GPUs & CPUs & Enthusiast hardware: Questions, Discussion and fanboy slap-fights - Nvidia & AMD & Intel - Separe but Equal. Intel rides in the back of the bus.

[Fcret]

I’ve always assumed that AIO coolers are the better option but if a simple air cooler performs just as well then I hav no issues going with it, especially if I don’t have to deal with any fluid leakage.

Tower coolers like the peerless assassin operate similarly to AIOs in that they use fluid to move heat around quickly. The difference is that AIOs use liquids that stay liquid and move them around with a pump whereas tower coolers use heat pipes filled with a liquid that evaporates when heated, travels up the pipe where it's cooled by a heatsink+fan, and then condenses back down where the heat is generated to repeat the cycle. Both are incredibly efficient at moving heat, although the liquid in an AIO can hold more heat at a time which is why an AIO tends to be better for sustained all-core workloads.

I’m still kind of flip-flopping on the CPU (although AMD is winning right now) I want to use and I’ll probably get a better idea on which CPU to go for when I go to Micro Center this week. If I do go for the Intel Core i9 (12th Gen) i9-12900KS I’m seeing decent prices for, I’ll more than likely go full autism and pick up that Sonic-themed B780M mobo from ASRock Unless it has serious issues that kill the idea.

Intel's fine but you keep in mind that LGA 1700 is a dead socket and any conceivable CPU upgrade for the 12900KS is going to have issues. I've been skeptical of long-lived sockets in the past but AMD's continued support for AM4 eight years on has kinda changed my position. If AM5 experiences anything like the longevity of AM4, you might potentially have new CPUs for the platform well into the end of the decade.

 

[ZMOT]

ainly just need to be mindful of places that could trap water, like the modulators in C64s in the post linked above me, not even in them but also below them.

when he gets dusty cards he usually blows them dry after washing, dunno why he didn't with the boards. the IPA should flush it out tho.

Become a 6-core peasant, it won't hurt.

it might in my case, but I'm tempted. the black friday deals are slowy going up, the 7600x3d that had a deal in the store over here (started today!) has it for 290€ - or had since it's completely gone. 7800x3d in comparison is 474€, 9800x3d is only available for preorder at 549€
funny enough on the same deal page the 5800x is 145€, the 5700x is 147€... (they also have a 5900x for 218€, but that's a worse deal imo).

pondering to simply say fuck it, grab the 5800x for the frequency and then jump onto am5 in 2026 when the 11800 or whatever comes out.

btw what's up with nvidia and bundling crap games? I think first you had veilguard, then outlaws, now you get indiana jones

 

[WULULULULU]

Dial your tRefi way down and you’ll still get decent performance.

I haven't ever tuned my tRefi and other RAM configurations so I am going cautiously in regarding this tip.

 

[Susanna]

I haven't ever tuned my tRefi and other RAM configurations so I am going cautiously in regarding this tip.

tRefi is the interval between refresh cycles. The default is likely somewhere around 5000, which means about 5% of the time your RAM is doing nothing but refreshing. In almost all cases you can safely turn it up to like 50-60000, which means a tenth less wasted cycles.
This can become an issue if your RAM overheats, but that's at like 60-70 degrees, for which you'd need either just about no airflow whatsoever, or absurdly high voltages. I set mine to the max, 65535, on all my DDR5 systems, and it's never been an issue.

 

[LegoTugboat]

So.

If you predicted an Apple-Corsair keyboard and mouse announcement... well done.
Glacier blue and frost/white versions.

https://www.corsair.com/newsroom/press-release/corsair-unveils-exclusive-award-winning-k65-plus-wireless-keyboard-and-m75-wireless-gaming-mouse-colorways-for-mac

Glacier Blue K65/K75

The white version was briefly shown during the M4 Mac mini reveal.

 

[AmpleApricots]

They look like any cheap mechanical keyboard you can get off aliexpress. "266 hours of battery charge" is a funny way of saying "less than two weeks". Even if they actually didn't include standby time (which they probably did) at 6 hours a day that's still only one and a half months and not great for what's possible today.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

AMD UDNA “Radeon” Gaming GPUs Rumored To Enter Mass Production In Q2 2026, Sony PS6 Also Expected To Utilize Next-Gen Architecture

Looks like RDNA5 is gone, with UDNA1 in its place. Hopefully we see consumer UDNA cards getting good compute/AI capabilities and support (e.g. ROCm). This is also coming faster than I expected if true. I expected it to skip another generation.

AMD Rumored To Enter The “Smartphone Markets”, Likely Introducing APU-Like “Ryzen AI’ SoCs

Vague rumor from "Smartphone Magazine", if such an outlet even exists. We have heard of AMD working on an ARM-based "Sound Wave" APU.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

No idea how this stuff works on Windows, but I assume it does somehow because this is how most modern laptops handle d/eGPUs.

It works(or used to work) in windows, at least on intel/nvidia, should work on AMD/(AMD/Nvidia GPU). No need to do anything as long as there's an iGPU with a display cable plugged into it. The result is almost exactly like if you have an Optimus enabled laptop with perma-old drivers where every game/application you want to run isn't in the list of programs that utilizes the powerful GPU. This can probably be fixed by adding it to the list in the nvidia control panel, idk.

I'm suddenly interested in knowing what happens if you connect a stationary computer through USB-C to a dock like if it was a laptop... Wouldn't that be nice.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

AMD crafts custom EPYC CPU for Microsoft Azure with HBM3 memory – CPU with 88 Zen 4 cores and 450GB of HBM3 may be repurposed MI300C, four chips hit 7 TB/s

 

[The Ugly One]

That's a ton of bandwidth, but barely more than 1 GB per core isn't great. At least memory won't be a bottleneck.

 

[Gog & Magog]

How will Trump's proposed tarrifs affect cpu and gpu pricing? I don't understand the desire to place tarrifs on items which are not domestically produced at all.

 

[Archeops]

I’ve heard rumors that NVIDIA is ending the manufacturing (or has ended) of all RTX 40 series GPUs to focus on their RTX 50 Series ones that are dropping next year.

Also, I’m seeing some GPUs coming down for Black Friday but not by much.

How will Trump's proposed tarrifs affect cpu and gpu pricing? I don't understand the desire to place tarrifs on items which are not domestically produced at all.

From what I’ve heard that’s why people are buying out CPUs en masse.

 

[Fcret]

I’ve heard rumors that NVIDIA is ending the manufacturing (or has ended) of all RTX 40 series GPUs to focus on their RTX 50 Series ones that are dropping next year.

These aren't really rumors. 4090 and 4080 Super production ended months ago. 4070 Ti Super, 4070, and 4070 Super ended more recently. Only the 4060 is still being made, presumably because we won't see the 5060 until at least the middle of 2025.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

How will Trump's proposed tarrifs affect cpu and gpu pricing? I don't understand the desire to place tarrifs on items which are not domestically produced at all.

We don't know that they will actually happen. So if the channel is panic buying various components, and we see heavy RTX 5000 and RDNA4 launches in January/Q1, then it could backfire and lead to oversupply and lower prices, particularly in the US market. In other markets like the EU, there could be less supply since so much stuff was brought in to the US so quickly to dodge phantom tariffs.

That's the theory I'm working with for now. If you are satisfied with what you have, I would wait it out. Maybe get in on a great deal if you see one. Opinions vary on whether or not China will make a significant move against Taiwan with Trump in office again.

 

[The Ugly One]

How will Trump's proposed tarrifs affect cpu and gpu pricing? I don't understand the desire to place tarrifs on items which are not domestically produced at all.

It's not the chips, it's the PCBs, inductors, transformers, etc that are made in China. We're not slapping Taiwan with a massive tariff.

 

[Betonhaus]

How will Trump's proposed tarrifs affect cpu and gpu pricing? I don't understand the desire to place tarrifs on items which are not domestically produced at all.

if he was smart he would ensure local production of chips was in place first.

Tariffs are used to encourage local industry, but that's meaningless if there is no local industry.

 

[Fcret]

Making any move based on the vague threat of tariffs is retarded. Trump shoots from the hip but even he isn't going to be able to roll out a tariff in two weeks. Right now we don't know what his plans are, what deals have been cut with him behind the scenes, and even what kind of time table he has in mind. Hell, we don't even know if high-end computing shit is even on his radar or if he's just taking the typical boomer stance of only caring about autos and shit.

Just buy what makes sense and don't use, "Well it might be 20% more expensive in the future" to justify buying a 5090 if you can't afford one. Hell if you already have a 3000/4000-series RTX or 7000-series radeon card, you're already set until the next console gen anyway.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go prepare my selenium script to automatically preorder my 5090 the second they go up.

 

[Archeops]

I had to go over to Best Buy today to pick up some electronics my folks needed and, since I've dragging my feet in regards to going to Micro Center, I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask the employees working in the PC section some advice on GPUs.

After explaining to them the kinds of games I play they basically said that my initial assumption regarding the 4070 Super being the "right" GPU for me was correct, although they did suggest the 4070 Ti Super (which is roughly $150 more in price) would also fit my needs. They also said that waiting for the RTX 50 Series GPUs is an option but availability may be an issue.

Ultimately I think I'll go over to Micro Center to get a final verdict, I still want their opinion on how I should approach the CPU situation and see if there's a way to fix my old ASUS TUF laptop (slight update: one BIOS reinstallation and a fresh Windows install didn't fix the issue). They also have the 9800X3D CPU and that Ryzen 5 7600X3D bundle in stock.

Just buy what makes sense and don't use, "Well it might be 20% more expensive in the future" to justify buying a 5090 if you can't afford one. Hell if you already have a 3000/4000-series RTX or 7000-series radeon card, you're already set until the next console gen anyway.

That's part of the reason why I plan on getting my GPU ASAP rather than waiting for the RTX 50 series GPUs, I'm not even sure if I'll be able to find one that fits my needs come release day due to people harping about it.

 

[WULULULULU]

These aren't really rumors. 4090 and 4080 Super production ended months ago. 4070 Ti Super, 4070, and 4070 Super ended more recently. Only the 4060 is still being made, presumably because we won't see the 5060 until at least the middle of 2025.

4070 TI Supers honestly look interesting and are probably the only cards I have in interest for the near future. I love my 6750XT but having a 4070 TI Super would be great especially in the near future. Such a shame that it will be harder to purchase one and we'd be forced to get gimped out cards in return.

 

[Archeops]

4070 TI Supers honestly look interesting and are probably the only cards I have in interest for the near future. I love my 6750XT but having a 4070 TI Super would be great especially in the near future. Such a shame that it will be harder to purchase one and we'd be forced to get gimped out cards in return.

Shit, maybe I should just bite the bullet and pick up the 4070 Ti Super instead of settling for the regular 4070 Super...