electrosoft

901 wouldn't do 7200+. One of the reasons I upgraded to 1501. The thing is this board isn't cheap and launched at $450. For an ITX board that is insane. I picked up an open box for $286. I definitely kept the MSI Z790i. I'll be switching back after I play around with the Strix for a few more days and back it goes. I'll test each individual slot along with a manual dial in of the CPU for fun. Why would I think you were competing? 🙂 Even if you were, that is kinda the name of the game here even if not overtly. 🤣 I love it when we throw up good scores and hardware. It fuels the hardware juices and revs the engines. Going into this, we know it isn't my CPU or RAM since they did 8200 on the MSI Z790i so we know it is the board either by design, silicon lottery or both. On the MSI, even setting G4, it topped out at 8200 so there we know it is my board and/or sticks in that scenario. I do plan on testing each slot with each stick individually but in Asus's defense, they only rate the board at 7600+ so with the newest BIOS update it did match that. It is not a board worth pursuing as my goal was 8000 and when I have a better overall performer with the MSI Z790i Edge rated at 8000+ and performing better both CPU and memory wise. I picked up the 8000 sticks because they were a great price. No way I'm dropping major coin on another set on a hope a prayer on a board that doesn't match my MSI. The odd riser stand off, the break out hub and lack of debug light irks me too. 🙂 Doing some googling and reading reviews, I'm not alone on these limitations for those looking to pursue 8000+ with this board. 7200-7600 seems to be the max but again Asus only promised 7600+. It might require board fishing, memory fishing or both but what I DO know is in the here and now the MSI is outperforming the Asus on both fronts (CPU and mem) with what I have. 🙂 Well when you find binned hardware you hold onto it tightly! He would definitely struggle more as you can only do so much with hardware limitations. We all hit walls. And yeah, ram is in a weird place atm. I'm sure a year or two from now we'll look back at 8000+ like we did 3200+ on DDR4.

Installed the Strix Z790I and, well, it's trash for memory. Board tops out at 7600 while the MSI Z790I topped out at 8200. Anything above 7600 errors out in TM5 within 10 seconds. It has no MC check either nor a debug light on what was a $450 ITX board at launch. It is kicking up the AIO fans much more than the MSI board. CB23 same temps (~72) but scored 1500 lower. I'll sort it out and dial in the voltage for the CPU but either way this one is definitely heading back to Amazon. Running the newest 1501 BIOS (originally had 901 from March):

Igor binned a slew of 14900 chips: https://www.igorslab.de/en/r-batches-13900kss-and-imc-regressions-intel-core-14th-gen-binning-results-from-almost-600-cpus/2/ Looks like 14900k trumps 14900kf giving even more air to no 14900KS which I stated before. This is the last gasp for basically ADL+++ same as why we never saw a 10900KS but as always they may surprise us. 🙂 14900 vs 13900ks for 6ghz VID. Scary that some 14900's are below the 13900ks even late production grabs and smaller sample of 13900ks Igor was able to get (assume any decent 13900ks grade chip has been funneled to 14900k chips for a bit): And finally 13900k vs 13900ks vs 14900k/f. Buying a new 13900k is most likely a fool's errand at this point. Statistically speaking, if you can't get a binned chip, pick up a 14900k for the best chance at a really good chip but looking at these numbers we're seeing why so many sub SP100 chips are dropping everywhere.

Looks like 8200 is the end of the road for my MSI Z790I Edge ITX 2 dimmer. Even dropping back to G4 to remove the CPU from the equation it won't hit >8200 even with 1.55 super loose timings on the sticks but I'll double check everything when I swap in the Strix Z790I two dimmer for comparison.

I'm looking forward to pics of the PCB and seeing where you take it under water. In the realm of A770s, the Asrock to me is the best overall "classic" version. I agree not picking up another Nvidia lower tier product that, while solid performers, do not scale in tandem price:performance wise with their previous iterations. You can't reward bad behavior.

Yeah, I am finding Adrenaline bloated and boggy. Performance is still not there even in Fallout 76. I'm going to do my due diligence and still swap this MSI 7900xtx into my main rig and give it a clean install and swap my Suprim in with the 13900ks and see who reigns supreme since my last comparison was the 7800X3D vs my 12900k on DDR4. Still have to use RIVA to cap fps as Adrenaline capping function still doesn't work. Don't think I'm going to score a better sample of a 7900xtx. Very low coil whine, boosts to 2835, runs cool. I suspect the person that returned it switched to Nvidia (or switched back 🤣).

LOL, that's my 4090 vs my 4090. OC 1.1v Stock vBIOS 3120mhz vs UV Stock vBIOS .950 2865mhz They're basically equal (you can see +3fps on the 1% for the 3120) because my display is capped at 143fps because it is a 144hz display and both are routinely bouncing off that cap. If I drop the cap and let them fly you'll see the OC put a little distance between them. I haven't put up my 7900xtx results yet, but trust me the 4090 destroys it in WoW just as bad if not worse than back in January when I pitted my XFX 7900xtx vs my Suprim.

I think the problem (if you want to call it that 😁) is I cap my frames at 143 (I have a 144hz display) so they are bouncing off of that being real close with an average of 130fps. If I uncap and let it run wild, you will see a bigger difference between 2865 and 3120. No memory OC on either for this test. I'm finishing up some 7900xtx data collection and, well.....it still sucks even 10 months removed for WoW. Same poor RT performance and same "just ok" RT off performance with the same settings. It still stutters with RT on too. For WoW, it is not the card to buy with a comparable Nvidia offering out there. I'd even recommend a 4070ti or 4080 over the 7900xtx for a hardcore WoW player.

4090 vs 7900xtx round 2 along with UV vs OC on the 4090 (stock vBIOS) World of Warcraft out in Ardenweald (Hardest hitting zone still as it pretty much takes the CPU out of the equation) 4k Ultra RT Max. My fps is capped at 143fps. .950 UV vs 1.1 OC (FPS difference = ~0-3fps avg and 1%) .950 UV @ 2865mhz 1.1 OC @ 3120mhz Major difference is with UV my room doesn't turn into a furnace as quickly. 🙂

That is beautiful bro, nice! I'm past the laptop stage now after returning my G18 (twice!). I've been researching and dabbling in ITX land casually the last 4 months or so. Nice pics on top of it too.

Going into detail about his switch back. I run a 7800X3D so I haven't had to deal with any CCD issues. I'm not sure why he had such bad luck with memory. It could have been his Asus board, but he has been team AMD since 10th gen Intel so for him to come back to Intel means he had hit a wall but hey at least he tried for 10 months.

This is exactly my approach and thought process with RAM and CPU stability these days. Many moons ago, I use to pound my hardware with P95 or similar along with memory stress tests for 24hrs creating a scenario I would never encounter in real life. Now, I do baseline stability and actually use the hardware and adjust as needed if something rears its ugly head. If I'm benchmarking...well.....all bets are off in that moment as I'm going to push it hard as possible up to and including immediate shut downs and BSODs. 🙂 Sugi's posts are some of my favorites in the OCN forums. Access to a good group of hardware and users and he posts regularly with, "what could have been" type posts for others to at least push as hard as possible to see. I'm not sure he even runs a chiller. You see Jufus called them out changing their marketing and push going for the "ROG Strix" type packaging to appeal to gamers. I don't blame Asus for trying to maximize profits and sales but it is disheartening that they couldn't leave even the one, true enthusiast board alone.

Yeah I'm in the exploratory phase of ITX builds. Already did a Hyte Revolt 3 (which I detailed the issues to you before lol) and now I'm back to the re qualifying hardware phase with a few changes (6700xt -> 7900xtx, 6400 g.skill -> 8000 g.skill, EVGA/ID Cooling 280mm AIO -> EK Nucleus 240mm AIO). Maybe I'll take a crack at it, but I have found basic testing really rules out any problems for my use cases. You must be seriously relieved no one bought your old Apex Z790. You would have been stuck swapping boards and going through that whole song and dance for a board which really doesn't offer much more or different than the core Apex Z790.

MSI Z790i Edge is a 2 dimm ITX board rated for 8000+ 🙂 The sticks are 2x16GB Hynix 8000 G.Skill. I do have an older set of 2x32GB 6000 G.Skill A-die in my X670E dialed in at the norma 6000l sweet spot, but I do want to see how far they will go. I'm going to see how far I can boot / post those 8000 sticks in the Edge first then swap over the 6000 A die 2x32 GB and see where they cap out. I do plan on swapping in my Z790i + 7900xtx as my main rig and see how it fairs too just for fun before moving into ITX adventures 2.0.

Battle of the MSIs 🤣 MSI 7900xtx was an $826 dollar Amazon Warehouse open box so they are crazy hit or miss. Luckily this one was a really good hit. I wanted to go Asrock or Nitro but they are both outside the range of all realistic ITX cases which all seem to cap out at 330mm and the Nitro is basically a quad slot on top of it (3.5) and Asrock a full 3 slot. MSI is smidge under 3 slots and 325mm in length. So much quieter and cooler than the XFX 7900xtx w/ 55 max GPU and 75 Hot spot max and minimal coil whine with no harmonic fluctuations. I haven't looked at the Strix Z790i yet, but the fact no original box and the board was just floating around does not bode well. Quick look and I'm thinking some accessories are missing so we'll see. I've had a string of hits from Amazon Warehouse so I'm due a miss methinks. 🤔 MSI Z790i Edge + MSI 7900xtx Gaming vs MSI X670e + MSI Suprim Liquid X 4090 (Switch Joycons are my daughter's 🙂 ). Pure stock run no OCs on the CPU or GPU along with the 8000 sticks at XMP 8000 no tweakage/dial ins (yet). Temps are great on the AIO (72 tops again) and GPU (55 core / 75 Hotspot) with fans really not even hitting their stride.

With the MB refresh, we don't know how far 2 DIMMs will go in them but past experiences show it may be problematic. We'll need some guinea pigs, er, buyers to give them a whirl and see. If the Apex Encore is any indication, there is no sudden memory gains (or the IMCs / DIMMs are hitting a wall) so 4 dimm boards aren't suddenly going to become 8000+ dominant. So $2600 for the GPU and PSU with room to negotiate really isn't that bad actually especially for above average silicon and absolutely bonkers memory. Only downside is zero warranty. I'm surprised you didn't pick it up or work a trade for your 3090 with it.

Cheng responding to me asking about his HOF 4090 and he went into detail. Silicon clocks are really good, but the memory on his 4090 HOF card is bonkers benching at +2225. https://www.overclock.net/threads/z790-extreme-hof-4090-lab-plus-oc.1808371/#post-29256907 If money was no object, I'd pick it up because...well....why not? 😉

Similar type problem with my (well now my nephew's) Arc A380. Connected to a Viotek 22" 144hz display via HDMI and it would consistently black out / flicker / strobe when running anything that stressed the GPU. Same display worked fine swapping in the 6700xt and 3070. Testing the display on my main desktop and 4090 worked fine. Only the Arc A380 didn't like it regardless of HDMI cable. Same Arc A380 worked fine on the Dell 24" 240hz display I gave to my nephew along with my BenQ 32" 4k. It just did not like that particular display no matter what. DP worked fine on that display though.

Reinstalled the MSI Z790I w/ 13900ks and after reading a lot of reviews picked up an EK Nucleus 240 for the next ITX adventure to replace the EVGA 280 and ID Cooling 280: The EK Nucleus 240 is much better than the EVGA and ID Cooling and much quieter knocking off an additional 7c and 10c respectively. CB23 = 72c tops. I think it's time to replace the 360 in my desktop rig with an EK Nucleus or Galahad Trinity (they don't make the Trinity in a 240). What I like about the EK is it has no RGB and no software needed. Two leads: CPU fans and Pump, that's it. This is purposely capped at PL1 and PL2 253w and a -0.125 UV and nothing else on the MSI same as with the EVGA and ID Cooling. The MSI board tops out at 288w so you have to keep everything at or below that. This is pure stock for clocks and it runs circles around my buddy's 13900k and his is on water and pulls way more with higher temps to achieve a lower score. After, I popped in the G.Skill 8000 sticks in from @Raiderman and as expected they booted right up at 8000 XMP no problem on the MSI Z790I Edge. I expect no problems since my buddy's GEIL 8200 sticks booted right up XMP (which they wouldn't do on his Hero w/ 13900k). MSI rates the Z790i Edge at 8000+. In a few days my MSI 7900XTX and Asus Z790I Strix. I'll pop in the MSI 7900XTX in the MSI Z790I first to test it out without having to break down my Suprim in my main rig to see how it stacks up in WoW, FO76 and Starfield 10+ months removed since my adventures with the XFX 7900xtx which didn't go too well. Then I'll do it all over again with the Strix to compare.

That is sweet sweet high speed symmetrical beauty right there. Meanwhile in my neck of the woods, with T-Mobile actually doing damage to Xfinity and Xfinity having to compete, we're "blessed" with this for $55.99/mo: Mind you, this is actually a drastic improvement to costs where I live. Before T-Mobile made a dent with their Unlimited Internet, Xfinity tried to impose data caps AND charge $80-90 for this level of service and force you into bundles with their cable service and phone service and grouped channels. They are finally feeling the pain and having to compete. I'm saving ~$180-200/mo now versus my old plan and have completely cut the cord. The upload is terrible but I find the DL speed reduction from my previous 1.2gigabit not that noticeable except during massively large downloads and even then it is manageable.

8000 Sticks from @Raiderman all factory sealed and ready for some love are here safe and sound (thanks bro!) Ended up picking up an Asus Strix Z790I ITX motherboard from Amazon open box for $286 since Asus isn't refreshing their ITX boards. Looking forward to testing the MSI Z790I Edge against it both with the SP115 13900KS and the 8000 sticks seeing what and which gives up the ghost first. Decided to cover my eyes and ordered an open box MSI 7900XTX Gaming Trio for $827 to swap into my main rig to drive for a couple of weeks with the MSI x670e Carbon + 7800X3D (thus completing a full AMD MSI themed look). I know it won't touch my Suprim 4090 but if it's close enough I can envision selling my 4090 at cost to someone who wants decidedly above average silicon and memory and applying the $1000 difference elsewhere.... ....of course if the 7900xtx blows chunks then...well.....🤣 I was tempted to pick up a reference model from AMD due to its smaller size and USB-C out. They seem to be the only place to get the original AMD spec'd design now.

That would be a sweet pick up @Mr. Fox either that or see if @Papusan can facilitate a purchase from his neck of the woods for one. Speaking of which.... Congrats on the new gear! Can't wait to see it in action and hopefully some good silicon!.....minus those Crocs of course. 🤣 I still don't get them... The day Asus starts offering official "Asus ROG Crocs" is the day they're dead to me. 😁

Jufes and the Z790 Apex Encore....(also pushing Encore + 14900k pre-tuned bundles) Head to head vs the original Apex too down to box comparisons. The ram cooling fan is a nice addition and definitely dropped the temps. Better than my low brow slapping a fan on an angle and/or using electrical tape or zip ties when testing ram. 🤣 tl;dw Both are good, Encore gets a thumbs up.

I have been disappointed in every (and I do mean every) Gigabyte board I've used dating back to Z270 and AM4. I just won't entertain their motherboards in any capacity. Last outing with Gigabyte was a Aorus Pro AX Z590 board that was bungled....er I mean bundled with a Aorus Master 3070 during the cryptodemic in 2021. I figured, "I have it? Why not use it?" and it was garbage and couldn't touch my MSI Z590 or Asus Z590 boards in granular control and overclocking while binning 11900k's. Aesthetically, I like the look of it but that price point is crazy but it is available in the US for $999.99 I used to set my price point for a motherboard at $300 no matter what but market forces pushed that to $400 and I only did that begrudgingly. That Aorus Master 3070 though was a very solid card. I wouldn't be adverse to picking up another Gigabyte GPU in the future.

He will definitely have the VRAM for that resolution and proper support with an AMD card. If he does game, depending on the title, he can just dial back the eye candy to settle into an acceptable sweet spot performance:visuals ratio. If he goes Asrock Taichi 7900xtx, he can do the whole Asrock themed build with that Asrock B650E Taichi Lite. It's a bit more pricier than the budget boards but falls into a nice range and still ~$200 less than the full blown X670E Taichi and ~$90 cheaper than the normal B650E Taichi. 7900xtx is no slouch of a card. It is just that the 4090 is a monster even in the face of Nvidia's other 4000 series offerings. I'll be curious to see what his final selections yield and end game build out.