J7SC_Orion

...with your X570 Aqua cooling setup ?! All you need now is to figure out the new GPU(s)...if the 6900 XT 'keeps it admittedly early and sparsely-documented' promise, you might end up with an all-AMD setup...

Good call ! This is one heck of a category buster CPU ! ...I normally look only at HEDT only re. dual use cases here, but the 5950X with 32 GB or 64 GB is a serious workstation-class performer... ...also, just makes my head spin when these latest improvements make it to a 32C or 64C Threadripper

Ahem, wow !

I thought our w-cooled 7990s were the longest / heaviest cards ever - until the 2080 Tis arrived in December '18. BTW, the deposits in the 7990 w-block came after cleaning solution was used to loosen years and years of crud... We also had 2x Arex3 provided by a rep for 'compute evaluation' for a few days...great fun until PSU OCP wanted to permanently move into the office ?

...tx. I should rerun 'Wildlife' though as I used the milder oc settings for dual cards ('Wildlife' is a single-card only thing, at least so far). As to AMD's DRX, I can hardly wait. Hopefully, the 6900 XT kicks some proverbial, ahem, DXR ! ...also, I recall the 7990s AMD used to have (dual GPU / single PCB). Who knows, may be a 6990 XT dual-GPU halo card may be lurking somewhere (wishful thinking department)...4x 8pin PCIe power, anyone ? ?

...currently, MS FS 2020 is on DX11. But they have confirmed a 'future' engine upgrade to DX12 Ultimate, which includes ray tracing. I can hardly wait - though in fairness, with the right video settings, MS FS 2020 is already pretty impressive visually with DX11. Of course, having Vulkan enabled would also be very pleasing (more paths to mGPU and all), but I somehow doubt that Microsoft is rushing to do that ?

Nice benchmarks to look at ! ...just downloaded the new DXR and ran it 'stock' and then 'oc'ed (see pics), then ran the new 'Wildlife'. Finally, I ran PortRoyal for the first time in months and gained a few spots in HoF...new drivers and cold weather ?

echo ban

Well, it's been 3 month to the day now now since I rebuilt the AIO and have it in daily use... As another quick update, I am glad to report that there is nothing to report...absolutely no change in idle or load temps (ambient 23 C for pic below)...no pump noise, no gurgling sounds ?

...having used both QuadFire and QuadSLI over the years, I guess my pain / sensitivity level to driver issues by either AMD or NVidia has been seriously numbed..."I'm not prejudice, I hate them all' ? However, It do think that AMD's recent management leadership in several market segments is a very good sign, bolstered by their succe$$. Never mind the control re. leaks and all that for the Ryzen 5K and Navi 6K, I am certain that AMD will pay a lot of attention / commit more resources for the driver team than in the past as they are aware of the criticisms. There might very well be some early driver issues with the upcoming GPU releases, but I do think that they will be addressed rather quickly - we'll see. I am still not decided on RTX 3090 or AMD 6900 XT. This is made even more complicated by the announcement that most RTX 3K will switch to 7nm TSMC from 8nm Samsung - but at least we now have a genuine choice in the upper market segment....feels good !

Further to the above, I just did some low-flying about (as always, 4K ultra / extra dense) over Metro Vancouver before landing at YVR. Pic 1 shows system RAM 'before and after' (plus GPU VRAM *usage* at bottom right for that flight). BTW, main system RAM is currently 32 GB (I run w/ 64 GB, ie when using NUMA instead of UMA). Also, may be the latest patch (typical: 'Microsoft-Mandatory') added humans running around at airports ? Or was it there before ? Anyway, body language and movement of that chap on the tarmac were extremely impressive !

banned coz, may be you didn't just forget your pw...

....System RAM or VRAM usage ? In any case, both depend on the scene complexity et al. For VRAM, with '4K / Ultra' and then some additional extras such as heavy car and boat traffic (density settings beyond 'ultra'), it can exceed a '11 GB VRAM. Then again, MSI AB *VRAM usage* may still be a form of reservation rather than actual usage. What's interesting about the first pic below is the increase in VRAM in the 2nd and 3rd column - it was one flight session but across drastically different scene complexities. Starting out high up over mountains, then a low flight over a large metro area (which sucks back the most). Finally, with GDDR6X (RTX 3K) and INFINITY Cache (AMD Navi 6K), it might not be a straight apples-to-apples comparison with GDDR6. Still, I prefer my oc'ed 11 GB VRAM on the cards ? System RAM usage, according to the Developer Tool setting (top right in 2nd pic) in MSFS 2020 is between 7 GB and 11 GB during play (a bit more during loading). That however excludes all other system RAM uses (WIndows 10 !!) and is actual use just for MS FS 2020 at that moment, so even 16 GB system RAM might be a bit tight. I'll do some more flights with various monitoring software open soon. EDIT - pls see 'part deux' below

Soundgarden ! It's been a while... Also, this somehow fits the current 'human malware'

I recently drove 1,300 km in a single day - mind you not on the Autobahn, but the Trans Canada Highway ?

Here is a quick collage of power consumption and max settings for MS FS 2020 I use w/ dual 2080 Tis. The GPUs can go up to 380 W each but here I'm keeping them below 320 W via PL...GPU utilization in NVL / CFR is very good. On the CPU front, the 2950X Threadripper is a nice chip re. vCore and IMC and here it is down-clocked just a bit (to 4275 MHz) to keep it below 200 W for the package in this app. With peripherals (including 20x 120mm fans and 4x D5 pumps), the whole system will be just under 1000 W with these settings. BTW, the pic in the back is from a glacier landing at 8000+ feet...part of a future pictorial here. Glacier flying (never mind landing) is not easy, given all the thermals etc. ...and some quick tooling around in my neighborhood at dusk, buzzing some neighbors and commuters ?

Haha ! I actually do listen to it in the background as I am trying to do some highly focused work on my computer while there are three (!) construction sites very nearby right now ? - 10 hrs of that kind of music and with no human voice is just right to 'cover unwanted noises up ! Here is an under-11 min classical one with audio visual pleasantries for compensation...

...Hit the nail right on the head. Never mind PCI 4, the other AMD-environment specific features of the 6900 XT look very interesting indeed. It's going to be tricky though for some reviewers to do an apples-to-apples benchmark comparison if they don't test with a Ryzen 5K and thus have all those features enabled.

...some AMD slides underscore that INFINITY cache *extends* the bus bandwidth...but pinches of salt until full real-world testing is available...

....6900 XT definitely looks very interesting in the crystal ball of a future build... AnandTech also has a decent article on the RDNA2, including on the INFINITY Cache (!) > here

I would still clean the PCB but in any case, I have used these universal-GPU w-coolers on various (by now older) GPUs, including the 980 Cls. They work great. Just add 120 mm fan for the VRM and VRAM, and you're done.

? ...but wait a few years..with more powerful CPU/GPU combos, petabyte /s networks and a ring of satellites around the earth feeding real-time imagery to MS FS 3000 all going into AI adding your plane, you might see yourself waving at you. What's a bit spooky even now is seeing a few planes in the (real) sky coming in for landing at an airport about 25 km away, and actually seeing them also on the GPS map in MS FS 2020 ! ______________________ ...and another satisfying day at the office ? ...Fraser Valley (Hope airport) to Vancouver flight at dusk (4K png converted to jpg...best viewing with 'open in new tab')

...I happen to have 2x GTX 980 Classified running in one of my retro machines. Even with XOC bios and on stock air cooler, they are at about 57 C max (no oc) after 20 min at 100 % load / 1.212v per test just now. That, though, is with a well-ventilated case (mesh side panel). One thing that would definitely help is to clean that card...I did a double-take re. your top pic. The memory, power stages and all that contribute to heat, and their heat transfer is diminished per your pic. Also, if the fan shroud / fans have a similar build-up, their efficiency will be very much affected. ...an additional test you can try beyond the above and the GPU itself is case flow and cooling efficiency...try running your system with both the side-panel on and off and compare the GPU stress test temp results.

I can see myself building a nice all-AMD project for the first time ever.... For example, Zen 3 5950X (or even TR version later in '21), lots of fast RAM and possibly 2x 6900 XT GPUs (depending what AMD does w/ mGPU). All that in a nice TT Core P5 or P7...all w-cooled of course....no more Itchy & Scratchy for a bit BTW, not sure if this has been shared already, but Computerbase.de managed to capture these Passmark results before they were removed again (don't forget the salt, just in case..)

...yeah, this guy is clearly ready for a new build project !