electrosoft

It could have been worse 😞 Make sure to test it especially the IMC if you're looking to push 8400+ I can definitely see this scenario playing out. MSI Titan 18 HX is completely unlocked too and has a BIOS basically identical to their desktop boards allowing access to CPU and memory adjustments. Asus G18 allows an undervolt.....and that's it.

ARC continues to improve in leaps and bounds (of course the argument being it needed massive amounts of improvement) on the software/driver side and this will lay the groundwork for Battlemage. I'm hoping they can at least compete with the upper middle tier (4070/4080 level) at least if not more. *WHEW* glad you were able to get an RMA on that stinker. 14900k/ks would be a buy pre-binned only affair for me but I am skipping it and sticking with AMD this go around and see how 15th gen and 8000 X3D shakes out. I don't see any 14th gen chip being much better than the SP115 13900KS I had considering I use AIOs and it was on par overall with my 7950X3D (but just got destroyed in Fallout 76). I'm also skipping all laptops (outside of what companies send me to evaluate and review) and just sticking with my NH55. Maybe down the road (along with @jaybee83) I could see swapping in a killer sample 14900 chip like @tps3443 has and going from there because of the sweet lows.

Not at the moment unfortunately. I sold my last 3070 and that 6700xt a while back. A380 went to my nephew, 7900xtx to my daughter and 4060 to my friend's daughter.

I topped out at 6800 on the Unify with my 12900k but that might have been the m-die sticks I was using at the time.

100% agree. It isn't always what ya got but how ya use it. Delid it, throw it on a chiller DD and suddenly the variance between high and low SP narrows greatly under real world conditions and pushing them quite nicely. I do think many want to see good samples on AIOs because that is what they run so they can personally quantify and qualify the chip compared to their own cooling and sample run (personal system variances notwithstanding). I LOVE seeing chiller and LN2 runs and seeing these chips pushed while also accepting I run AIOs so I can't directly compare the results with my own chosen cooling but it would be nice time to time to see some of them tested on AIOs first then moved to DD/chillers to not only document the difference between the AIO and DD/chiller on that particular chip but to also compare somewhat directly. Then again, you can't demand someone to take the time to setup and test a chip on an AIO before moving to their own preferred cooling method. I do not see the argument for disparaging @tps3443 setup (or yours or @Mr. Fox) because one is not running it though. That doesn't make any sense. Oh and I definitely remember you taking average chips and pushing them over on the old forums. Those were some of my favorite posts.

Ditto. We're early into the 14900KS Xmas day unboxing joy, but as a month or so passes and samples continue to trickle in, we're going to see some prime lovelies. @tps3443 R batch is about as perfectly balanced and good as they get especially on his chiller even capped. It's a great chip both high (desktop) and low (laptop).

Nice! That's what a decent median 14900KS should always look like not the ton of lower tier samples that are popping up. Personally, those 14900KS SP112 and up monsters are looking nice and SP119+ are just insane. I remember seeing so many choice 13900K and 12900K chips and going "whoa!" Then the KS top 10% variants come in and just shut the door on all those 13900k and 12900k chips. History will repeat itself of course. 🙂

Problem with next gen if this takes hold will come down to power efficiency of Zen5 and price. If you can net double the AVX-512 performance for the same price, you can double that mining income. Factor in it going up per day and I can see Zen5 8950x's disappearing fast and 7950x's and even potentially 7950X3Ds but hopefully it flatlines and busts. As for X3D I always wait. I got my 7950X3D for $476 total shipped after tax and everything to my door. Next gen, I'll probably skip the 8950x and wait for the 8950X3D and hopefully it won't suffer the same fate, but if it is lucrative enough to mine on, it will. Back to $599 and $590 now for the 7950X3D which is $640 and $630 shipped for me. 😞

Your SP117 13900KS is still working though right? I think a lot would change with a delid, but as you say that negates being returning it. SP102 is not that bad and the odds of getting worse are definitely in play. Ugh, just watching this massive POS scenario gaining steam.....

Looking at all the duds trickling in, I was thinking the same thing with your SP 105. It is actually decent compared to the influx of duds. Worst case scenario, the second is a dud and you return it and call it a wrap with the SP 105.

First God Bin 14900KS over on the OCN forums whew! You knew they were going to start popping and makes those SP100's look like trash.

That is a gorgeous block!

In regards to @tps3443 laws of averages vs high tier OC'ers getting the hand selected goodies to entice the masses. 🙂

Ugh, they added World of Warcraft to their APO...... This is really tempting me to pick up a 14900KS and slot one in on the wife's system for testing WoW but then again to properly test it I'd also have to slot in my 4090..... UGH! It does say Shadowlands and not Dragonflight though but I suspect it will just work in general. Or I could just find a very nice 13900KS (again) and slot that in for a killer price with 14900K and now 14900KS on the market....oh wait, it still only supports 14th gen atm....

Common sense kicked in? 🙂 At best, you'll find one that might touch your R batch with the odds forever not in your favor chip fishing.

The samples will follow the standard "Always slightly better than the worse 14900k but might match many 14900k in the mid" |---------14900K--------| |----------14900KS---------| 14900KS just guarantees you won't get a terrible 14900K but no guarantees of a "good" 14900KS The beauty is you're suddenly seeing an influx of good 14900K's popping up on the forums for sale. As for Amazon, you are going to need to go into chat and tell them it has been over two weeks since they've had it in their possession and they will usually manually process the refund for you. Their new stringent standards for returns are definitely delaying returns from Amazon and Amazon Warehouse. We also have to factor in most users are not going to plug and unplug their GPUs 50+ times in their entire ownage lifetime. If it is plugged and unplugged I'd say even 10 times that is pushing the upper limit. I think I've plugged and unplugged mine maybe 5 times total if that over the last 14 months and I've done numerous system swaps and parts. Using the ole tentacle you can just leave it plugged in though and disconnect the PSU cables when removing it. You don't have that luxury with a dedicated PSU 12VHPR connector. The big problem will be if this takes off with the launch of the 8000 series right around the corner it will be scalperville again. AVX-512 FTL. 😞

I suspect Nvidia will command $1999.99 for the 5090. AMD has given up this generation top end and the way early reports are fleshing out especially the next go around as Nvidia is just too far ahead and hopefully they use some common sense and really stick it to Nvidia for the mid tier and below market.

I could always give her my MSI 4090 and snag a 5090 when they drop. She uses my old EVGA DG-77 case and the Suprim 4090 is probably one of only 2-3 4090's that would fit in there. For 1440p I could then turn on ALL the eye candy + RT and the 4090 would be bored a bit capped to 144fps everywhere. She'd have a 280mm AIO in the front and a 240mm AIO up top. LOL "DLSTT" 🤣

Yeah I tried real hard to do the mental gymnastics to justify it (because I wanted one on "the team" 🤣) but after all would be said and done, we're talking about $300 difference and all she plays is WoW at 1440p where the 4070 Super is about 15-17% faster resulting in ~117fps vs 100fps. Not quite the same as when I dropped the 4090 in and it laid waste to everything in its path....

I had a 4070 Super FE in my basket last week to upgrade the wife's system from the Strix 3080 10GB, but the performance difference just didn't justify the price. She was complaining about the noise and heat so I just went in there and tuned the memory, OC and UV and now it pulls 280w gaming with equal or greater performance and makes hardly any noise and sits at ~62c (versus the 80c+ before) max.

Awesome! I'll add it to the launch page. How does the System76 Firmware compare to Prema?

I knew I could count on you @Talon! My day 1 new Intel/Nvidia hardware source of info! 😅

The variance in Intel silicon is insane at every step of their V/F curve but on a desktop you just don't feel it much (if at all) in the lower end of the V/F spectrum with desktop cooling solutions and a basic air cooler thrashing many (if not most) of the laptop cooling solutions. I think I said this before, but when I was first binning 12900k chips, the one in the NH55 now stood out drastically versus all the others I tested before and after for running so much cooler and requiring only ~163w dialed in to pass CB23 full tilt on an AIO no delid or anything. I was able to run it at LLC1 on an Asus board and it just sat at ~158w-163w in CB23 looping. Fishing for a good 14900k is going to be even more problematic with the extra e-cores. I think @tps3443 sample is a good start since it has a majorly low 4300 V/F point vs most other chips (I think it was like 0.969 or similar). I've seen only a few 14900K chips with that same V/F point but none lower. Your 12900k is still a great chip btw. I took that one and put it in my wife's desktop which was originally running my binned 12900k and it's running quite nice on an EVGA CLC 280mm AIO delidded with the copper top you so kindly sent me and was much appreciated. 👊

You're going to want to ask for V/F curves from any potential 14900k chip you get to evaluate the 4300 V/F point and hope/pray it isn't a hot and leaky chip since we're dealing with such constraints. The binned 12900k from @win32asmguy had a fantastic 4200/4300 V/F point but it was just a hot chip in general so even delidded it throttled. On the other hand, the 12900k I had binned from launch always pulled less and ran so stupidly cool on my desktop that when placed in the NH55 (and UV, removing retention bracket and a few other thangs) it was able to not throttle full tilt running CB23. I'm still tempted to pick up one of those aftermarket heatsinks since they seem much beefier. As for the 8000 series chips, I'll probably wait for the X3D variant unless performance is SO stunning it can match the 7950X3D in gaming which I doubt. I don't think it's going to be a case like the 7700x (even the 7600x) beating the 5800X3D overall in gaming but you never know. 🙂

Besides @Talon (who we know will be getting one ASAP! 🙂 ), who else is picking up a 14900KS next week?