electrosoft

I looked into MSI too for a down the road potential and I don't understand why they're not offering a QHD+ variant of their flagship 9955HX3D. Toss in making mLED the only option and insane asking price ($5099?!) and they just basically removed this year's version from my list even down the road. 5090 Mobile is decent relatively speaking but not much of an upgrade over 4090 mobile. Timespy GPU, It is basically a desktop 5070 in normal operating conditions (~23k) and I'm not looking to push that on a 4k display. I think the screen is capped to 120hz anyhow? Just a bunch of swinging and missing. On the other hand, the 285hx variant with QHD+ is down to $3299.99 at Microcenter so you're saving ~35% and getting a QHD option and yes in certain games the 9950HX3D is going to light it up, but overall? You still get the MSI open bios options too so I would snatch up the MSI 285HX over the 9955HX3D all day everyday even with Intel somewhat Ultra woes. I just wish Eluktronics offered an 18" version but I've been contemplating picking up a portable 24" 1080p 100hz+ panel for travel/gaming along with a wireless KB/M and if that is the case, a 16" would be just fine and probably make the travel case easier to manage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ On the 5090 front, saw more open box 5090 Astrals for $2687.99 AND Masters for $2399.99 on BB last night..... If an Open box Windforce pops up for $21111.20 I might have to cave 🤣 What we will never see (but can dream) is a few open box 5090FE's for $1799.99. 😁 I'm noticing prices are coming down a lot on hardware across the board or going on sale more frequently....

This always seems to be the AMD process. The drivers always mature better and they tend to end up with more performance as time goes on......usually. I lost a smidge of performance from 25.4 to 25.5 but got it back with 25.6.1 so it will be nice to see if this improves it even more. I'm very happy with the 9070xt especially in WoW. Something I thought I would NEVER say about AMD lately. Back in the day though the 5700xt was an absolute 2560x1600p banger of a card though. I'm personally glad to see them back to a monolithic design.

Yeah, with so many other projects and work I didn't even really get a chance to deep dive in on my MSI. I bought it then within a few days a BIOS update, swapped in a 2TB, clean install and was out the door. Got home, we caught COVID. Both down for the count for almost a month then a wedding trip with it for a few days then on the shelf basically. So it needs that deep dive I usually give my systems. My NH55 has been crazy neglected too. I realized this after I had it sold and started to dust it off to get it set up and realized the last time I had used it was last September when I was at the hospital surgical center for my wife's 3hr surgery and took it with me to play Fallout76.... I was actually enjoying to clean up. I was planning a repaste and retune and everything with the new BIOS options but the buyer backed out so I refunded him but I'm going to keep going with the fine tune and then the MSI. Desktop is pretty set atm.....

@win32asmguy Look at Dream Machine's X3D 5090: Raider 9950X3D 5090:

Assuming they don't reject it because they can detect any PCB damage/changes....but yeah @Mr. Fox block temps look promising for 9070xt! Hotspot and Hynix down to 50c and 60c respectively!

*** SOLD **** to @LiLCruz! Unfortunately @LiLCruz had to back out of the sale so I'll leave it listed casually here still for sale.

Sheesh, that is a sick price. $210 + $371 for an open box Apex (when they pop on da egg) looks pretty righteous atm.

I replied to your PM, thanks!

I know we crap all over the 060 series because of VRAM, but in pure performance uplift, 5060 is providing equal or better performance uplift over the 4060 than the 4060 over the 3060...... @win32asmguy That Schenker Neo 16 is an absolute beast with the 9955HX3D (time stamped) Note: Lacking 7945HX3D results again even on NotebookCheckReviews..... that can't be a coincidence. They also conveniently omitted 4090 results too but had 4080 and even 14900HX results. It's subtle BS like this that irks me.

Yeah that second newer F revision was more robust and was boost locking to 3510 and 1.125v but the memory "only" overclocked to +3000 while the other could do +4000. Wonder if he knows some truly beast samples can do the full +5000 on the XOC vBIOS yet? My Astral boost locked to 1.110 and 3465 and obviously did +3000 but without the XOC vBIOS we'll never know what it could have truly done. This is the problem with shunting. It does unlock power limits basically but that's it. You miss out on all the other granular refinements a proper XOC vBIOS gives you including memory OC to +5000. It seems to be the smart move these days is to wait at least 6 months after launch till the air (and pricing) clears up a bit. Demand wains. Refinements are implemented. Bugs are worked out. Drivers refine..... I've said it before, but OEMs/AIBs only promise what's on the box. There are no overclock guarantees. On the other hand, there are no guarantees I won't return it either..... Yeah I saw where he reran it with the fixed power limits and it didn't make all that much of a difference overall but any bit is better than none. I don't understand the blunted power limits knowing at least letting laptop makers push it to 200w+ would make even more of a difference. The laptops are suffering from the 5000 series overall marginal upgrade except the 5090. I suspect the 9955HX3D is going to extend the lead the 7945HX3D already had even moreso coupled with the 5090. I hope Eluktronic's pricing is better than MSIs which is still holding at $5100 for the 9955HX3D Raider which is absolutely insane. I was tempted to pick up an open box Apex for $371 from Newegg. They come into stock from time to time. If not the Apex then the Taichi OCF was my second choice. Once I returned the 5090, the rhyme and reason lost its luster. If I happen to score a 5090FE or prices continue to track down, I might be back in the game.

Yeah what's even funnier is initially JarrodTech would list the 7945HX3D results from his Scar when comparing the initial 5090 models for gaming but when he started reviewing 18" later 5090 models with Intel's new chips, he stopped listing benchmarks for games with the 7945HX3D. He lists the 7945HX3D for CPU performance in CB2024 and such but games results he doesn't. I think it was because the Scar was dominating the benchmark charts with the 4090 even against the newer Intel CPUs and 5090. I called him out on the last two 5090 laptop review videos he posted and he never responded. Most likely a condition from the OEMs and/or Nvidia. No logical reason to not include X3D results but it makes the new laptops look even poorer in his gaming testing suite. "MOAR CORZZZZ!" run amok!!! It's getting silly now..... 🤣 10% uplift in IPC is about what we got from 10th to 11th. Nothing to sneeze at, but sheesh. If you can pack this much in, just give us a 20-32 P-Core only chip and be done with it....

Watching 5090 devices continue to fall in price... On top of the previous price drops / "gift certificates" and a ton of open box 5090's on Newegg, we now have Microcenter dropping prices like CRAZY PNY has reduced all their 5090 pricing AND they are now further reduced. The aRGB that was $3499.99 at one point dropped to $3199 them $3099 then $2999 and now it's down to $2849. Laptops? When the MSI Raider 285hx/5090 dropped it was $4899.99. It then dropped to $4099.99 and it is now $3499.99 which is $1400 less. MSI Titan 285hx/5090 dropped at $5399.99 then $4999.99 and it is now $4499.99 so $900 less. Asus Strix Scar dropped at $5499.99 and it is now $3999.99 so $1500 less (crazy greed) Even the Dell Alienware 18 dropped at $4k which was the most reasonable of the lot and it is now down to $3300 so $700 less. All in the face of tariffs and market uncertainties.... Absolute greed. The biggest shocking offender to me is MSI which always felt like Asus but at more reasonable pricing especially with their Raider line up. They just went for the ultimate money grab with their Raider series this time but market realities have forced them to come back to reality and adjust pricing drastically down to back along the lines of last gen offerings. Clearly Newegg didn't get the memo (yet) and has their prices still jacked to high heaven and are stuck on phase one pricing mark downs.

9070xt is basically 5070ti levels of power. At MSRP, it is a ripper. These inflated prices on some models? Meh, but the 5070ti is inflated still atm too. With the newest drivers (25.6.1) I'm not seeing the massive power increases he is seeing and with a modest UV and fast timings I'm pretty much dialed into 330w. If I overclock it more and push PL to max I'll see ~363w on average. Either way, performance gains were marginal at best. Testing Nvidia, he did see some tangible uplift comparing 572.83 vs 576.15 in SN with no significant power increase. My take is AMD upped the pull and clocks but if you're already running a model that is overclocked or pushing clocks already, you won't see much of a gain but for some units you will. Kinda the stock FE vs stock AIB argument. @tps3443 I forgot you had asked about that MSI MAG 275QPF monitor they sent me. I set it up for testing: It's not bad at all! Solid picture, killer response time. Very solid 1440p display. Picture quality can't touch the normal 4k BenQ 10-bit 32" I normally use for "serious work" but it is only 60hz while this one is 300hz. Benchmark wise, M4 Max 40 core GPU on paper is clocking in at about 3500 on SN. M4 Max 40 core GPU has its strengths but native 3Dmark is not it....

I did not realize you were in an accident. I'm so glad you're on the mend. The laptop scene has become dismal of late if you're into real interchangeable parts and true upgrade ability. Quite frankly, the P870 series was my favorite series of all time surpassing the Alienware 18 series (my second fave). I owned each iteration from the DM through the TM and spent years tinkering with them. X170 series was still holding onto that big DTR body and the NH55 was the last, sad gasp with desktop CPUs and then POOF here we are. I try to still pick up or have eval units requested my way to play around with but clearly nothing like the tanks of yesteryear. 😞 lol, touche' 🤣 I still say the chiller for a stab at 18k+! Then you can really drop the mic! 🙂 Yeah, my entire youth was focused around model airplanes, RC cars, go carts, computers and electronics. Trying to get my daughter and niece interested in drones atm lol. Luckily my nephew loves all this stuff so I have a protege'. Make sure to keep the magic alive!

5090 pricing drops and market saturation continues..... 13 different models of open box 5090's on Newegg starting at $2549 with several being marked down even further from their original open box pricing.... Now Newegg is offering +$200 gift certificates on three models including: Gigabyte Gaming MSI Ventus (which already had a price cut) MSI Vanguard (which already had a price cut) Only models truly out of stock (IE, original MSRP listings still up do not count) are three Gigabyte models and that's it: Windforce (cheapest non FE model available) Aorus WB Aorus AIO --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don't expect pricing to fall below launch MSRP, but if we can at least get back to it, I'll revisit it. Cancelling an Astral 20% off was an epiphany for myself in regards to how much these cards are really worth to me and how much I would pay for one. Even the 5090FE is overpriced but the least egregious of them all by far at this point.

I love ya bro but..............🤣 Back to our regularly sponsored programming.... I mean a shunt is only because you can't do it via vBIOS and it still doesn't address the memory OC capability of +5000 vs +3000. 😞 Eventually the XOC will be solved. More info and tips and tricks leaking every day but at least you can shunt mod every 5090 so wattage is never the problem which is nice. I'm quite adept at soldering (been doing it since I was in the single digits when I would mod of RC cars as a kid along with rebuilding lawnmower engines to build go carts) but I still would prefer to just use an XOC vBIOS along with getting the opened up memory tuning. But either way tearing down your 5090FE to block it and breaking 17k on SN is quite righteous! Plus gaming steady with 3300+ clocks everywhere is icing on the cake. I thought your pics of the cleaned up 5090FE PCB were great too. You did a really bang up job and it shows. I've really been enjoying your result posts. I still think you should at least drag the chiller out of retirement for a limited engagement so we can see where it goes chilled for benchmarks or it will always be a case of "what if?" I can easily see hitting at least 17.4.k+ on it. Flex it, bench it as hard as possible for a few weeks then put the chiller back into retirement and ride the 5090FE blocked till the 6090.....

Especially for you since you can block and shunt a 5090FE. The problem with the 5090FE is you still can't gain access to extended memory OC if/when an XOC vbios drops to +5000 like the XOC allows but still can let the chip fly shunted at least. 9070xt at proper pricing is the sleeper hit. As previously reported, I returned my original 9070xt because $729.99 was just too much IMHO but $656.99 for this open box (along with rewards) made it $624 which I could swallow. Calculating the exact cost after tax and rewards down to the penny on all three, overclocked vs my overclocked Astral, it was exactly 50% slower (210fps vs 105fps) but less 33% of the price of a 5090FE and less than 20% of the price of an Astral and it just handles the lows better when both cards are waiting on the CPU in WoW. Ask @Reciever how his blocked 7900xtx is going in comparison to your experiences with the 6000 series. I do know several who tore open their Aqua Taichis and after giving them the Honeywell treatment temps improved drastically across normal and hotspot temps.

One of those moments of realization.... Open box excellent Astral 5090 popped up on BB earlier for 20% off = $2687 (aka lower than MSRP launch) so $2748.78 after tax and rewards total. I snagged it. Checked out. Then less than an hour later I cancelled it. I just didn't want it even for that price. That two month fun session with that last Astral 5090 was all I needed at these price points. I enjoyed it very much, but that heat output along with the actual in game WoW gains just didn't justify the price. 9070xt is *really* holding it down in a way I didn't expect in WoW. As always, it remains a Fallout 76 monster. At this point, I'd snag a 5090FE for $1999.99 and that's about it and I can't even be sure I'd pull the trigger on that one at this point with these prices.

Same happened to me when I put up a few looking for hardware posts over there. Same MO. They create accounts (or use pre-existing) always having "a friend" that happens to have exactly what you're looking for and to email them. I just ignore them. Agreed. I went and checked the top 30 and our friend @johnksss is #8 with his Astral, dayum! @tps3443 has to bust out the chiller to really let that 5090FE sing at least for a bit! From the jump, 5090FE was on my top 3 list for the price and aesthetics/engineering. I know many crap all over it, but it is gorgeous. Same goes for the 4090FE. That was a thick slab of beauty. 5080FE was gobsmackingly beautiful in person and the 5070FE is a smaller version of its beauty. I just wish the logo lit up like the 5080 and 5090 versions. I ended up putting the 5070 FE in my wife's system replacing her 3080. It is a definite upgrade. I have it overclocked and it's running around 3200mhz pulling so much less, much quieter, running faster.

Looking good bro! Time to dust off the chiller to really let it fly and see where it takes you! I did say weeks or months ago with the 5090 when all is said and done, all roads lead to Rome. 🫡

Are we going to have this argument again about overclocked vs stock not being applicable??!! 🤣 Is it gonna be 2080ti vs 3090 all over again for us? 🤣 Looking forward to the benches though. 🙂

As reported, Nvidia this generation really is pulling an Intel. Basically zero IPC gains vs Ada and I suspect if retro compared to Ada it would be the same too or close too it. Just a bunch of surrounding technologies added and/or enhanced (IE DLSS, FG, AI, etc...). The big gains from 3000 to 4000 was the node shrink allowing packing more cuda's in there and frequency increase. Then we have AMD quietly making serious inroads in IPC both raster and ray tracing with the 9000 setting the stage for next gen. Nvidia vs AMD architecture improvements last vs current gen: GPU IPC Showdown: NVIDIA Blackwell vs Ada Lovelace; AMD RDNA 4 vs RDNA 3 | TechPowerUp Next gen AMD UDNA shaping up quite nicely: HUGE gains expected from AMD UDNA GPU architecture - OC3D AMD has also massively improved their FSR/FG each generation too and of course they're all in on AI (insert "A" "EYE" roll here) You also have them locking down Sony and M$ for future consoles along with making serious inroads market wise with the 9000 series across the board. Nintendo is, of course, all in with Nvidia.... This feels a bit like AMD vs Intel all over again...... Nvidia better be innovating their asses off for 6000 series because the 5090 is a power sucking, monolithic monstrosity last gasp on this node to retain superiority overall especially if AMD drops a 9080xt/9090xt drawing equal with the 5080.... We still have Intel with the B580 keeping the sub $250 sector honest. One reason I think Nvidia is dropping a 5050 this time around.... That's fair. Let me know how much you're asking for it. Probably too much to make it worth my while to pick up yours and return the Gaming (or put it in the wife's system and return the 5070) but you never know. Nice pics! Now let's see some benchmarks.... 6000 vs 5090 FE. Seeing 13% uplift at 4k on some games. Someone needs to shunt mod and ghetto WB cool this thing ASAP just for superiority fun:

Well let's get it rockin' and rollin' Elvis! 🤣 Phase 2 tomorrow! Time for some benchmarkin' bro! Time to stretch her legs.... Awwww, back to Nvidia only again? 🙂 Problem with Gigabyte cards (the blessing and the curse) is they come right out of the box firing on all cylinders. Elite has a bigger heatsink than the Gaming which is actually one of the smallest 9070xt's on the market. You repadded and repasted it but it still runs toasty? Pics and lighting are very nice. Feels likes a scene out of Sin City or 300. If I hadn't picked up a set of those 8400 sticks you recommended, I would be all over the 2x24GB sticks. That is good pricing on all three sets. They won't last long.

Yeah go for soft tubing for testing/validation and once you're happy with everything then do a couple hardline runs.

I had posited months ago that one big fear was an XOC Bios that required a hardware checksum of sort for verification and it looks like so far our worst fears are potentially realized. The ultimate insult would be their cards requiring an proprietary attached dongle or hardware device of some sort to be able to flash it successfully that can then be removed afterward. That would be game over for it ever making it into the wild unlike previous cards along with custom flashed cards only being distributed from the AIBs to the master overclockers (tongue in cheek) to then flex with as they climb the charts. Luckily shunting still works but I fear the day they eventually find a way to shut that down too.