electrosoft

That's a great picture of you two benching it out! 🙂

OMG, I saw the first set of pics and I immediately thought, "Johnksss looks a hell of a lot like Carl Weathers!" 🤣

BUMP.... I adjusted the total system buy price and config. I need room. Even having sold off 4 laptops I still have 6. I have both my KM and SM listed on eBay as complete systems here for $1599.99/ea KM: https://www.ebay.com/itm/175636232343 SM: https://www.ebay.com/itm/175636386845

I use TM5 and Windows Memory Diagnostics. You can throw in old school memtest in there if you like too.

I'm glad to see at least Asus breaking away from the forced pairing of top tier CPUs with top tier GPUs. There are many who want the best CPU and only need a mid to lower range GPU for their needs. Overall though the 4070 is disappointing compared to last gen 3070ti. If you want good GPU performance this time around (relatively speaking) it is the 4080 or 4090. They both greatly distance themselves from last gen GPUs. 4080 beats the 3080ti by 25-30% and the 4090 beats it by >50% but is expensive.

I see the 4070 version is $1999.99 direct from Asus available now. 4050 and 4060 models here but no pricing/availability specs yet but if the 4070 is $2k maybe $1800 for the 4060 and 1700 for the 4050? Wonderful time in the market atm since AMD is bringing the heat with their 7000 series of mobile processors Intel is going full tilt at better pricing this time around. The fact Asus is going to offer all the perks of their 18" Strix with consumer choice of GPU all the way down to the 4050 is pretty righteous.

And this is why Intel didn't hold back with top end 13th gen mobile processors this time around at even better pricing. AMD bringing the heat! https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-strikes-back-Ryzen-9-7945HX-beats-Intel-Core-i9-13980HX-despite-much-lower-power-consumption.698349.0.html Limiting it to 120w, 13980HX = ~28333, 7945HX = 34521 still. Note how for a brief moment the Apple M1/M2 chip was perceived as so good and now it is just getting destroyed in general compute tasks.

Asus has brought a full on 18" Ada powered, Raptor Lake drive laptop this time around for 2023. They are available in all Nvidia flavors from the 4050 up to the 4090 allowing users to determine their price range based on GPU/Mem/SSD with all models using Intel's top of the line i9-13980HX Raptor Lake based CPU with all other stats staying the same. Information, drivers and support How it looks: First impressions were poor as the stock install kept freezing and wouldn't allow any updates (Nvidia drivers) or changes. The real culprit is Armory Crate as always. After picking through the registry and services I just decided to give it a clean install. Make sure you're running BIOS G306 or later. Do yourself a service and enable BIOS control vs Amory Crate control in the BIOS and make your adjustments there. The only downside of not running Armory Crate is you get the default rainbow keyboard pattern but it is more than worth the trade off as you can undervolt and more right in the BIOS if needed. Fan noise under load is some of the best I've encountered. Definitely not quiet, but compared to my old MSI and Clevo's it is more than acceptable. There have been numerous reports of GPU coil whine and I can confirm it is there but nothing like a desktop GPU can produce (or my model happens to have a very low amount). Display is very nice but there is a lot of glow and bloom along the bottom. No bad/dead pixels so that's always nice. Keyboard is great and well spaced. I'm so used to Clevo X170SM/KM models that the G18 feels very light. Performance of the 4080 is great along with the 13980HX. It basically performs on par if not slightly better than my Desktop Strix 3080 + 12900k. Temps were good especially for multi as 11th, 12th and 13th still love to push single core to the sky at the cost of bouncing off of 100. I'll end up slowly working an undervolt in to see where I can adjust that while keeping Multi high as the unit topped out at 86c all stock running CB multi and sustained 120w no problem the entire run. Memory timings are as atrocious as expected with DDR5-4800 memory. It will be interesting to see how far it can go with 5600+ memory as they enter the market. Stock runs..... CB23 (not pictured, but single run = 2105). Timespy: AIDA64:

I saw this the other day and immediately thought of the episode with Howard and Raj too! 😁

In my dream scenario MXM continued on and true DTRs with desktop level components had at least 1-2 models across 2-3 brands year in and year out but we are the minority and that isn't what actual consumers want or need for their day to day needs or desires. 😞 So far so good. No dead pixels so that's a plus. Absolutely dead quiet during setup and updates. Let's see when I bring the stress and heat later....

Seeing the lifespan you extracted from your P870DM-G I have no doubt brother. 🙂

That would make for a great write up and posts actually. Hope you do order it and light up the MSI laptop section with some quality, indepth posts. I've just accepted market forces have spoken and BGA is basically it. The NH55 was the last, partial hurrah for a hybrid DTR (everything interchangeable except the GPU). Alienware, then MSI and finally even Clevo have fully left the "desktop hardware in a laptop" market. It's a sad, sad day but it is what it is. There was a time where it was predominantly all big and thick laptops with a small bit of lighter and thinner laptops but as time passed the market spoke and we progressed to where we are now. Bean counters only respond to what sells better and material costs overall to maximize profits. The point is the vast majority do not want to lug around monster sized laptops with poor battery life. They want light, battery efficient laptops first and foremost and raw power second. We are now officially to a point where those last gen (and older) true DTRs just can't keep up with this new BGA hardware on any level. 😞 Based on reviews, it looks like you could get the GT77 4090 in the same playing field as your stock 3090 desktop so you would have a comparable mobile workstation of serious power. The leap between last gen laptop 3080ti and this gen 4090 is massive yielding an overall gain of 50%+ across 1440p and 4k and 40%+ at 1080p. Even the mobile 4080 crushes the 3080ti by 25-30%.

7900X3D wasn't even on my radar. I'll be waiting for the 7800X3D to see some better priced final results and not have to worry about scheduler issues. I like them both but I'm leaning towards the Apex a bit in that match up too. Both are priced out of my acceptable motherboard wheelhouse either way. Last time I clung to an OS was Windows XP. After that, I kinda just go with the flow and install the new on its own partition and go back and forth till I am ready to make the switch. Windows 11 isn't bad at its core. What is bad is Microsoft using it as a means to data mine and push all types of services I don't want. There is no long term value in just selling the OS and that's that. Now it is a continual dynamic money making entity to the detriment of the end user. Windows 11 just extends that model moreso than Windows 10. But at it's core? I use it on multiple machines and it gets it done. If M$ wants to make me jump through hoops to strip away as many unneeded services as possible, challenge accepted each and every time.

lol, I like how he thinks he has some god like knowledge of memory tuning and system optimizations that no one else has...... He definitely craps all over EVGA though. 🙂

Apex Z790 vs Kingpin Z790:

Those are fantastic tuning results right along the lines of my P870TM1 w/ Corsair 3800 sticks that topped out at 3466 (motherboard limitations). nice!

That is how it progressed on my X170SM-G. It went from: Working (( was in the middle of setting it up for travel not even gaming or anything) Hard blink red dots Code 43 No Post No Post with a series of blinking yellow lights on the power on LED indicating GPU failure Popped in a Clevo 1060 I had and it booted up no problem Put 2080 S back in and step 4 again When ZtecPC got it after sourcing a brand new 2080 Super it wouldn't post at all even with the new 2080 Super no matter what they did so they swapped in a brand new motherboard and heatsink and it worked perfect after that. The blessing was I was able to get rid of all that K5 Pro mess and the heatsink with the LM soak damage from the original purchase config and go back to a solid 2080 Super + Motherboard and stock thermal pads right from the factory brand new. Common sense has to kick in at a certain point for laptops these days. Titan is a beast but with the Strix you're getting 100% its CPU, 80% of its GPU and an 18" screen for less than half the price along with a 2-SODIMM design that will give it a better chance of running higher frequency memory now and down the road. I'm more interested in the 18" display and 13980HX more than anything else. The 4080 is a nice uplift from the 3070/3070ti/2080Super laptops I have on hand atm. IPS glow doesn't bother me at all but having used mini LEDs and OLEDs before you can definitely notice those inky blacks and per pixel lighting on OLED or zone control with mLED. The Titan IS the best option but at a monster price. You could get a Desktop 4090 AND a Strix / Eluk for the same or less than the cost of a Titan to put it in perspective. 🙂

BUMP.... Barebones is for sale on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/175627221686 Once the Barebones sells, I'll be listing the GPU next then sort out the CPU as I've had a few people interested in it both here and messaging me via eBay. Of course you can get the Barebones cheaper here. PM if interested in individual components or all together.

If you're wanting to play around with 4000 series and HX processors, MSI Titans are stupidly expensive but as close to true DTR as you will get for BGA laptops. For myself, I would go for this: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-strix-18-intel-core-i9-13980hx-16gb-ddr5-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-4080-v12g-graphics-1tb-ssd-eclipse-gray/6531333.p?skuId=6531333 I have one of these arriving Tuesday. Step down in GPU, same CPU less than half the price and hand pick your memory. I will say I do like that MSI uses a direct variant of their desktop BIOS on their laptops though. Asus, Gigabyte and MSI also make 2 slot MBs now for the Z690 and Z790 chipsets.

It is literally a crap shoot on the memory and GPU. No company it seems truly bins for higher quality samples on either. What you CAN control is the PCB design they are placed upon and the cooling included (which means nothing if you're going to block it). You literally have to bin cards like you bin GPUs and that's sad. Wish a company would properly bin GPUs and offer the top tier chips in cards as guaranteeing certain performance parameters. Didn't @Talon get a Strix 4090 that could hit +2000 on the mem?

Like razor said, extract old bios via chip programmer and flash it to the new old stock or desolder/resolder the BIOS chip manually from the older model to the newer model.

If Nvidia would allow MXM again, at least 200w options would be on the table for MXM or more. They continue to clamp down and become control freaks. The day they lose their silicon advantage is the day they experience a strong case of the "Intel's" as we saw as soon as AMD offered a competitive product their market share was immediately hit and just like that they can no longer hold back their "Ti" level hardware and have to bring everything to the table now. Ugh..... $2000+ card with no return option performing worse than your Suprim...boo. I've been testing my memory and I can hit ~+1650 for benching and GPU clocks as always are 2800+ right out of the box and 3100+ gaming and benching on stock BIOS with a standard OC. Aesthetically that Strix 4090 is an eye sore but I know plenty love the design. I just really love the looks of this Suprim liquid. I liked the look of last gen Strix cards more than 4000 series hands down. I was hoping it was a monster sample or at least reached the levels of your Suprim 4090. Hows the coil whine on it? I'm always curious.

It might boot. When it black screened I didn't realize the motherboard failed too but when ZtecPC got my X170SM-G swapping in a brand new RTX 2080 Super didn't make a difference and it still wouldn't boot / blank screen. I am not even sure if they re-tested the original RTX 2080 Super with the new motherboard so I would be curious to see what happens.

Nope auto fans. I try to maximize my thermals for the least amount of fan noise around standard clocks out of the box both CPU and GPU. I rarely overclock my laptops because they're fighting a losing battle anyhow with constrained cooling versus a desktop. I never overclock my laptops. They are running toasty versus a desktop as is anyhow. 😞

Congrats in the Strix purchase! Hopefully this one can make it outside of a month. Hopefully it is a monster clocker. My Unify-X had problems with anything over ~225w with random and immediate shutdowns with my 12900k so it had to go back too. I had purchased for pickup up a Trio 4090 from BB with a 10% off coupon no less and still couldn't bring myself to pick it up even at that price. I hemmed and hawed for over 10 days while it sat there waiting for pick up before I ended up cancelling it.