InFlightConsultant

Just to bump my own thread, add some closure for future generations. The problem was Windows 10 1903 update, having major issues with the older RealTek drivers a fresh install helped that. Or it was that I needed to make sure my rear exhaust fan was pointing the right way! (I added the AIO last year, but the top exhaust was now much more limited than I realized). Or it was that my Samsung 960 EVO NVMe drive was going to x2 speeds instead of x4 after I added a PCIe wireless card last month. I was able to resolve my performance issues: 1) slave fan on the Vega 64, flipping the rear exhaust fan so all top and rear fans are exhaust, front fan is on intake duty. 2) removed my optical drive, freeing a SATA lane. changed to upper slot on my Aorus 7 utilizing the SSD heat sink where I hadn't before. SSD went from 1700MB/s to 3200MB/s. 3) complete fresh install of Windows 10 TimeSpy scores now 7666, just pulled down a 20700 in FS with a small undervolt and mem OC on the Vega. I know it's all for a couple of frames, but it makes a huge difference in IL-2 dogfighting. :)

Yes AVX offset is for CPUs. AVX is an instruction set that tends to be used in apps like Cinebench, Blender and anything else that is math/compute heavy. It stresses the CPU and creates heat. The 'AVX offset' in BIOS allows you run those instructions at a lower clock. the AVX offset is subtracted from your core multiplier. so AVX offset of 2 and a multiplier of 43x would mean that you'd be at 4.3Ghz, but if you are executing AVX instructions it will clock down to 4.1Ghz. People use it to push their CPUs faster and keep them stable during computationally intensive stuff. someone above had the suggestion that because you are gaming at 4K you are back to being CPU bound. anyway, is it smooth? I'm thinking the automatic OC has applied too much voltage perhaps...not sure.

that sounds like an OC on air. try an AIO perhaps? or push your OC and use an AVX offset to keep it stable when blending and Cinebenching. both?

What he said. Mac mini, 6 core, 64GB RAM, whatever storage you think you need internally...buy a 35" 2K 21:9 ultrawide so those timelines are nice and wide. Sell the Mac mini when an 8 core model is out or move to Mac Pro/iMac Pro when you make the money to justify it. Thunderbolt RAID for archiving and probably editing also. SSD for capture or mixing etc. If it's work for work: stability, performance more important than 'it's a cool project'. I think you are right to be concerned about the stability of a hackintosh and don't build a 2012 Mac Pro now. This is why people still buy slow 2013 Mac Pros for editing work, stability over performance. As you say, it's the right tool to run your software. The 6 core i5 Mac mini is a build box for me and it runs great.

She's socketed! OMG I hadn't looked at that yet...fun. You'll probably be fine (if it works the way I'm reading now) but if Apple ships a lower end cooler in the i3 you might run into some throttling. In my experience, they don't usually do this with iMacs. The cooling systems has typically been integrated into the logic board in the past, so if they've gone to a socketed model, it's possible they've looked for efficiencies in production and are changing cooling to match the CPUs also. I'd suspect you'll be okay. I can't help but say that this could be nuked by Apple in a firmware update so I personally would only do this if I could afford to lose the iMac. Keep in mind that iMacs use the smallest power supply they can use. In the past it's been 180W or 210W PSUs (just from memory) so I wouldn't be expecting a whole lot here. It's a fun project. You might find this handy. Keep in mind the 21.5 will very likely have a smaller PSU than the 27". https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201918

Hey there, I've got a ROG Strix Vega 64. Great performance, loud as hell. After doing Win 10 1903 things have seemed off. I've been doing some benchmarking and testing and things seem worse than they were before. I get about 10% lower performance than I used to. This is reflected in TimeSpy, scores dropping from 7800-7900 to 7200-7400. The GPU was getting hotter than hell, and so I contacted Asus and got an RMA. Temps were always hitting 75C even with the fans at 3600rpm. I had seen references to Vega 64 stock profile being 2400 rpm. I had never seen that on this card. After digging around the Asus site, I found a BIOS update from 5/29/19, installed it and things have been better. The temps and fans are much better and the card is still pumping out frames. Scores are still 7000-7200 stock, 7200-7400 with an undervolt on. I might get 7500 TimeSpy if running undervolt with 25-50% power increase. Stock, shes running between 1400-1440 Mhz and undervolted it maintains 1540Mhz, peaking around 1605Mhz. I've got p4 set to 915 mV and memory at stock on 915 mV. I'm seeing 2400rpm on the fans which is nicer on the ears. So, after getting the temps a bit more under control (60C under load, creeping up to 75C in extended sessions, 2400 rpm), testing an RTX 2060 from another box, side on and side off here's where I'm at. The Vega card is running better, but not the way it was, still 5-10% slower than it was in the past. The RTX 2060 scores around 7400-7500 on this machine, and I want my 7800-8200 scores that I was getting back! I tested the RTX in a Firestrike stress test. The RTX passes with the case closed. The Vega 64 passes now, but only if I have the case open. I've added a slave fan to the GPU and I think it's helped a lot but not enough to keep things stable. This thing obviously creates more heat than the RTX 2060 but I'm not quite sure what to do next. Options: 1) RMA the Vega, it's degrading and Asus could fix it. 2) Don't RMA the Vega. The case cooling is clearly bad and it's cheaper to order a thermal pad for the VRMs than it is to ship the Vega. 3) Buy a case with better air flow. 4) Option 1, 2, and 3 in that order. My case is an Antec P280. Proc is 8086K 5Ghz all cores on a Thermaltake Floe Riing 240mm AIO. Z370 Aorus 7, 32GB RAM. PSU Antec 850W HCP. I've got NVMe boot, 2.5 SSD for VMs, 2 x 2TB RAID-1 and a 3TB games drive. I've got a rear case fan, 2 mid chassis fans near the front, but inside the drive cage. Top middle fan is slaved to the GPU. The AIO is mounted on the top, and I think this is where my issues are stemming from. I've got some new thermal paste and some air so I'm going to clean out the rad and re-paste just to make sure it's 100%. I think the drive heat is being blown into the GPU, but not much I can do about that in this case design...also summer is happening and I'm sure ambient is higher. Would love input on this. The Vega is actually usable on balanced power, turbo actually produced a lower score than balanced for me. Undervolting is also working fine, and the clocks aren't horrible so I'm thinking the Vega is just a hot beast. My nerd instinct is to pull it all apart and fix it myself with some thermal pads but it's an expensive card and RMA *could* rule out some issue that is happening, or I could get a lesser sample in the silicon lottery.

First off, you are a mad man running USB connected RAID 0s on media archives you plan to keep. I would suggest you get a Synology NAS for about 56 different reasons. Maybe two devices if you are serious, one for backup. You can run it in SHR, install Plex, and easily meet your requirements without having to do anything. Ex-enterprise gear is loud and not good for home. Self build is great, but there's a huge delta between a single client Mac server, and a problem when your unRAID box is hosed. Consider sticking to a Mac Mini and using something like a Drobo and it's BeyondRAID format to mix and match. A permissions issue isn't a reason to change hardware, the age of the system and drives, power usage and a USB RAID-0 octopus are the reasons to change.

+1 for the Surface lineup. Surface Go is a heck of a product for the price and the SurfaceBook is expensive, but has a dedicated GPU and you can pull the screen off and there's your tablet. My real recommendation is to buy a Surface Pro, build an AMD gaming tower and keep the extra money for beer and a nice display. You may want some budget for some single board computers to muck with if you are doing electrical engineering.

First post! I apologize for the rambling that will come: Clean up the 15" MBP and see if it will run cooler, that may keep you going. Since you mentioned buying a second system, I will suggest you consider getting a Mac mini to do your iOS builds. It's a much cheaper proposition overall. I've heard the 999 machine runs at fixed clocks constantly, 4C/4T and is silent under load. This might make a perfect machine for home development. I have the 6C/6T model for building and a couple of VM testing things and it will clock up there pretty good. It's beside my full tower 8086K build and there's something to be said for a major % of the power in fraction of the size. If you want one system that does it all, you know the 15" MacBook Pro is going to do a pretty good job if it but if it gets stolen or dropped and it's your only build environment that Mac mini sitting at home will feel real smart Not sure why everyone starts talking about AMD or ARM immediately. It's way more likely that Apple gets Ice Lake before those things happen. ARM will be in the Air for a decade before it's in a MacBook Pro.