having just watched Roman's video. So many issues and oddities with the 5090s but with most AIBs having at most a few weeks to actually slap the chips on and test their designs, it makes sense. I would also expect more issues with the 5090 vs 5080 since the 5090 is basically redlining right out of the box. Meanwhile, Nvidia has had the entire lead up time to vet their engineering and design and get it right and it is still having some issues. I'm just not seeing a realistic scenario without dual 12vhpr ports for a true enthusiast 5090. lol, it's true! All you need to do is look around and realize overclockers are an ever shrinking minority in the sea of hardware users. it's evident how companies have taken over with boosting algorithms to properly give every end user access to the bulk of their CPU/GPU's performance naturally. Yeah, too much myopic focus on gaming and benching (present company included). Sometimes we forget all the other advantages and upgrades in the 5000 series especially to content creators and AI along with better display standards for starters never mind all the gaming "enhancements" it received. I think when all is said and done, the 5080 is going to be the overclocking gem of this generation since there are no, real limitations to power out of the box like the 5090 is brushing up against even at stock. My biggest fear is Nvidia analyzed the cross BIOS flashing vulnerabilities and have locked down the 5000 series even tighter. New ranking for desired 5090: #1. Gigabyte Windforce (good cooler, MSRP) #2. Suprim Liquid (Why fix what ain't broke?) #3. Suprim Air (Like a Liquid, but easy to move case to case) #4. Astral (Because if you're being stupid with your money, why not be EXTRA stupid?) #5. 5090 FE (MSRP, but reports of crazy coil whine and weird noises and issues seem to keep increasing)

Brett ranting about people ranting about the 5000 series basically sums up how I feel (timestamped): ----- MSI 5090 Liquid 5090 quiet as always and less coil whine: ----- Insane shortages everywhere. Even the stock trackers are showing zero restocks basically since drop in the US for eTailers for both 5090 and 5080 cards. MC shows some trickles coming in on trucks. People paying $2k for 5080 FE cards on eBay is insane but hey it's their money! Imagine funding a 5090 FE snag with reselling a 5080 FE.... ------ I'm probably one of the few who enjoyed the 5000 series launch video from Microcenter. The guy doing the longest interview talking about how people are overlooking the encoders/decoders upgrade on the 5000 series is valid. For content creators, the 5000 series is a massive step up even the 5080. AI upgrades are pretty substantial seeing in some models too Looking at SO many happy faces getting some beastly upgrades with the 5080 and 5090 is great to see. The guy upgrading from a 1050ti to a 5080 has no idea the insane difference he is about to experience in performance. Times like this, I realize we truly are a small minority in a big sea of joe gamers and Carla Content Creators of the world. ----- 5080 OC up in stock 4090 territory in TS:

Well, mystery solved. It was the memory. Pulled the 2x32GB G.Skill A-die and slapped in the 2x24GB 6400 kit that was a freebie with the 9800X3D bundle and just like that everything is working right as rain in WoW and everywhere else. Those sticks were problematic on the x670e hero and x870e hero. I'm starting to think they are failing (or at least one of them). Here is what it looked like when the 2x32GB sticks were installed:

I enjoyed the hunt actually. It was fun frantically trying to nab one from NE and BB while also getting real time reports from a few buddies camped out in St Davids and Parkville MC to keep me in the loop how that was going (it didn't lol) All of us in our own, little personal hardware forum here too was fun as real time we smashed ourselves against Nvidia's rock... I mean, we all came out with nada but it was fun!

This is the way..... ------------------------------------- 5080 FE has arrived: Even better news, ZERO coil whine. I mean none. I mean I let Fallout run over 1000fps in the menu and zero during Steel Nomad, Timespy or World of Warcraft. Out of the box it is boosting close to 2800 so that bodes well for some overclocking magic. This is **4** GPUs in a row now (3090ti KPE, 4090 Liquid, 4070 Super, 4080 FE) with different motherboards, CPUs, memory, SSDs with basically no coil whine and all have been on my EVGA 1600w P2. Like I said before, my old 3080 Strix has coil whine in the wife's system with the Seasonic 1000w, but when I swapped it into my system after repasting it to retest it, it had none. Bad news is I'm getting some serious artifacting in WoW with my CPU >5.4ghz and Timespy errors out on the last GPU test. I drop it to 5.4 and everything is smooth sailing. Only difference now vs then is this last week I did swap in those 6000 2x32GB dual rank sticks while I tune up the TG sticks with the 9800X3D. I'll swap in the extra set of Corsair 2x16GB sticks to see if that makes a difference, but I got a funny feeling..... ---- Lastly, 4070 Super seems to be the sweet spot for Fallout 76 as I'm getting CPU bottlenecked the same across the most hard hitting spot static spot I can find where I do my testing with 4k everything maxed. The 4070 Super hits ~99% utilization in this spot, but the 5080 FE is hitting ~54%. I know FO76 loves X3D and was a monster on the 7800X3D, so hopefully the 9800X3D (pictured left above, coming down the home stretch for tuning the TG 8200 sticks at 2200/6400) will bring this 5080 to its knees but we will see. Min and 1% is up though with the 5080. For historical comparison to show how much the 14900KS w/ 8200 tuned up to 5.9 improved performance but more importantly the absolutely dominating performance of the 7800X3D in Fallout 76. The 13900KS was doing 5.7 all core and the 8000 sticks weren't tuned on the level of the TG 8200 sticks so even with a 4090, my 5080 had better results but that 7800X3D....WHEW. Oh and lastly, today was literally the last day I could return the 4070 Ventus, so I did. Now it's me and this 5080 FE.....

I think this is a case of the 2000 to 3000 series debacle again where minimal gains were achieved. Even 3000 to 4000 saw nothing really below the 4080 mobile. Seeing as outside of the 5090, nothing is massive in terms of improvements this is about what was to be expected.