Alcatraz1015

Hello, I’m looking for recommendations for a replacement cooler for my RTX 2080 Founder’s Edition. I’ve done a little research, for example EVGA sells their Hybrid cooling solution but sadly is not compatible with the reference cards per the notation on the store page. I’m not looking to get into an open loop solution. An AIO or superior heat sink design is what I’m after should they even exist.

The best CPU strictly for playing games right now is the 9700K. It’s rare that the 9900K outperforms the 9700K. More often than not they are equal because games generally don’t use the extra 8 threads the 9900K has over the 9700K. A few months ago I purchased a 9700K over a 9900K because not only did I see almost no variance in performance per multiple benchmarks done by GamersNexus on YouTube (check that channel out if you don’t already), but the 9700K is usually $180-$200 cheaper too. I wasn’t willing to pay that much extra for what was on rare occasion an extra couple fps here and there. Jay from JayzTwoCents and Steve from GamersNexus recently did a video together where they made a definitive recommendation for a processor strictly for playing games and it was the 9700K. I recommend saving the cash and going with a 9700K - I picked up mine from Best Buy for $309. Plus, if you aren’t shy about overclocking then you can get the 9700K to outperform a 9900K. I overclocked mine to 5.1Ghz on all 8 cores. It’s been a beast. If you’re planning on streaming your game then everything I’ve said is pretty meh for you. I’m not sure which would handle streaming better but price to performance my gut tells me the 3900X. I hope this helps!

Nice, I almost had it. Thanks for your input. I set AVX offset to 0. And ran Prime 95 for over and hour and was still solid.

Hopefully the image below is decent... I worked on getting my 9700K stable at 5Ghz 1.37V on all cores. Ran Prime95 v26.6 for 1 hr 1 min with 0 errors and 0 warnings. Temps hung out at high 80's max. What I'm seeing happen during gameplay is that my various cores are bouncing between 4.6 - 5Ghz repeatedly which is what's creating the "rainbow" effect in my below screen. Voltage was dropping from ~1.370 to ~1.34X. Fyi, the spots in the image below where this isn't happening was CPU down time between loading up a couple of different games. My AVX offset is set to -4 so I'm assuming that's what's causing it (-4 x 100 = -400Mhz)? I don't fully understand AVX or how it works so if this is causing it then any knowledge you can provide will be welcome. I also have my CPU load line calibration set to level 6... which I'm sure is a factor as well for my not so consistent 5Ghz OC... I don't know that I fully grasp LLC either but I believe it is what's responsible for dropping the voltage? So, maybe if I return LLC back to lower levels or auto it will fix my issue? I would test it but I'm tired and messed with it all day. Any additional OC tips would be great too. Thank you. Happy New Year.

I’m interested to see what some things are that can be safely disabled that constantly run/run on start up in the background of Windows 10. I'm not so much talking about stuff in Task Manager > Startup but more stuff in the services.msc area or something like that. Just anything that can be permanently disabled while still allowing normal use of the system in order to squeeze out all the performance possible from your rig. Anyone have some input? I disabled Windows Management Instrumentation because it would randomly spike cpu usage and temps in my system.

Cool deal. I think I’ll just let XMP do it’s thing and call it good. I appreciate all of your help. It was all very valuable info and I’ll use it going forward.

Nice. Yeah I know I saw options to set up several profiles. I’ll take advantage of that. Do you have any experience with overclocking RAM? I have a nice kit. I use XMP. I don’t really want to mess with it because I only have passive cooling for it but in the off chance it’s fine to try for an extra 100Mhz or something without worry... then I’d like to take advantage of it.

I’ve researched it a little, but if worse comes to worst and I need to reset CMOS, hopefully my RAID array (which I have Windows installed on) will be fine. Seems like I just need to re-enable the raid controller after a CMOS reset and it should detect my array.

lol @ 3.36v Yeah so my first test was R15 which like you said lasts for just a minute maybe. I did run it three times... but then I peg it with PassMark’s CPU bench which lasts about 8-10 minutes maybe? But then I was following that up with a few game benches (which are obviously more GPU oriented...) So yeah didn’t peg it for an hour for sure. I was planning on purchasing AIDA 64 just for that purpose. So now I’ll for sure do that. Educate me on CMOS please? Is resetting CMOS only necessary if I experience instability in an OC attempt or must that be done each new attempt regardless? Because I definitely just plugged in 5.1Ghz @ 1.36v and lowered voltage from there in between each test without touch CMOS.

I have my new 9700K successfully OC’d to 5.1Ghz @ 1.31v (it’s mated with an MSI Z390 Edge mobo and a Noctua NH-U12A tower cooler). During Cinebench R15 highest temp was a quick spike to 79c on one core (scored 1666). During PassMark CPU tests hit 80c, again a quick spike on one core (scored around 20,300). I have a Corsair H115i Pro 280mm AIO on the way. I know it’ll shave some Celsius on the top end. This was my first OC. What I’m curious about is 5.2Ghz or higher. Hitting 5.1 @ 1.31 seemed like a pretty solid feat compared to other 5.1 results I’ve seen. What’s the worst that could happen if I tried for say 5.2Ghz @ ~1.36v? Any OC knowledge will be welcome.

Hello, let me go ahead and let you know this is a question pertaining to my gaming PC build, not a server. I just figured the best knowledge base would be located here. This weekend I will be configuring my build with two M.2 NVMe 500GB SSDs in RAID 0 for that sweet, sweet performance. This is my first RAID configuration and I realized I have no idea what Strip Size is pertaining to nor do I know what size will allow me to take full advantage of the read/write speeds of my two Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe drivers. Can someone clue me in, please? I would appreciate the assistance! i7-9700K RTX 2080 FE 32GB DDR4 @ 3.3Ghz MSI MPG Edge AC mobo

I appreciated your input. That’s why the 9900K is happening. Thanks again.

So here’s what I ended up doing, I returned the 3700X and mobo and swapped to a 9900K and the Z390 chipset version of my current MSI mobo. I offered my 7700K and mobo to a buddy of mine for $275. Everything considered, I will have basically spent less than $30 and upgraded to a 9900K - which I know beyond a doubt is a massive upgrade over my 7700K.

Yeah, I’m thinking with your and another’s feedback, I’ll probably just maintain my 7700K for a while yet. The 3700X and mobo are easily returnable. I saw a good deal and I jumped first just in case but it seems like it’s not really worth the time to have to completely reboot my system for what will mostly be minimal gains for the immediate future. I appreciate the input.

Sure, I have an RTX 2080 FE OC’d to almost 2.2Ghz and memory clocked to 8Ghz. And my display is a 24” Dell... something... 2560x1440 1ms 165hz.

Fantastic. Thank you very much for the response and data.

Hello, So, I’m looking for a little verification and validation. This will be my first AMD CPU. I purchased a 3700X a few days ago due to a decent deal I got. I’ve had a 7700K since June 2017. It has served me well but I figured with newer games having more thread support I might as well get an 8C/16T processor. I have an ASUS TUF Gaming X570-Plus mobo on the way too, fyi. My concerns are: did I pull the trigger too soon? Was there even a point in me going ahead a swapping from 4C/8T to 8/16 right now? Are my thoughts of preparing for the future delusions? By the by, I understand AMD’s CPUs are made to run faster with higher clocked RAM. So, with that, know that I have a 32GB kit (8x4) of Corsair Vengeance LPX @ 3333Mhz. Should I consider a higher clocked kit?