*Official Benchmark Thread* - Post it here or it didn't happen :D

[electrosoft]

MSI board from Amazon warehouse "Open Box" arrived in a brown box with no original box or manuals but the motherboard itself was brand new and all accessories were in there too factory sealed.

 

According to MSI, production date was March with Jan Bios already installed. 7800X3D booted right up and just updated from there no blind flash needed.

 

M-die sticks are the pair I've had since Aug 2022. They were heatsinked but I didn't realize they also had A-RGB leads on them so I plugged them into an extra hub I had and viola!

 

7800X3D installed in my test case up and alive with the M-die sticks:

 

 

 

 

Initial run with memory at 6000 (before the next week of tweeking and dialing in the CPU and mem):

 

[tps3443]

BEEP BEEP!! It’s here.
 

All the way from Malaysia! 
 

A04 Apex FTW
 

I’m definitely thrilled to have it.
 

[electrosoft]

37 minutes ago, tps3443 said:

BEEP BEEP!! It’s here.
 

All the way from Malaysia! 
 

A04 Apex FTW
 

I’m definitely thrilled to have it.
 

 

** Beast mode activated **

 

Looking forward to some serious IMC taxing. 🙂

 

 

[electrosoft]

Decided to snag a 7950X3D from Best Buy too and compare them extensively over the next few weeks to see which one I want to keep. I plan on testing max fclk/PBO on the 7800X3D and run all the normal benchmarks and fun times and gaming runs (WoW) then swap in the 7950X3D rinse and repeat.

 

First I'll make sure everything is up to date and lock down a static flight path and re-tweak/verify and run my 12900k 5.2 all core through the same paces for comparative data.

 

 

 

[cylix]

5 minutes ago, electrosoft said:

Decided to snag a 7950X3D from Best Buy too and compare them extensively over the next few weeks to see which one I want to keep. I plan on testing max fclk/PBO on the 7800X3D and run all the normal benchmarks and fun times and gaming runs (WoW) then swap in the 7950X3D rinse and repeat.

 

First I'll make sure everything is up to date and lock down a static flight path and re-tweak/verify and run my 12900k 5.2 all core through the same paces for comparative data.

 

 

 

Nice, i also got my 7950x3d today and installed it. Still need to reinstall win 11 and do all the optimizing..

 

I hate Windows reinstall, I always try and keep it as long as possible, but in this case it looks like there is a performance impact when you go from a non V cache cpu to a vcache one.

[tps3443]

12 minutes ago, electrosoft said:

Decided to snag a 7950X3D from Best Buy too and compare them extensively over the next few weeks to see which one I want to keep. I plan on testing max fclk/PBO on the 7800X3D and run all the normal benchmarks and fun times and gaming runs (WoW) then swap in the 7950X3D rinse and repeat.

 

First I'll make sure everything is up to date and lock down a static flight path and re-tweak/verify and run my 12900k 5.2 all core through the same paces for comparative data.

 

 

 

I wish I had a 4090 I’d be very interested in comparing numbers with you. I really need to grab one. They are so dang expensive though lol.

 

I’m curious to see how those chips perform. 

[Rage Set]

37 minutes ago, tps3443 said:

I wish I had a 4090 I’d be very interested in comparing numbers with you. I really need to grab one. They are so dang expensive though lol.

 

I’m curious to see how those chips perform. 

 

Don't you have like 12 different 13900K/KS's? What's a single 4090 going to matter. Hahaha. All kidding aside, I would love to see one of your binned 13900KS and a 4090 versus his fine-tuned 7800X3D/4090 in certain benchmarks/games.

[Mr. Fox]

13 minutes ago, Rage Set said:

Don't you have like 12 different 13900K/KS's? What's a single 4090 going to matter. Hahaha. All kidding aside, I would love to see one of your binned 13900KS and a 4090 versus his fine-tuned 7800X3D/4090 in certain benchmarks/games.

I think the new one he has now that was mentioned earlier today, and the previous golden chip right before it, belong to someone else and he does not get to keep them. Some kind of testing someone asked him to do for them. The exceptional 13900K was traded for the Z790 Apex if I remember correctly.

[electrosoft]

1 hour ago, tps3443 said:

I wish I had a 4090 I’d be very interested in comparing numbers with you. I really need to grab one. They are so dang expensive though lol.

 

I’m curious to see how those chips perform. 

 

I'm quite surprised you haven't picked one up yet with all that other high powered hardware. 1440p it would definitely challenge your 13900k and then some even at 6ghz methinks.

 

36 minutes ago, Rage Set said:

 

Don't you have like 12 different 13900K/KS's? What's a single 4090 going to matter. Hahaha. All kidding aside, I would love to see one of your binned 13900KS and a 4090 versus his fine-tuned 7800X3D/4090 in certain benchmarks/games.

 

LOL, I thought this too. With all the hardware based around everything he's picked up, I'm surprised one of the things he hasn't picked up is a 4090. Blocked and chilled, It would really outclass his 3090.

 

 

[Ashtrix]

Sad news.

 

While I'm waiting for the Cablemod to arrive and thinking about getting Seagate 4TB FireCuda 530.

 

My Alienware 17R1 Ranger seems to be going down.

 

 

It never had any problems aside from the 980M I have which has MOSFET issue and grey screen / black screens. I don't play anything on this machine anymore as I have the new one prepped up. Anyways the system just hard shuts off. Only Dota2 with friends that's a low load on GPU and higher load on CPU.

 

Initially I thought it is happening due to some GPU issue so I tried to re-paste everything with the Noctua Thermal Paste I had. And tried to run heavy Unigine Heaven and Fire Strike it shut off after some time so I was sure it is the GPU. Then using Nvidia Inspector (Maxwell so can control Clock rate and Power) and limited Power capped to 70% only. Still failing. Then reduced Clocks to even lower by 500MHz on Core.

 

Tried ordering new 240W PSU, tried the Dell 330W as well, but Delta one is discontinued and ordered new Dell GaN 330W one with smaller footprint but thinner cable (apparently the quality on these not good as cable may break faster)  assuming it would work but it was shipping late so 240W brand new came in fast. And no dice, the machine shut off flat out. So no PSU issue (have the Dell 330W which I purchased 7 years back, so yea that thing is bulletproof it works solid)

 

Still the sudden shutdowns continued while playing, then I tried to reduce the Dota2 resolution even lower to 720P. And still happened later I used Throttlestop to reduce the clocks to pitiful 2.5GHz on all 4 Cores from 3.5GHz, remember this was happening since 15-20 days so end of March to April. Later stabilized and now the GPU is power capped to just 30% lol and 810MHz negative Clock rate offset, so I thought the CPU VRMs or something else at play.

 

Eventually it happened, the shutdown happened on normal torrent workload basic workload no GPU at all. Sometimes it happens when I'm watching a video or something it's random now.

 

Then I ordered DC Power Jack from Parts-people, I remember them since NBR days. Well it came on Sunday and I was glad to see no Shut off but today right after work, it again happened.

 

So to note

- No Overheating of any component (GPU, CPU)

- No heating around DC Jack area with both new and old parts.

- PCH also stays normal no overheat (it only heats up to 79C when 980M goes to 78C  (80C it GPU hard lock due to 980M issues) which does not happen at all.

- PSU is perfectly fine

- TRON lighting is also fine no issues

- Soundcard is fine

- All SATA ports work, ODD to HDD also works.

- RJ45 Ethernet port works fine, I get super high speed data without issues

- USB ports work (one on the daughter board is 2.0 only from 3.0 not a big deal)

- Display works no artifacts no nothing.

- RAM is fine I guess ? GSkill 2133MHz premium memory.

- Both fans work perfectly fine.

- KB works without issues, Touchpad too

-Visually and Physically the laptop is very good as I do not use the KB at all.

- Lid is like brand new no sratches, the heavy MG alloy.

- Exoskeleton is also as is no dremels no nothing.

- CPU die and GPU die do not have any cracks or scratches or chipping.

- Heatsinks do not have any issues either.

 

 

I tried running Aida Stress tests, it does not crash flat out or cause massive throttling either. One more thing is once it shuts off, I press power button it does not start. I have to wait like at-least 10-30 mins sometimes else it would shut off before going to Windows.

 

Any ideas guys ? @Papusanbro any thing from your side as you still own this beauty ?

 

I do not know where can I even try to send this to diagnose it. I mean it's been 9 years with the machine, I got it in 2014.  Maybe the power management ICs or something on the Mobo are dying, unfortunate as I like this machine and have some old memories attached to it. I was planning to get the P5200 too as its a 1:1 fit with Revision B which has BIOS chip and I even archived the BIOS needed for that 1080 class GPU.

 

Very sad news.

 

Now I need some portable machine a laptop as I cannot rely on a Desktop when I go mobile to other places or out of country etc, and I checked the laptop scene, honest too god, what the actual F is with the whole industry, every single pile of BGA junk is overpriced to moon and the HW they are giving is pathetic dog feces use and throw BS. Plus none of them have Metal if they have they are super thin garbage like AW or Razer which is like $3000-4000 expensive. And 99.9% of them use Tripod garbage and VC is rare only Razer does.

 

I can challenge not a single BGA junktop can last 5 years let alone 9 years of heavy usage of torrents, gaming what not. And sadly not a single Socketed machine exists.  I should have bought a mint condition Dell Precision M6800 on ebay when I had chance....now I only see bro @electrosoft is selling one machine on the marketplace.. (nvm RIP that is also sold, even more sad now...all hope lost) all the BGA new gamer jockeys  they all cost over $1500+-2000-4000 for Mobile Alder Lake you have 12700H which is a BGA but it has 6P Cores uber castrated nonsense, Desktop LGA1700 12700K i7 has 8P cores.  I wont even waste time on he Nvidia BS GPUs (3060 6GB mobile turd, my 980M has 8GB wtf) inside them.

 

Laptops went to sewage. Clevo abandoned everything, Area 51M is a joke as the DGFF was going up in flames and their GaN charger cable wont even last like my Delta 330W PSU.

 

Oh while I'm at it, Razer is selling same laptop spec as the above one, which was Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 5/7 (apparently better BGA junk of all due to metal body and lid, not base and somewhat ok pricing ?) and the cost is literally $1000 extra for same HW. $2200 approx that Macbook rip off design with VC heatsink costs $1000 I guess. Then you have ASUS garbage rubbish, and all others belong to dumpster ? maybe even landfill is worthless as it will ruin the land. Oh those Macbooks ? remember muh ARM superiority once Alder Lake launched that was destroyed with Zen mobile and more even worse plus Apple charges a ton for all welded garbage and ofc you can get those M series joker processors which will be outdated the next instant new one arrives unlike x86 processors.

 

Sorry for mega rant and such a long post I'm just diswsapointed in the industry and humanity due to this use and throw garbage culture everywhere, the mice are having li-ion batteries now... I use G305 which has AA slot and I use Eneloop AAA rechargable with AA adapter... I digress. Saddest part is about the way how things are going for the ever reliable Alienware 17 and the only ones who can understand are the NBR folks, now NBT folks.

 

 

[tps3443]

3 hours ago, Rage Set said:

 

Don't you have like 12 different 13900K/KS's? What's a single 4090 going to matter. Hahaha. All kidding aside, I would love to see one of your binned 13900KS and a 4090 versus his fine-tuned 7800X3D/4090 in certain benchmarks/games.

Oh I don’t have that many lol. I’ve have tested many 13th gen chips this go around, but I have never owned more than 2-3 chips at once. 
 

I will get a 4090 eventually, my go to binned chip is actually a low dog SP104 KS! (Really amazing cpu for being far below average sp) 

[Tenoroon]

2 hours ago, Ashtrix said:

Sad news.

 

While I'm waiting for the Cablemod to arrive and thinking about getting Seagate 4TB FireCuda 530.

 

My Alienware 17R1 Ranger seems to be going down.

 

 

It never had any problems aside from the 980M I have which has MOSFET issue and grey screen / black screens. I don't play anything on this machine anymore as I have the new one prepped up. Anyways the system just hard shuts off. Only Dota2 with friends that's a low load on GPU and higher load on CPU.

 

Initially I thought it is happening due to some GPU issue so I tried to re-paste everything with the Noctua Thermal Paste I had. And tried to run heavy Unigine Heaven and Fire Strike it shut off after some time so I was sure it is the GPU. Then using Nvidia Inspector (Maxwell so can control Clock rate and Power) and limited Power capped to 70% only. Still failing. Then reduced Clocks to even lower by 500MHz on Core.

 

Tried ordering new 240W PSU, tried the Dell 330W as well, but Delta one is discontinued and ordered new Dell GaN 330W one with smaller footprint but thinner cable (apparently the quality on these not good as cable may break faster)  assuming it would work but it was shipping late so 240W brand new came in fast. And no dice, the machine shut off flat out. So no PSU issue (have the Dell 330W which I purchased 7 years back, so yea that thing is bulletproof it works solid)

 

Still the sudden shutdowns continued while playing, then I tried to reduce the Dota2 resolution even lower to 720P. And still happened later I used Throttlestop to reduce the clocks to pitiful 2.5GHz on all 4 Cores from 3.5GHz, remember this was happening since 15-20 days so end of March to April. Later stabilized and now the GPU is power capped to just 30% lol and 810MHz negative Clock rate offset, so I thought the CPU VRMs or something else at play.

 

Eventually it happened, the shutdown happened on normal torrent workload basic workload no GPU at all. Sometimes it happens when I'm watching a video or something it's random now.

 

Then I ordered DC Power Jack from Parts-people, I remember them since NBR days. Well it came on Sunday and I was glad to see no Shut off but today right after work, it again happened.

 

So to note

- No Overheating of any component (GPU, CPU)

- No heating around DC Jack area with both new and old parts.

- PCH also stays normal no overheat (it only heats up to 79C when 980M goes to 78C  (80C it GPU hard lock due to 980M issues) which does not happen at all.

- PSU is perfectly fine

- TRON lighting is also fine no issues

- Soundcard is fine

- All SATA ports work, ODD to HDD also works.

- RJ45 Ethernet port works fine, I get super high speed data without issues

- USB ports work (one on the daughter board is 2.0 only from 3.0 not a big deal)

- Display works no artifacts no nothing.

- RAM is fine I guess ? GSkill 2133MHz premium memory.

- Both fans work perfectly fine.

- KB works without issues, Touchpad too

-Visually and Physically the laptop is very good as I do not use the KB at all.

- Lid is like brand new no sratches, the heavy MG alloy.

- Exoskeleton is also as is no dremels no nothing.

- CPU die and GPU die do not have any cracks or scratches or chipping.

- Heatsinks do not have any issues either.

 

 

I tried running Aida Stress tests, it does not crash flat out or cause massive throttling either. One more thing is once it shuts off, I press power button it does not start. I have to wait like at-least 10-30 mins sometimes else it would shut off before going to Windows.

 

Any ideas guys ? @Papusanbro any thing from your side as you still own this beauty ?

 

I do not know where can I even try to send this to diagnose it. I mean it's been 9 years with the machine, I got it in 2014.  Maybe the power management ICs or something on the Mobo are dying, unfortunate as I like this machine and have some old memories attached to it. I was planning to get the P5200 too as its a 1:1 fit with Revision B which has BIOS chip and I even archived the BIOS needed for that 1080 class GPU.

 

Very sad news.

 

Now I need some portable machine a laptop as I cannot rely on a Desktop when I go mobile to other places or out of country etc, and I checked the laptop scene, honest too god, what the actual F is with the whole industry, every single pile of BGA junk is overpriced to moon and the HW they are giving is pathetic dog feces use and throw BS. Plus none of them have Metal if they have they are super thin garbage like AW or Razer which is like $3000-4000 expensive. And 99.9% of them use Tripod garbage and VC is rare only Razer does.

 

I can challenge not a single BGA junktop can last 5 years let alone 9 years of heavy usage of torrents, gaming what not. And sadly not a single Socketed machine exists.  I should have bought a mint condition Dell Precision M6800 on ebay when I had chance....now I only see bro @electrosoft is selling one machine on the marketplace.. (nvm RIP that is also sold, even more sad now...all hope lost) all the BGA new gamer jockeys  they all cost over $1500+-2000-4000 for Mobile Alder Lake you have 12700H which is a BGA but it has 6P Cores uber castrated nonsense, Desktop LGA1700 12700K i7 has 8P cores.  I wont even waste time on he Nvidia BS GPUs (3060 6GB mobile turd, my 980M has 8GB wtf) inside them.

 

Laptops went to sewage. Clevo abandoned everything, Area 51M is a joke as the DGFF was going up in flames and their GaN charger cable wont even last like my Delta 330W PSU.

 

Oh while I'm at it, Razer is selling same laptop spec as the above one, which was Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 5/7 (apparently better BGA junk of all due to metal body and lid, not base and somewhat ok pricing ?) and the cost is literally $1000 extra for same HW. $2200 approx that Macbook rip off design with VC heatsink costs $1000 I guess. Then you have ASUS garbage rubbish, and all others belong to dumpster ? maybe even landfill is worthless as it will ruin the land. Oh those Macbooks ? remember muh ARM superiority once Alder Lake launched that was destroyed with Zen mobile and more even worse plus Apple charges a ton for all welded garbage and ofc you can get those M series joker processors which will be outdated the next instant new one arrives unlike x86 processors.

 

Sorry for mega rant and such a long post I'm just diswsapointed in the industry and humanity due to this use and throw garbage culture everywhere, the mice are having li-ion batteries now... I use G305 which has AA slot and I use Eneloop AAA rechargable with AA adapter... I digress. Saddest part is about the way how things are going for the ever reliable Alienware 17 and the only ones who can understand are the NBR folks, now NBT folks.

 

 

I've got a spare 860m I can send you to test with if you want to eradicate the potential of it being a GPU problem. My guess is that it is due to the Ranger's poor MOSFET cooling and the 980m's known unreliability. If you're able to push the crap out of the CPU, it may be the GPU that's starting to defecate bricks...

I'm surprised my Ranger hasn't killed itself yet. While I don't know its entire history, I know whoever owned it before me didn't really take care of it, and with me doing all of my goofy mods and such, it hasn't had an easy life. The amount of times I've bricked the BIOS or have needed to reset the NVRAM is too many to count, and with all of the OCing I've done essentially torturing the CPU VRM, I'm surprised it still lives... 

[Mr. Fox]

4 hours ago, Ashtrix said:

Sad news.

 

While I'm waiting for the Cablemod to arrive and thinking about getting Seagate 4TB FireCuda 530.

 

My Alienware 17R1 Ranger seems to be going down.

 

 

It never had any problems aside from the 980M I have which has MOSFET issue and grey screen / black screens. I don't play anything on this machine anymore as I have the new one prepped up. Anyways the system just hard shuts off. Only Dota2 with friends that's a low load on GPU and higher load on CPU.

 

Initially I thought it is happening due to some GPU issue so I tried to re-paste everything with the Noctua Thermal Paste I had. And tried to run heavy Unigine Heaven and Fire Strike it shut off after some time so I was sure it is the GPU. Then using Nvidia Inspector (Maxwell so can control Clock rate and Power) and limited Power capped to 70% only. Still failing. Then reduced Clocks to even lower by 500MHz on Core.

 

Tried ordering new 240W PSU, tried the Dell 330W as well, but Delta one is discontinued and ordered new Dell GaN 330W one with smaller footprint but thinner cable (apparently the quality on these not good as cable may break faster)  assuming it would work but it was shipping late so 240W brand new came in fast. And no dice, the machine shut off flat out. So no PSU issue (have the Dell 330W which I purchased 7 years back, so yea that thing is bulletproof it works solid)

 

Still the sudden shutdowns continued while playing, then I tried to reduce the Dota2 resolution even lower to 720P. And still happened later I used Throttlestop to reduce the clocks to pitiful 2.5GHz on all 4 Cores from 3.5GHz, remember this was happening since 15-20 days so end of March to April. Later stabilized and now the GPU is power capped to just 30% lol and 810MHz negative Clock rate offset, so I thought the CPU VRMs or something else at play.

 

Eventually it happened, the shutdown happened on normal torrent workload basic workload no GPU at all. Sometimes it happens when I'm watching a video or something it's random now.

 

Then I ordered DC Power Jack from Parts-people, I remember them since NBR days. Well it came on Sunday and I was glad to see no Shut off but today right after work, it again happened.

 

So to note

- No Overheating of any component (GPU, CPU)

- No heating around DC Jack area with both new and old parts.

- PCH also stays normal no overheat (it only heats up to 79C when 980M goes to 78C  (80C it GPU hard lock due to 980M issues) which does not happen at all.

- PSU is perfectly fine

- TRON lighting is also fine no issues

- Soundcard is fine

- All SATA ports work, ODD to HDD also works.

- RJ45 Ethernet port works fine, I get super high speed data without issues

- USB ports work (one on the daughter board is 2.0 only from 3.0 not a big deal)

- Display works no artifacts no nothing.

- RAM is fine I guess ? GSkill 2133MHz premium memory.

- Both fans work perfectly fine.

- KB works without issues, Touchpad too

-Visually and Physically the laptop is very good as I do not use the KB at all.

- Lid is like brand new no sratches, the heavy MG alloy.

- Exoskeleton is also as is no dremels no nothing.

- CPU die and GPU die do not have any cracks or scratches or chipping.

- Heatsinks do not have any issues either.

 

 

I tried running Aida Stress tests, it does not crash flat out or cause massive throttling either. One more thing is once it shuts off, I press power button it does not start. I have to wait like at-least 10-30 mins sometimes else it would shut off before going to Windows.

 

Any ideas guys ? @Papusanbro any thing from your side as you still own this beauty ?

 

I do not know where can I even try to send this to diagnose it. I mean it's been 9 years with the machine, I got it in 2014.  Maybe the power management ICs or something on the Mobo are dying, unfortunate as I like this machine and have some old memories attached to it. I was planning to get the P5200 too as its a 1:1 fit with Revision B which has BIOS chip and I even archived the BIOS needed for that 1080 class GPU.

 

Very sad news.

 

Now I need some portable machine a laptop as I cannot rely on a Desktop when I go mobile to other places or out of country etc, and I checked the laptop scene, honest too god, what the actual F is with the whole industry, every single pile of BGA junk is overpriced to moon and the HW they are giving is pathetic dog feces use and throw BS. Plus none of them have Metal if they have they are super thin garbage like AW or Razer which is like $3000-4000 expensive. And 99.9% of them use Tripod garbage and VC is rare only Razer does.

 

I can challenge not a single BGA junktop can last 5 years let alone 9 years of heavy usage of torrents, gaming what not. And sadly not a single Socketed machine exists.  I should have bought a mint condition Dell Precision M6800 on ebay when I had chance....now I only see bro @electrosoft is selling one machine on the marketplace.. (nvm RIP that is also sold, even more sad now...all hope lost) all the BGA new gamer jockeys  they all cost over $1500+-2000-4000 for Mobile Alder Lake you have 12700H which is a BGA but it has 6P Cores uber castrated nonsense, Desktop LGA1700 12700K i7 has 8P cores.  I wont even waste time on he Nvidia BS GPUs (3060 6GB mobile turd, my 980M has 8GB wtf) inside them.

 

Laptops went to sewage. Clevo abandoned everything, Area 51M is a joke as the DGFF was going up in flames and their GaN charger cable wont even last like my Delta 330W PSU.

 

Oh while I'm at it, Razer is selling same laptop spec as the above one, which was Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 5/7 (apparently better BGA junk of all due to metal body and lid, not base and somewhat ok pricing ?) and the cost is literally $1000 extra for same HW. $2200 approx that Macbook rip off design with VC heatsink costs $1000 I guess. Then you have ASUS garbage rubbish, and all others belong to dumpster ? maybe even landfill is worthless as it will ruin the land. Oh those Macbooks ? remember muh ARM superiority once Alder Lake launched that was destroyed with Zen mobile and more even worse plus Apple charges a ton for all welded garbage and ofc you can get those M series joker processors which will be outdated the next instant new one arrives unlike x86 processors.

 

Sorry for mega rant and such a long post I'm just diswsapointed in the industry and humanity due to this use and throw garbage culture everywhere, the mice are having li-ion batteries now... I use G305 which has AA slot and I use Eneloop AAA rechargable with AA adapter... I digress. Saddest part is about the way how things are going for the ever reliable Alienware 17 and the only ones who can understand are the NBR folks, now NBT folks.

 

 

There are no more good laptops brother. There's no such thing anymore. There is no company that manufactures such a thing. A figment of anyone's imagination that believes otherwise. A vast sea filled with digital feces.

 

Do what I did and get an off lease Dell Precision refurb. I have the 7720 with the Quadro P5000 16 GB GPU. Full metal jacket. Except for the soldered CPU it is a proper machine that is built well. The GPU is a standard MXM. Four memory slots, two NVMe and one 2.5-inch drive bay. 17 inch IPS, full keyboard with backlight and a legit touchpad with real buttons unlike the sissy-boy gamer trash. You can do some acceptable gaming with it equivalent to what you did with your Alienware. Very similar performance, perhaps slightly more on the GPU side. You can find them in top notch condition for about $500. If you spend more than that on a turdbook you're just flushing money down the toilet on a piece of trash designed for children. If you need help locating one let me know. My sister bought one just like mine from the same place I bought mine and hers is also like new. I reconfigured mine to triple boot W10/11 and Linux on the dual 1TB NVMe SSDs and added a 2TB SATA SSD for storage. I have disabled the Intel HD Graphics in the BIOS and run the Quadro in discrete GPU mode.

 

 

Have you checked if the problem occurs with the battery removed from the Alienware? What about the PSA test at boot? Any errors revealed there? From the extensive troubleshooting you've done I would say it's an electrical short of some kind. If not the battery shorting out internally maybe a motherboard defect.

[Clamibot]

3 hours ago, Ashtrix said:

Sad news.

 

While I'm waiting for the Cablemod to arrive and thinking about getting Seagate 4TB FireCuda 530.

 

My Alienware 17R1 Ranger seems to be going down.

 

 

It never had any problems aside from the 980M I have which has MOSFET issue and grey screen / black screens. I don't play anything on this machine anymore as I have the new one prepped up. Anyways the system just hard shuts off. Only Dota2 with friends that's a low load on GPU and higher load on CPU.

 

Initially I thought it is happening due to some GPU issue so I tried to re-paste everything with the Noctua Thermal Paste I had. And tried to run heavy Unigine Heaven and Fire Strike it shut off after some time so I was sure it is the GPU. Then using Nvidia Inspector (Maxwell so can control Clock rate and Power) and limited Power capped to 70% only. Still failing. Then reduced Clocks to even lower by 500MHz on Core.

 

Tried ordering new 240W PSU, tried the Dell 330W as well, but Delta one is discontinued and ordered new Dell GaN 330W one with smaller footprint but thinner cable (apparently the quality on these not good as cable may break faster)  assuming it would work but it was shipping late so 240W brand new came in fast. And no dice, the machine shut off flat out. So no PSU issue (have the Dell 330W which I purchased 7 years back, so yea that thing is bulletproof it works solid)

 

Still the sudden shutdowns continued while playing, then I tried to reduce the Dota2 resolution even lower to 720P. And still happened later I used Throttlestop to reduce the clocks to pitiful 2.5GHz on all 4 Cores from 3.5GHz, remember this was happening since 15-20 days so end of March to April. Later stabilized and now the GPU is power capped to just 30% lol and 810MHz negative Clock rate offset, so I thought the CPU VRMs or something else at play.

 

Eventually it happened, the shutdown happened on normal torrent workload basic workload no GPU at all. Sometimes it happens when I'm watching a video or something it's random now.

 

Then I ordered DC Power Jack from Parts-people, I remember them since NBR days. Well it came on Sunday and I was glad to see no Shut off but today right after work, it again happened.

 

So to note

- No Overheating of any component (GPU, CPU)

- No heating around DC Jack area with both new and old parts.

- PCH also stays normal no overheat (it only heats up to 79C when 980M goes to 78C  (80C it GPU hard lock due to 980M issues) which does not happen at all.

- PSU is perfectly fine

- TRON lighting is also fine no issues

- Soundcard is fine

- All SATA ports work, ODD to HDD also works.

- RJ45 Ethernet port works fine, I get super high speed data without issues

- USB ports work (one on the daughter board is 2.0 only from 3.0 not a big deal)

- Display works no artifacts no nothing.

- RAM is fine I guess ? GSkill 2133MHz premium memory.

- Both fans work perfectly fine.

- KB works without issues, Touchpad too

-Visually and Physically the laptop is very good as I do not use the KB at all.

- Lid is like brand new no sratches, the heavy MG alloy.

- Exoskeleton is also as is no dremels no nothing.

- CPU die and GPU die do not have any cracks or scratches or chipping.

- Heatsinks do not have any issues either.

 

 

I tried running Aida Stress tests, it does not crash flat out or cause massive throttling either. One more thing is once it shuts off, I press power button it does not start. I have to wait like at-least 10-30 mins sometimes else it would shut off before going to Windows.

 

Any ideas guys ? @Papusanbro any thing from your side as you still own this beauty ?

 

I do not know where can I even try to send this to diagnose it. I mean it's been 9 years with the machine, I got it in 2014.  Maybe the power management ICs or something on the Mobo are dying, unfortunate as I like this machine and have some old memories attached to it. I was planning to get the P5200 too as its a 1:1 fit with Revision B which has BIOS chip and I even archived the BIOS needed for that 1080 class GPU.

 

Very sad news.

 

Now I need some portable machine a laptop as I cannot rely on a Desktop when I go mobile to other places or out of country etc, and I checked the laptop scene, honest too god, what the actual F is with the whole industry, every single pile of BGA junk is overpriced to moon and the HW they are giving is pathetic dog feces use and throw BS. Plus none of them have Metal if they have they are super thin garbage like AW or Razer which is like $3000-4000 expensive. And 99.9% of them use Tripod garbage and VC is rare only Razer does.

 

I can challenge not a single BGA junktop can last 5 years let alone 9 years of heavy usage of torrents, gaming what not. And sadly not a single Socketed machine exists.  I should have bought a mint condition Dell Precision M6800 on ebay when I had chance....now I only see bro @electrosoft is selling one machine on the marketplace.. (nvm RIP that is also sold, even more sad now...all hope lost) all the BGA new gamer jockeys  they all cost over $1500+-2000-4000 for Mobile Alder Lake you have 12700H which is a BGA but it has 6P Cores uber castrated nonsense, Desktop LGA1700 12700K i7 has 8P cores.  I wont even waste time on he Nvidia BS GPUs (3060 6GB mobile turd, my 980M has 8GB wtf) inside them.

 

Laptops went to sewage. Clevo abandoned everything, Area 51M is a joke as the DGFF was going up in flames and their GaN charger cable wont even last like my Delta 330W PSU.

 

Oh while I'm at it, Razer is selling same laptop spec as the above one, which was Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 5/7 (apparently better BGA junk of all due to metal body and lid, not base and somewhat ok pricing ?) and the cost is literally $1000 extra for same HW. $2200 approx that Macbook rip off design with VC heatsink costs $1000 I guess. Then you have ASUS garbage rubbish, and all others belong to dumpster ? maybe even landfill is worthless as it will ruin the land. Oh those Macbooks ? remember muh ARM superiority once Alder Lake launched that was destroyed with Zen mobile and more even worse plus Apple charges a ton for all welded garbage and ofc you can get those M series joker processors which will be outdated the next instant new one arrives unlike x86 processors.

 

Sorry for mega rant and such a long post I'm just diswsapointed in the industry and humanity due to this use and throw garbage culture everywhere, the mice are having li-ion batteries now... I use G305 which has AA slot and I use Eneloop AAA rechargable with AA adapter... I digress. Saddest part is about the way how things are going for the ever reliable Alienware 17 and the only ones who can understand are the NBR folks, now NBT folks.

 

 

 

27 minutes ago, Tenoroon said:

I've got a spare 860m I can send you to test with if you want to eradicate the potential of it being a GPU problem. My guess is that it is due to the Ranger's poor MOSFET cooling and the 980m's known unreliability. If you're able to push the crap out of the CPU, it may be the GPU that's starting to defecate bricks...

I'm surprised my Ranger hasn't killed itself yet. While I don't know its entire history, I know whoever owned it before me didn't really take care of it, and with me doing all of my goofy mods and such, it hasn't had an easy life. The amount of times I've bricked the BIOS or have needed to reset the NVRAM is too many to count, and with all of the OCing I've done essentially torturing the CPU VRM, I'm surprised it still lives... 

 

I still have my Ranger and it still works like it's brand new. I've had it for almost 8 years now. It was a year old when I got it (overstock nobody had bought) back in 2015. I've never replaced any parts in it due to failures. The motherboard is still the original one that came with the laptop, and I have the CPU upgraded to a i7 4930 MX, the GPU upgraded to a GTX 1060, and the RAM upgraded to a 32 GB kit of Kingston HyperX 2133 MHz SODIMMs, which aren't even sold anymore. You can't find that RAM anywhere anymore. I upgraded the screen to a 120 Hz screen as well when I did that GPU upgrade.

 

In addition to those hardware upgrades, I also have the upgraded CPU and GPU heatsinks by Chichen, and have liquid metal on the CPU, plus Phobya Nanogrease Extreme on the GPU. I put some Nanogrease on top of the CPU VRMs so they'd have good heat transfer to the CPU heatsink. Chichen's upgraded heatsinks for the Alienware 17 are very good.

 

I've run the CPU at around 4.1-4.2 GHz most of the time during heavy use, and this thing has been very heavily used. My unit still shows no sign of wear even after the close to 8 years of use it's been through. It still runs like it's brand new as I said before. This laptop is built extremely well and is made to last, unlike the stupid crap on the market today. I wish there was a version of this laptop with modern desktop class hardware as I really like the physical design of this laptop.

 

@Ashtrix From the symptoms of the issue you described and the list of things you've tried, I'd guess your issue is probably a power delivery issue on the motherboard itself. What's interesting though is that when you tried a CPU stress test, you didn't experience a shutdown. It appears your problem only occurs on combined CPU + GPU workloads, so the issue is probably with the power delivery circuitry on the motherboard itself that the DC jack connects to.

[Papusan]

8 hours ago, electrosoft said:

Decided to snag a 7950X3D from Best Buy too and compare them extensively over the next few weeks to see which one I want to keep.

What? A few weeks?🤯 

6 hours ago, Ashtrix said:

Any ideas guys ? @Papusanbro any thing from your side as you still own this beauty ?

Not what I can think of. Very sad hear this bro Ashtrix. I know the history of your AW17 so this is damn sad news😞 Hope you find a way to fix it. Regarding my AW17... My middle son use it while he fix up his house. The laptoop have been to him the last 2.5 years. And he still game on it on the days with his friends. His new desktop is here in my house. But he have no hurry bring it down to the house. The old AW17 still kick ass for his gaming needs with friends, LOOL

[Ashtrix]

1 hour ago, Tenoroon said:

I've got a spare 860m I can send you to test with if you want to eradicate the potential of it being a GPU problem. My guess is that it is due to the Ranger's poor MOSFET cooling and the 980m's known unreliability. If you're able to push the crap out of the CPU, it may be the GPU that's starting to defecate bricks...

I'm surprised my Ranger hasn't killed itself yet. While I don't know its entire history, I know whoever owned it before me didn't really take care of it, and with me doing all of my goofy mods and such, it hasn't had an easy life. The amount of times I've bricked the BIOS or have needed to reset the NVRAM is too many to count, and with all of the OCing I've done essentially torturing the CPU VRM, I'm surprised it still lives... 

 

Thank you very much for the option to test, will let you know. The problem is not just any GPU load, it will shutdown at any point - Watching a movie / video I use MadVR for Video Processing on MPC, but that's minimal load and as I mentioned even with GPU capped to 30% of power and minus 810MHz on Core it may shutdown and once it does it won't power up instantly, not sure if that's due to the GPU unable to get power and not turning on etc.  Browsing Internet, just sitting idle anytime it can happen 100% total random occurrence at-least from what I'm seeing.

 

 

1 hour ago, Mr. Fox said:

There are no good laptops brother. There's no such thing. A figment of anyone's imagination that believes otherwise. A vast sea filled with digital feces. Do what I did and get an off lease Dell Precision refurb. I have the 7720 with the Quadro P5000 16 GB GPU. Full metal jacket. Except for the soldered CPU it is a proper machine that is built well. The GPU is a standard MXM. Four memory slots, two NVMe and one 2.5-inch drive bay. 17 inch IPS, full keyboard with backlight and a legit touchpad with real buttons unlike the sissy-boy gamer trash. You can do some acceptable gaming with it equivalent to what you did with your Alienware. Very similar performance, perhaps slightly more on the GPU side. You can find them in top notch condition for about $500. If you spend more than that on a turdbook you're just flushing money down the toilet on a piece of trash designed for children. If you need help locating one let me know. My sister bought one just like mine from the same place I bought mine and hers is also like new. I reconfigured mine to triple boot W10/11 and Linux on the dual 1TB NVMe SSDs and added a 2TB SATA SSD for storage. I have disabled the Intel HD Graphics in the BIOS and run the Quadro in discrete GPU mode.

 

 

Have you checked if the problem occurs with the battery removed from the Alienware? What about the PSA test at boot? Any errors revealed there? From the extensive troubleshooting you've done I would say it's an electrical short of some kind. If not the battery shorting out internally maybe a motherboard defect.

 

Thanks brother Fox, yea unfortunately not a single machine out there is interesting or worth spending money on, everything is just BGA cancer made with one thing in mind - Planned Obsolescence. And while at it they just rip off hardcore. There's no reason to price a BGA turdbook with gimped HW at beyond LGA Clevo X170 used pricing. Not even the brand new BGA 4090 and BGA 13th gen BGA books are worth as they will overheat and cook themselves to death with Tripod garbage.

 

As for the Dell Precision 7720 that's a really good idea. The MXM with P5000/5200, metal build and removable battery bay with a 2.5" and cheaper cost esp makes it compelling.. I'm just watching your video on teardown on your channel too 1/2 way, the heatsink is also having 4 screws on both CPU and GPU. I will definitely let you know about it. Thanks a lot for that heads up

 

For the AW17, the battery died, I bought Dell spare that also died, so I run it exclusively off the power supply since 3 years+ as for ePSA that doesn't seem to work as when I try that, it shows the custom vBIOS screen that says - Svl7 + Johnksss and goes off into beeping mode. I hate to say it but seems like something on the motherboard, no pattern at all. Plus on Windows Event Viewer nothing is logged either under System.

 

59 minutes ago, Clamibot said:

 

 

I still have my Ranger and it still works like it's brand new. I've had it for almost 8 years now. It was a year old when I got it (overstock nobody had bought) back in 2015. I've never replaced any parts in it due to failures. The motherboard is still the original one that came with the laptop, and I have the CPU upgraded to a i7 4930 MX, the GPU upgraded to a GTX 1060, and the RAM upgraded to a 32 GB kit of Kingston HyperX 2133 MHz SODIMMs, which aren't even sold anymore. You can't find that RAM anywhere anymore. I upgraded the screen to a 120 Hz screen as well when I did that GPU upgrade.

 

In addition to those hardware upgrades, I also have the upgraded CPU and GPU heatsinks by Chichen, and have liquid metal on the CPU, plus Phobya Nanogrease Extreme on the GPU. I put some Nanogrease on top of the CPU VRMs so they'd have good heat transfer to the CPU heatsink. Chichen's upgraded heatsinks for the Alienware 17 are very good.

 

I've run the CPU at around 4.1-4.2 GHz most of the time during heavy use, and this thing has been very heavily used. My unit still shows no sign of wear even after the close to 8 years of use it's been through. It still runs like it's brand new as I said before. This laptop is built extremely well and is made to last, unlike the stupid crap on the market today. I wish there was a version of this laptop with modern desktop class hardware as I really like the physical design of this laptop.

 

@Ashtrix From the symptoms of the issue you described and the list of things you've tried, I'd guess your issue is probably a power delivery issue on the motherboard itself. What's interesting though is that when you tried a CPU stress test, you didn't experience a shutdown. It appears your problem only occurs on combined CPU + GPU workloads, so the issue is probably with the power delivery circuitry on the motherboard itself that the DC jack connects to.

 

Very good bro, yea this machine is built to last, I bought the GSkill memory when I had chance, it was lowest DDR3L timings too I should have bought one more set back then. I was actually planning to get i7 4930MX as prices dropped for that part nowadays. And eying that P5200 MXM HP Zbook pull one. Chichen's HS did not work for me though.

 

That said, yea the issue is very weird and hard to diagnose. The first thing was Thermal Paste job and then using Throttlestop + NVInspector to downclock both, it did not work, then the PSU because I thought that was the issue of a faulty power delivery, I use TrippLite power strip and changed it too no dice. Then I thought the DC Power Jack might be giving up, but even that failed.

 

Maybe the mobo VRM somewhere is having an issue and causes it to happen at a combined load or something, but too hard to find out. Also Khenglish is MIA here on NBT during the NBR migration unfortunately, his talent was impeccable and he would have known something which we might miss. T456 is another hardware expert even he is MIA sadly.

[tps3443]

This motherboard is SICK!!! 

Asus auto voltages and LLC are always tuned so WELL!!! Stock right out of the box, no adjustment at all. I run Cinebench and my 13900KS hits 287 watts max. That’s simply amazing! This is an SP104 chip. 

 

 

[Clamibot]

3 hours ago, Papusan said:

What? A few weeks?🤯 

Not what I can think of. Very sad hear this bro Ashtrix. I know the history of your AW17 so this is damn sad news😞 Hope you find a way to fix it. Regarding my AW17... My middle son use it while he fix up his house. The laptoop have been to him the last 2.5 years. And he still game on it on the days with his friends. His new desktop is here in my house. But he have no hurry bring it down to the house. The old AW17 still kick ass for his gaming needs with friends, LOOL

 

Not to mention you can swap out the optical drive for another drive bay, giving you a total of 4 drive slots if you count the msata slot. In fact, it is possible to fit 4 2.5 inch drives in this laptop if you use an msata to sata adapter cable for the 4th drive. It's simply amazing how much room this laptop has in it for hardware despite supposedly being the same size class as today's 17 inch craptops. That's lots of storage for all my games, media, and development work hehe. 😁

 

3 hours ago, Ashtrix said:

 

Thank you very much for the option to test, will let you know. The problem is not just any GPU load, it will shutdown at any point - Watching a movie / video I use MadVR for Video Processing on MPC, but that's minimal load and as I mentioned even with GPU capped to 30% of power and minus 810MHz on Core it may shutdown and once it does it won't power up instantly, not sure if that's due to the GPU unable to get power and not turning on etc.  Browsing Internet, just sitting idle anytime it can happen 100% total random occurrence at-least from what I'm seeing.

 

 

 

Thanks brother Fox, yea unfortunately not a single machine out there is interesting or worth spending money on, everything is just BGA cancer made with one thing in mind - Planned Obsolescence. And while at it they just rip off hardcore. There's no reason to price a BGA turdbook with gimped HW at beyond LGA Clevo X170 used pricing. Not even the brand new BGA 4090 and BGA 13th gen BGA books are worth as they will overheat and cook themselves to death with Tripod garbage.

 

As for the Dell Precision 7720 that's a really good idea. The MXM with P5000/5200, metal build and removable battery bay with a 2.5" and cheaper cost esp makes it compelling.. I'm just watching your video on teardown on your channel too 1/2 way, the heatsink is also having 4 screws on both CPU and GPU. I will definitely let you know about it. Thanks a lot for that heads up

 

For the AW17, the battery died, I bought Dell spare that also died, so I run it exclusively off the power supply since 3 years+ as for ePSA that doesn't seem to work as when I try that, it shows the custom vBIOS screen that says - Svl7 + Johnksss and goes off into beeping mode. I hate to say it but seems like something on the motherboard, no pattern at all. Plus on Windows Event Viewer nothing is logged either under System.

 

 

Very good bro, yea this machine is built to last, I bought the GSkill memory when I had chance, it was lowest DDR3L timings too I should have bought one more set back then. I was actually planning to get i7 4930MX as prices dropped for that part nowadays. And eying that P5200 MXM HP Zbook pull one. Chichen's HS did not work for me though.

 

That said, yea the issue is very weird and hard to diagnose. The first thing was Thermal Paste job and then using Throttlestop + NVInspector to downclock both, it did not work, then the PSU because I thought that was the issue of a faulty power delivery, I use TrippLite power strip and changed it too no dice. Then I thought the DC Power Jack might be giving up, but even that failed.

 

Maybe the mobo VRM somewhere is having an issue and causes it to happen at a combined load or something, but too hard to find out. Also Khenglish is MIA here on NBT during the NBR migration unfortunately, his talent was impeccable and he would have known something which we might miss. T456 is another hardware expert even he is MIA sadly.

 

You can confirm if the combined load is the issue if you enable hybrid graphics and pull the dedicated card, that way you run completely off the iGPU. Do you have a 120 Hz screen like me? In that case the laptop won't let you use the MUX switch key combination to avoid bricking itself. If you have a 60 Hz screen that connects to the LVDS port on the motherboard, then you're in luck and you should be able to easily switch to mshybrid/optimus mode.

 

If you only have the 120 Hz eDP screen, then you'll need a 60 Hz LVDS screen temporarily connected to the laptop to perform the switch and do your diagnosing.

[Etern4l]

1 hour ago, tps3443 said:

This motherboard is SICK!!! 

Asus auto voltages and LLC are always tuned so WELL!!! Stock right out of the box, no adjustment at all. I run Cinebench and my 13900KS hits 287 watts max. That’s simply amazing! This is an SP104 chip. 

 

 

 

I imagine part of this must be the fact that it's 790 and 2023, rather that Asus Apex specifically. Lightly regretting not taking a risk with 790 as well lol

[Ashtrix]

7 hours ago, Clamibot said:

 

Not to mention you can swap out the optical drive for another drive bay, giving you a total of 4 drive slots if you count the msata slot. In fact, it is possible to fit 4 2.5 inch drives in this laptop if you use an msata to sata adapter cable for the 4th drive. It's simply amazing how much room this laptop has in it for hardware despite supposedly being the same size class as today's 17 inch craptops. That's lots of storage for all my games, media, and development work hehe. 😁

 

 

You can confirm if the combined load is the issue if you enable hybrid graphics and pull the dedicated card, that way you run completely off the iGPU. Do you have a 120 Hz screen like me? In that case the laptop won't let you use the MUX switch key combination to avoid bricking itself. If you have a 60 Hz screen that connects to the LVDS port on the motherboard, then you're in luck and you should be able to easily switch to mshybrid/optimus mode.

 

If you only have the 120 Hz eDP screen, then you'll need a 60 Hz LVDS screen temporarily connected to the laptop to perform the switch and do your diagnosing.

 

 

That is a good idea, it never struck me. Thank you !!

 

I have the 120Hz panel I was saving it for Pascal 1070 MSI or P5200. And the eDP cable too. But as of now its 60Hz LVDS panel is only installed.

 

So I did what you suggested did the MUX key combo fn+F5 and it asked me to reboot for switch and then the Dell ePSA Diagnostics worked (before when it was running on PEG only mode the ePSA won't boot, perhaps due to Custom vBIOS on 980M).

 

As @Mr. Fox asked about ePSA, yea it passed. The error was Battery not installed and so it says "One or more errors found" and displayed the failure, last pass was in 2016. But as I checked the results tab everything passed except the Battery so ePSA needs to pass every single test then only it may pass the machine as 100% pass. And this is not a thorough test but rather normal one I think in the deep test it runs deeper Memory tests.

 

So after booting into Windows 8.1 Enterprise 64Bit, when I right click as expected NVCP does not exist. But I tried to install the Intel HD 4600 Graphics drivers they were failing to start installation, I do not remember how to do this, I booted to the BIOS and put the Display Graphics to IGFX from SG...  But in Windows it did not change anything.

 

Tried older ones from Dell and they worked BUT it black screened and the OS display got corrupted lucky we have Unlocked BIOS so I flipped Video Adapter back to PEG mode and restored the OS which removed the bad Intel HD drivers.  Later ran DDU and removed the Nvidia drivers and now the Intel HD driver successfully installed. 980M does not show up as it says Microsoft Display Adapter and it shows.

 

Quote

 

This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)

The driver trying to start is not the same as the driver for the POSTed display adapter.

 

 

That's expected I believe. Basically had to run DDU before, anyways no more 980M for now. I will run the machine on iGPU exclusively and see how it does. Thanks.

[Talon]

@Papusan

 

Looks like MSI Afterburner author fixed the Maxwell voltage lock in latest release!  
 

https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/msi-afterburner-beta-download.html

[tps3443]

I pulled my Corsair 2TB Hydro M.2 off of watercooling, I just decided to use the traditional “Air” cooling and heat sink provided by the Z790 Apex motherboard. 
 

Playing BF2042 for just a few minutes on an open test bench with a fan, my M.2 was running 50C already. And it idles at 36C. 
 

I haven’t tested if it throttles. But I’m curious now.  The M.2 is under the silver heatsink by the GPU and has (2) thermal pads on it. 
 

On another note, this motherboard is the best! I love the color of it. And I’ll check the M.2 speeds to see if it throttles when over 50C. I think I remember the storage controller throttling on these once in the 50’s. Which was the whole reason why I water cooled it lol.
 

[electrosoft]

13 hours ago, Papusan said:

What? A few weeks?🤯

 

True, I just realized my return window is June 13th, so I can test them a bit more than a few weeks. 🙂

 

 

[tps3443]

Okay. I really need a White 4090 in my life right about now. @Papusan how’s that Galax HOF 4090 treating you? Good GPU? 

 

 

[Mr. Fox]

11 hours ago, Etern4l said:

 

I imagine part of this must be the fact that it's 790 and 2023, rather that Asus Apex specifically. Lightly regretting not taking a risk with 790 as well lol

Any difference between Z690 and Z790 performance would be attributable to individual manufacturer focus rather than the chipset itself. Intel made no changes to the architecture that directly impact CPU or memory performance, and say as much. The changes are, adding another USB 3.2 Type C port, adding an extra PCIe lane or two on the PCH, and removal of Optane support. So, if there are examples of Z790 systems that perform better it is because the manufacturer gave it more effort than they gave to Z690 performance, or put another way, neglected Z690 performance because they wanted to sell Z790 boards. The actual architectual changes Z790 brings are totally irrelevant to a lot of us. For example, I have never cared about Optane. I have never cared about having an extra type C port that is faster. So, to me, both of those changes are irrelevant and unnecessary.

3 hours ago, Talon said:

@Papusan

 

Looks like MSI Afterburner author fixed the Maxwell voltage lock in latest release!  
 

https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/msi-afterburner-beta-download.html

Thank you. This is hot off the presses. I literally downloaded the lastest version yesterday for a new OS installation that did not have it installed and this was released later on the same day. LOL.  There are quite a few release notes that will be of interest to many. The first four, in particular, and especially the second to last one relating to the increase of the 40-series VF curve maximum. The old version of MSI Afterburner maxed out below my stock core frequency maximum on the 4090 so it was utterly worthless before.

 

Version 4.6.5

• Added NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40x0 series graphics cards support
• Added voltage control support for GA103 and GDDR6x based versions of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
• Added AMD RADEON RX 7900 series graphics cards support
• Added total board power monitoring support for AMD RADEON RX 7900 series graphics cards
• Added some future AMD and NVIDIA GPU PCI DeviceIDs to hardware database
• Added Intel Arc GPUs support to hardware monitoring module. Please take a note that Intel Arc GPUs overclocking and tuning is currently not supported due to Intel hardware control API support limitation to x64 applications only
• Added experimental support for Intel 13th generation CPUs
• Added experimental support for AMD Ryzen 7xxx CPUs
• CPU usage data sources in hardware monitoring module have been switched to alternate implementation based on NtQuerySystemInformation(SystemProcessorIdleInformation), because traditional legacy idle time reporting in NtQuerySystemInformation(SystemProcessorPerformanceInformation) is broken in current Windows 11 22H2 builds
• Added workaround for broken fixed fan speed programming API (Overdrive 5 compatible fallback path) for old Overdrive 7 GCN GPUs on 22.5.2 and newer AMD drivers
• Added config file switch for disabling native reliability voltage control API on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 9x0 series graphics cards and forcing legacy P-state 2.0 voltage control API usage on such hardware. Power users may use this switch to bypass voltage control lock on NVIDIA Maxwell series graphics cards on release 515 and newer drivers families
• Improved correction formula parser with data format conversion, rounding and min/max functions support
• Added OCMailbox based bus clock frequency monitoring for Skylake and newer Intel CPUs. Unlike traditional legacy timestamp clock based bus clock frequency estimations, OCMailbox provides support for overclocked BCLK monirtoring. Please take a note that access to OCMailbox is blocked by design of OS when HVCI is enabled
• Improved SMART.dll monitoring plugin. Added temperature monitoring support for NVMe devices, including the secondary controller temperature for some Samsung NVMe drives
• Default clock frequency limit of voltage/frequency curve editor window has been extended to 3.5GHz. Please take a note that you may still customize the limits via config file if necessary
• Update server location changed to new URL inside update checking system. Old update server location reached EOL

 

Edit: I guess I did download the latest version yesterday and had not noticed already. The VF curve goes to 3500 on the 4090.