Satan_Prometheus

Thanks for both of your replies! One thing I should say, that I feel like is significant, is that I don't really care about battery life as long as it'll last 30-45 minutes, as that's most likely the longest I'll ever be able to play at a time and then I'll just put it back on the charger.
 
But what I really want is a device that is guaranteed to launch and run all of my games out-of-the-box. I know that from a performance standpoint, either one of these devices is going to be able to do it, but it seems like the Ally is just going to have fewer compatibility issues, and I think that, to me, is the single most important thing.
 
 

You just search and install it trough the Discover app (like an app store in the desktop mode) 
 
Then you can start adding your launcher accounts and it will install the games and add them to Steam for you automatically. 
 
You can also choose which Proton version to launch the game with. 
 
I use ProtonQt for the experimental features as not all games may run without them. 

As a Steam Deck user, the number of games that do not work is actually really small. However, the difficulty of getting some games to work can be pretty high. It can take a few hours of research and troubleshooting to get an obscure game going sometimes, and Linux itself has a learning curve if you have not used it before. You can run Windows as a last resort, even install it to a (high speed) MicroSD to preserve SteamOS.

The only thing Ally has going for it is the higher performance and VRR.
The bigger resolution and refresh rate is nice but you won't be able to take advantage of it most of the time anyways because the performance to drive that is just not there for most games.
 
Ally has better performance but it has way worse battery life in games that don't require that performance. Steam Deck sips power in non-demanding titles while Ally just burns trough the battery.
Steam Deck is limited to 15W with the most optimal power/performance being somewhere around 10W. The ROG Ally usually underperforms at this power level and it starts to gain up and outperform Deck at 15W+ so that means that in most demanding games it's better but it also will use more power and in less demanding games it will perform less (or the same at best) while using more power.
 
Steam Deck is more like a console (which you can turn into a PC handheld if you want since you're free to do whatever)  while Ally is just a PC handheld with all the quirks that come with it.
 
You can play GOG, Origin, Epic, etc... games on Steam Deck if you install Heroic Launcher.

Wanted to toss in a few corrections and shed some more info on how the SSD side of things works on Apple Silicon (and also T2 macs by extension) since there was a lot of info missing or glossed over or not exactly accurate. This info can explain a lot about why macs are the way they are, why people struggled with upgrades on M1 Studio/M2 Studio Macs, and such. This will be a long post with a lot of info, but it will paint a clear picture of whats *actually* happening under the hood. 

Disclosure: I do work at an Apple Authorized Service Provider as my main job and therefore get a deeper understanding of how Apple's repair system works, and I do some board level Rossmann-style repairs on the side as well for money and spare change (Apple pays Service Providers peanuts, but thats a topic for another day).

For starters, It was said in the video that Apples SSD's utilize standard NVMe in order to chat with the NAND modules. They do not use NVMe and have not since the introdiction of T2 model Macbooks. Apple uses their own proprietary standard that simply runs over PCIe, so that's one huge but super crucial difference as far non-apple module upgrades go. Source: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Mac-Studio-SSD-does-not-work-on-NVMe-top-level-ARM64-SSD-controller-in-M1-Ultra-makes-it-nearly-impossible-to-swap-out-or-add-raw-storage-modules.609363.0.html This alone is enough to hinder most upgrades, but it goes way way way deeper. The way they actually work and communicate is a lot more complicated than you think, which you can guess based on the size of this post. 
 
Now for some Apple Storage Lore:

When the 2010 MacBook Air launched, it came with a proprietary SSD connecter that had a 6+12 pin layout. Even though the connecter is proprietary, it uses standard SATA AHCI, making it very easy to upgrade years down the line to mSata when it finally became abundant. The reason for this proprietary connecter is actually very simple, at the time when the MacBook was being developed, mSata was *just* announced in Mid 2009, which was already too late as far as the prototyping stages go, Plus at the time basically nothing utilized that standard. they used this specific connecter until 2012, when they redesigned it with a new 7+17 pin layout. it's still use the exact same signalling so I'm not sure why it was changed specifically, but it was also trivially easy to adapt to mSata and later Sata m.2. disconnect stayed until mid 2013 when Apple adopted a new 12+16 pin connector, which switch over to PCIe AHCI. This connector was in use from 2013-2019. even though at this time M.2 was announced, it wouldn't see actual usage until around 2015 in laptops so once again Apple simply designed its own standard because nothing viable and proven existed at the prototyping stages. Eventually with the release of high sierra, all those 12+16 pin drives were upgraded to utilize PCIe NVMe in order to facilitate the usage of the newly release APFS FIle System, which also was officially released with High Sierra. While upgrades of these 12+16 drives are possible, there are a lot of quirks with adaptor reliability, kernel panic issues after sleep/hibernate on 2013/2014 due to unfixed firmware bug, as well as a variety of wacky thermal and power draw differences between different brands of m.2 NVMe drives. Pain in the ass, but not the end of the world as far as drive stuff goes.

An example on a 2015/2017 Macbook Air with an M.2 adapter and Sabrent M.2 SSD. 

Moving on to 2016/2017, which is where things start to get interesting. There was 2 types of Machines released around this era, the Touchbar and Non-Touchbar variants. The more interesting one is the Touchbar, which we will get to in a bit. The Non-Touchbar introdiced a new connector type for SSD's yet again, a 22+34 Pin connector which sort of vaguely resembled a miniature PCIe slot in a way, but functionally was the same thing as the previous 2015 model. More than likely the SSD form factor was changed to physically fit into the design of these new logic board shapes, though this is me speculating. Ultimately its a minor note anyways because it was short lived and the Touchbar Mac is way more unique. The Touchbar Macbooks is where the SSD soldering stuff *truly* started. Yes I know 12" exists but that was for actual miniaturization reasons anyways given the logic board is smaller than a phone. Touchbar Mac intriduced the T1 chip, which was a small Coprocessor based on an Apple Watch S2 SIP. It was responsible for controlling Touchbar, handling Apple Pay, storing TouchID Data in Secure Enclave (SEP). Here is a block diagram of a T1 equipped Mac.


Take note of the SPI ROM chip with the Intel UEFI stuff, this will be important later. SPI ROM chip is functionally the equivalent of your computers Bios/UEFI, but with 0 user controls. It stores info like machines serial #, Intel ME Region stuff, Trusted Execution stuff, Machine Identifiers, and other such info that is needed for a Mac to actually Chime (post) and turn on. In this scenario, dead SSD wont wipe out anything SPI ROM related (foreshadowing!). This Block diagram also explains why the 2016/2017 Touchbar Macs are the only ones that had the Lifeboat connector on them, which is a connector used by Apple Techs like myself to do data recovery if the Logic Board is dead. It connects to a little black box that effectively connects directly to the PCie x4 link and acts as a PCIe to USB-c adapter and looks like this. 
On these models, it *is* possible to replace the SSD if it dies, but you effectively need to remove the NAND modules, controller, as well as a few other components and add a specialty PCB that solders directly to the PCIe X4 solder pads so you can utilize any tiny M.2 NVMe SSD's. 

In Late 2017, Apple introdiced the iMac Pro with the T2 Chip, and the T2 equipped Macbooks and Mac Mini. This is where the fun *really* starts, so pay attention. T2 macs are going to lay the basis for Apple Silicon macs, so all of this needs to be explained.  Lets start with a block diagram of a T2 Mac:

We can see a lot of new changes here, all of which I will explain. The T2 chip, which is basically a customized Apple A10 CPU, controls all sorts of things like TouchID, Touchbar, Audio, Facetime Camera, Intel eSPI, Power Managmement, etc. Its so complex that it runs its own OS called BridgeOS, which is basically a really scaled down version of iOS. Much like an iphone, it also has DFU mode (Device Firmware Upgrade, this will matter later) which allows it to be restored using another Mac. Notice the mising SPI ROM chip? we will get to the UEFI side of things, but basically the T2 chip boots from the chip that stores iBoot (apples own bootstraping stuff) which then boots BridgeOS. The whole operation of T2 chip is basically that of an iphone thats been frankensteined into the Logic Board of an Intel Mac, Its like 2 computers running at once.  On top of all this, the NAND used on T2 models onwards is...... very very different from literally anything else on the market. They are NOT standard NANDs like what youll find on a normal M.2 drive. The only other product that uses similar NAND are other Apple devices like iPhones and iPads.

Important notes about these NANDs:
- Each NAND is made by either Samsung, SK Hynix, Kioxia, Sandisk, and each one of them has a custom ARM-based controller thats also runs its own miniature OS as firmware, and acts as an intermediary between the PCIe x1 connection and T2 chip as wear as other NAND management stuff like wear levelling.
- These NANDs are CUSTOM DESIGNS! They CANNOT be found anywhere outside of Apple devices, and they CANNOT be purchased (apart from Mac PRo SSSD kit, more on that later)
- Each Logic Board has a pre-defined number of NANDs on them based on the chosen storage option from factory, and all the NANDS are paired together at a firmware level, meaning each set of NANDs behave as a singular unit after firmware is installed.
- These firmwares, which are specific to not only the NAND OEM, but also the NAND's capacity, cannot be interchanged with each other. Lets say your mac has 2x Kioxia 128gb (256gb Mac). We will call this firmware K128. If you wanted to swap one NAND with Samsung 128, which we will call firmware S128, They will not work because K128 and S128 are not shared. Same applies for every configuration (2x128gb, 4x64gb, 4x128gb, 6x 180gb, 4x1TB, etc). Theres more complications with swapping in 2x S128 NANDs which youll see later on...
- These firmwares also carry important data like TBW stats, power on time, SMART, etc. 
- These NANDs striped all data across them, similar to Raid0 (though its not *actually* Raid). This includes OS data, User Data, UEFI (below), and other stuff
- In the diagram above, notice how the intel UEFI is missing? Well, thats because it is split across all NANDs! They moved it from its little SPI ROM chip onto each NAND. This has a very fun effect where any dead NAND chip = machine wont even power on, because part of the critical Intel UEFI is litearlly missing. This UEFI striping will matter later as well. 

If you find and poke through schematics for these T2 Macs, you'll find sections similar to this:
This is from a 15" 2018 model Macbook Pro.

Dont be overwhelmed by the Schematic stuff! It's not super difficult. The columns indicate Internal Part Number, Part Quantity, part Info, Location on Logic Board, Part Importance to rest of system, and BOM (bill of materials) Group, which is just to figure out part costs and sourcing logistics and such for other internal teams. The prefix for each NAND stands for the type of controller and firmware running on chip (S3E, S4E, S5E) and suffix for each NAND (TS,WD,HY,SM) just stands for Toshiba,Western Digital, Hynix, and Samsung respectively. Also, notice the wacky capacities for some of them? 85GB chips, 170GB chips, etc. There's all sorts of these for various models. Now, lets refer to the total number of occupied chips as FLP (Functional Landing Pad). The S4E_1TB_WD option would be 6x WD 170GB NANDs paired together, giving us an FLP of 6 on that specific config. There's 2 other terms that will matter, NFLP and TLP. NFLP is Non-Functional Landing Pads, which are just locations on the board that are unoccupied and are missing their respective components. TLP refers to the Total Landing Pads, or the total number of spots NANDs could theoretically go. TLP is calculated by adding FLP's and NFLP's. Since the 2018 15" model has 8 TLP's, it means that depending on which storage config you have, you get either 4,6, or 8 NANDs total, with the remaining unoccupied Landing Pads becoming NFLP's. 

Here is a chart of Landing Pads for each T2 unit: 

But before we can do anything, there are also a few rules to these T2 Mac NAND swaps:
1: 128gb/256gb/512gb T2 Macs cannot exceed 512gb of storage. This is because the T2 SoC only has 1GB onboard Mem. 1TB models and up have 2GB Mem T2 variant. T2 itself also cannot be swapped for another for a multitude of other reasons. You're stuck, sorry. 
2: All NANDs must be moved as a set. You cannot mix and match NAND quantities, NAND brands, or NAND Capacities.
3: Macs will Larger FLP's can swap in NAND sets that come from Same or Lower FLP quantities, but cannot accept NAND sets from higher FLP configurations. Ex. Mac Mini with 4x FLP's can accept NAND sets from other macs with 4/3/2 FLP's, but cannot accept NAND sets from 6/8 FLP units, while Mac Pro 2019 can accept NAND sets from all other models provided other rules are followed.
4: NAND's must fill each Ports Landing Pads in order(Landings 0,1,2,3 on port 00. Refer to Block Diagram above!), and NAND sets must fill all landings on the 00 port in the block diagram before the 01 ports landing pads can be used at all. Example, swapping over 3 FLP's must be put into landings 0,1,2 on port 00 to work, 0+2+3 will not work, and putting those 3 FLP's into 01 port also will not work, they must go into port 00 since 00 isnt saturated. Swapping over 6 FLP's will fill port 00's 0,1,2,3 landings, as well as port 01's 0,1 landings. 

So, we can finally get into how some repairs are done. Basically, you have 3 choices: Used Donor NANDs, Used Donor Programmed NANDs, New Donor NANDs. 
- Used NANDs are basically pulled off of a board that has a compatible FLP number, and they are moved into each landing on each port accordingly (port00 nand0 to port00 nand0 on second board, port 00 nand1 to port00 nand1, etc). Upside is that it retains all data about NAND (TBW's, SMART, power-on hours, etc), downside is its used NANDs which means possibility of more worn down NANDs is there
- Used Programmed NANDs are basically same-size same-brand NANDs pulled from multiple boards, and using special programming jig, are flashed with pulled NAND firmware from another set of NANDs of same size and OEM, and each firmware is also paired in a striped manner (mystery NAND0 flashed with FW from good NAND0 firmware image, mystery NAND1 flashed with pulled FW  image from good NAND1, etc). Upside is that sourcing nands is easier and you can "create" a paired set, downside is that all the old firmware, including TBW and SMART and power-on and such is wiped and replaced with Fake data, so you have no clue how *actually* worn down your NANDs are. Pray they arent awful and dont die soon!
- New Donor NANDs is basically buying the Mac Pro SSD Upgrade kit, and pulling the NANDs onto the target board. Those Kits are pretty much always 8 FLP's meaning it will only wiork with other macs that support 8 FLP's (15"/16"/MacPro2019/iMacPro). 13" models cannot utilize this because of rule 3 above.

Assuming you follow all the rules above and successfully do the repair, now you just have to put the Target Mac into DFU mode, and restore it using Apple Configurator 2. On T2 models, this will wipe out all the data on NANDs and reinstall fresh Intel UEFI firmware across all FLP's, as well as installing the most current version of BridgeOS which allows T2 to work. After this, your machine boots up, goes into Internet Recovery mode in oder to Activate itself and fetch its Activation Profile (which sets things like iCloud Lock statis, if its under Device Enrollment Program which is remote management for enterprise clients, Wifi Region, and other parameters for that model). After this, assuming its not iCloud locked, just reinstall MacOS! And NOW you have working mac, unless another NAND goes of course, in which case you repeat process. 

Now, FINALLY onto Apple SIlicon. Luckily this section is short because Apple Silicon obeys almost all the rules and limits and quirks above, but with a few notable differences:
- Rule 1 of NAND swaps does not exist. The other rules apply for NAND swaps still. 
- Rule 4 becomes very important specifically for upgrades on the Mac Studio, and the recently released Apple Silicon Mac Pro. the reason being that port 00 and port 01 are literal physical port for the NAND carrier cards, and their physical placement inside the machine matters for this reason. This was never specifically documented on The Intel Mac Pro and iMac Pro specifically because both of those shipped with port 00 and port 01 populated with storage carrier cards, meaning that because of the Nando swap rules above, you can technically utilize basically every other capacity after DFU restore. This is why YouTuber and publications were having so much trouble getting consistently working upgrades on Mac Studio, or even storage swaps in general. They kept putting stuff in the wrong ports, or they purchased a studio that had all of Port01 set as NFLP from the factory (2TB and below iirc)! If you want to utilize both, you basically have to invest into the 4 TB model and up, otherwise you will be limited to single slot on the M1 max/M1 ultra Mac studio. More than likely the exact same stuff applies to The M2 version of the studio, as well as the recently released M2 Mac Pro. 
- T2 NANDs CANNOT be utilized on Apple Silicon due to electrical reasons! On Apple SIlicon macs, the NAND chips got power efficiency improvements. The old T2 chips operate at 2.7volts while the APple SIlicon NANDs operate on 2.5v, meaning they arent intercompatible. You can only source them from other Apple Silicon models
- Because Apple Silicon doesnt have anything Intel, all the striped Intel UEFI nonsense is gone, but instead replaced with iBoot for Apple Silicon bootstrapping. DFU restore basically reinstalls iBoot as well as Mac OS APFS Snapshot at the same time, similar to iPhone DFU restore. 

Here's a block diagram for reference:

So yeah, this is why we cannot realistically expect Apple Silicon and T2 macs to be upgradable in any form, even with consumer NANDs, and also some of the decisions surrounding pricing, part choices, why upgrading the removable storage models is a pain. This super-custom design is like a huge factor with regards to part pricing, since RnD on stuff like this is not exactly cheap, even for Apple. Not saying I condone this level of ridiculousness, but I can see why standard consumer, or even enterprise grade SSD pricing likely doesnt scale here. 

Now' I'll leave you with this nugget. The Schematic for the M1Max 16" Macbook Pro references NAND sockets, meaning that during prototyping, they were routinely swapping NANDs in and out. With that said, these types sockets are not small at all and require extra hardware to basically pressure fit the NAND to the Board, so the odds of this being a "They Couldve added tiny sockets!!!" scenario is extremely small and likely unrealistic.

 
Hopefully this adds a lot of important context about how it works on Apples side of things, which is.... literally like nothing else out there.
 
Huge shoutout to iBoff RCC on Youtube for creating this amazing 1 hour long video explaining all of the above in a visual sense! I used a lot of screenshots from their video because honestly its way easier than creating my own and they did a fantastic job explaining a lot of details anyways. I added a bunch of Apple Service Provider context as well as my own screenshots from my own info stash as well. 

And of course, Daily reminder to run Time Machine backups routinely!
 
 
 
 

I think my cable management is bad and then I watch these videos and I realize that - yeah, it actually is bad, but there are some people who are way worse.

78C is completely fine. You can probably adjust the fan curve so that the fan stays off until it hits 60C so that idle stays mostly silent, and maybe even slightly adjust the max fan speed down slightly as you actually have a little bit of headroom. You could get away with having the GPU running at 80C and slightly lower fan speed.

No, the reddit format sucks ass because of the upvote/downvote system.
 
Upvotes/downvotes really hurt discussion because they allow a slight majority to make it seem like they are an overwhelming majority by manipulating the votes to send any dissenting views to the bottom. That's why nearly every sub on reddit ends up becoming an echo chamber for one particular point of view.

If there is no content moderation, there is no content. 
 
I think you aren't putting the dots together. 
 
They are both part of the structure that makes reddit work. You really seem to devalue mods, and not understand that without them Reddit wouldn't work. 
 
Your comment that answers a question has to be on a modded page, if not that page could be riddled with illegal content, and stuff that will get the site taken down and it's users investigated or worse. They also stop people from clogging up pages of Reddit with nonsense, spam, and garbage that makes it hard to find what you need. Mods also keep fake/bad advice from being shared, and basically keep people from blowing themselves up.
 
You seem to think that a body works without an immune system, or that a stomach works without a vomit reflex. The point isn't that Mods' make money, it's that they prevent the destruction of the site the content is placed on. No content equals no ads and no ads means no money. Get it?
 
Let me repeat because you seem to be pretty stubborn and don't like to read people's posts...
 
You can hate or not like mods, but without them... there is no content.
 
It's not just reddit. It's any large website. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. With no moderation they just become useless places for garbage.

Here is a nice rundown for who people who legitimately want to know why so many people have jumped on board with this protest, and aren't just wanting to call people whiners and make this a culture war issue. It's an interview with the 3rd party developer of the Apollo app. 
 
 
In it's most simple terms, Reddit built it's success and name recognition from it's users, moderators and yes third party applications. Now that it wants to become a publicly traded company they are looking for revenue streams and they are starting by forcing out 3rd party apps, and viewing them as nuisances because the number crunchers want an entirely unrealistic return on the massive amounts of data on Reddit servers. 
 
Mods' keep the content from spiraling into spam, illegal content, and chaos. 
Users add information, build participation, increase engagement, and simply make reddit function through add revenue and subscriptions. 
3rd party apps help to drive page views, help share and spread content, and streamline reddit usage for end users. 
 
Those are three parts of the reddit structure. The admin and ownership are the last and most important element. But they are completely dependent on the first two to keep the site running and profitable. 
 
It's someone with an old model of how the world should work applying it to a modern mega site. Drive out anyone from the eco system that isn't making you enough money according to an arbitrary goal... then make your app more expensive and add driven so you can charge subscription fees, in the meantime hope none of the free workers who make your site work notice, and that users don't really care about the third party developers.
 
There are people who think that is a good thing, who really don't care who gets hurt as long as they get what they want. If that's you, that's your choice. Other people don't think that way. Those are the people protesting and leaving reddit. It's still a free country, you can think about those people whatever you want. Just know that someday you might be in their position, feeling that something you're passionate about is being ruined, destroyed, and stripped for parts so that a far off owner can make an extra 2%. When that day comes, perhaps you might understand why mods and redditors are doing what they are doing. So today they are spoiled soyboy woke children... tomorrow it might be you. Is it taking a club to the head? No. But are they making a sacrifice? Yes. Just as you deciding not to buy and play a new game, or boycotting a brand of headphones because of poor products.
 
I often wonder how many people saw folks protesting for a 5 day work week, or time off, or some basic thing we take for granted now and thought... "what are they complaining about? bunch of woke whiners!" What we fight for or sacrifice today, and what we won't fight for and sacrifice have an affect on the future and what is acceptable. Today it's 3rd party developers. Tomorrow it's charging you for just logging in, or forcing you to give up even more privacy so they can sell it to data miners. It's all on the table now, and if people do nothing eventually it will make an internet that is not only paywalled, but sanitized and monetized to the point of uselessness. 

Their API is going to block the usage of 3rd party apps and bots/moderation tools, so this will worsen the experience for many users.
The whole point of those API changes is to make reddit more profitable for a possible IPO. If they do something that makes them lose users, which will directly impact on their AD revenue, then the chances of a successful IPO decrease.
Much like any strike or protest, it does make it hard for some other users. If it didn't cause any impact, it wouldn't mean much.
The API changes also inconvenience many users, that's the point.
If nothing changes after those 48 hours, it does show that reddit doesn't care, and many users (specially mods) will leave the platform, making it so that the quality of many subreddits will decrease and more users will leave the platform.

In theory yes, the 1650 will run on that motherboard because it has a pci-e x16 slot.
 
In practice, there's a slim possibility it won't work, if the video card's firmware uses UEFI and the motherboard bios doesn't have UEFI extensions / isn't UEFI aware.
For example some ancient Dell machines (2nd-3rd generation Intel systems) had bioses without any UEFI support,and cards like RX 5xx series from AMD would not work on them - nVidia had video cards that didn't need  UEFI up to  GTX 1060 if my memory is correct. Not sure about GTX 1650, it was released after 10xx series so it's possible it needs UEFI aware bioses.
 
GTX 1650 consumes  little power, under 100w ... you can use a 2xmolex= > pci-e 6/8 pin adapter cable if the psu doesn't have connectors.
 
edit ... look in the bios of that board and see if there's any mention of UEFI at all.
If not, look for an option that says "BIOS CSM Support"  - CSM is compatibility support module, it's a feature of UEFI bioses that enable better compatibility with some older hardware, tricks that hardware into thinking it's a classic bios.
So if the bios has such option, that means it has UEFI so the newer video cards should work with it.

No idea, sorry. My presumption is that if it's only a problem in this game in particular, then it's a problem with the game itself.

Yeah it amazes me how laggy Nvidia control panel is

Without a frame rate limit of any kind, you will have tearing, which looks awful. I can't see any reason to NOT limit your frame rate unless you're playing competitive multiplayer games and you're trying to get any kind of input latency advantage you can.

i prefer to put it like this:
 
on topic:
iffy power connector, perhaps? i've fixed computers by tightening the pins on ATX power plugs before...

Yes, it can increase boot time even significantly depending on what you have plugged in. It's typically not a concern on a consumer desktop because you're being limited by the max amount of PCIe lanes but on workstations and servers it can be significant.

Tier A blue, it's the VRM of the B550 Strix boards onto TUF colors.

Nah, the 10105 is still plenty for an entry-level gaming build, especially if OP pairs it with a B560 board and fast RAM, and it won't hold back the 1650 Super:
 
(The 10105 is just a 10100 with a slight clock boost).
 

With Zen 1 I think a lot of the issues were memory compatibility related. With my 1700 I made sure to buy sticks that were on the QVL and I only went for DDR4-2933 CL15, and within those parameters I had no issues whatsoever. That said, 1st gen Ryzen was definitely too sensitive to what sort of memory in particular it was running.

With Zen 1 I think a lot of the issues were memory compatibility related. With my 1700 I made sure to buy sticks that were on the QVL and I only went for DDR4-2933 CL15, and within those parameters I had no issues whatsoever. That said, 1st gen Ryzen was definitely too sensitive to what sort of memory in particular it was running.

Calling 1440p "2K"

I can't speak for AMD GPUs, but I've never had any meaningful issues with any of my Ryzen systems (1700 and 3600 on X370, and 5600X on X570), except for problems that were obviously my own fault (I dropped my 3600 and bent a pin, leading to memory stability issues, hence needing to buy the 5600X - which has been 100% stable since I installed it). 
 
I had way more crashing and stability issues with my last pre-Ryzen Intel system, running an i5-3470. So I don't buy into this idea that AMD CPUs are inherently more crash-prone.
 
 

Brand loyalty is a weird thing!
 
But personally @Mister Woof I would just sell the board, unless your wife is really complaining about poor CPU performance. It probably isn't worth the time and effort to swap out the system.

Brand loyalty is a weird thing!
 
But personally @Mister Woof I would just sell the board, unless your wife is really complaining about poor CPU performance. It probably isn't worth the time and effort to swap out the system.