Blue Ravens

[J7SC_Orion]

These pictorial pages on The Blue Raven Brothers replace the aging Ravens build-logs-plus other older content that is not quite accurate anymore.

 

Below you will find quick summaries and pics of the ever-changing combos of the two main systems (2 cases, 4 mobos, 6 GPUs) in my home office used for work and play.

 

There will be upcoming hardware changes in the near future (as there always are)  so periodic updates to follow...

 

 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2023 by J7SC_Orion

[J7SC_Orion]

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Edited February 27, 2023 by J7SC_Orion

[J7SC_Orion]

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Edited February 26, 2023 by J7SC_Orion

[J7SC_Orion]

Custom cooling summary:

 

All tubing is  1/2 x 3/4 and the quick-disconnects are all Koolance QD4s

  

 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2023 by J7SC_Orion

[J7SC_Orion]

...still trying to find the OC limits for the core of the 4090 without wrecking the card. VRAM need to be above 55 C to get that higher, but with a full water-block, that is harder to do (though I'm not complaining...)

  

[ENTERPRISE]

19 hours ago, J7SC_Orion said:

...still trying to find the OC limits for the core of the 4090 without wrecking the card. VRAM need to be above 55 C to get that higher, but with a full water-block, that is harder to do (though I'm not complaining...)

  

Time for a hairdryer!

[J7SC_Orion]

5 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

Time for a hairdryer!

 

...hairdryer, eh  ? I could also just run 'memtest_vulkan' prior to a bench - that gets the VRAM into the low 50 C range, depending on ambient. Speaking of ambient, it is around 27.5 C in my home office right now, but did some extra run anyways....the RTX 4090 not only hit 3300 MHz on water / ambient, it actually made it to 3315 MHz before the driver said enough !! I did get a TPU GPUZ validation though for the relevant offset of +469 MHz...

 

[ENTERPRISE]

13 hours ago, J7SC_Orion said:

 

...hairdryer, eh  ? I could also just run 'memtest_vulkan' prior to a bench - that gets the VRAM into the low 50 C range, depending on ambient. Speaking of ambient, it is around 27.5 C in my home office right now, but did some extra run anyways....the RTX 4090 not only hit 3300 MHz on water / ambient, it actually made it to 3315 MHz before the driver said enough !! I did get a TPU GPUZ validation though for the relevant offset of +469 MHz...

 

Ha, yeah sounds like a better idea than using hairdryer! 

 

That is a sweet OC though. Definitely a keeper.

[J7SC_Orion]

5 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

Ha, yeah sounds like a better idea than using hairdryer! 

 

That is a sweet OC though. Definitely a keeper.

 

Given the latest semi-trustworthy rumors, the 4090 Ti is 'off again' and RTX5K 'Blackwell' not scheduled until late 2024 / early 2025. That means that my 4090 and its nice oc headroom will remain useful for quite a while yet. 

Edited August 6, 2023 by J7SC_Orion

[J7SC_Orion]

...switched vbios from stock Gigabyte to Galax HOF; also lower ambient temps today , good for the water-cooled setup...

 

[ENTERPRISE]

On 06/08/2023 at 16:39, J7SC_Orion said:

 

Given the latest semi-trustworthy rumors, the 4090 Ti is 'off again' and RTX5K 'Blackwell' not scheduled until late 2024 / early 2025. That means that my 4090 and its nice oc headroom will remain useful for quite a while yet. 

For sure. I will stick with my 3090 with the XOC 1K watt BIOS for now and may consider the Nvidia 50 series, whenever that launches. To be fair the 3090 at stock will likely be adequate for my setup for some time, but nothing wrong with a bit of OC

[J7SC_Orion]

1 hour ago, ENTERPRISE said:

For sure. I will stick with my 3090 with the XOC 1K watt BIOS for now and may consider the Nvidia 50 series, whenever that launches. To be fair the 3090 at stock will likely be adequate for my setup for some time, but nothing wrong with a bit of OC

 

I like oc'ing this beastie for the fun of it to max in GPUZ, but for real benching this card on ambient water, I have not gone above 3240 MHz - obviously don't want to clock it higher than that with any kind of serious load on it. With the high clock GPUZ, I am also establishing a base mark to compare to a couple of years from now, just like I did with the prior GPUs, such as the 3090. This allows to check for any kind of degradation over time.

 

FYI, I still enjoy my oc'ed 3090 on another system in another room (powering a 55 inch 4K60). I went for the 4090 as well because I run more than one system also for work, the 4090 was available locally at the base intro price and because the two apps I spent most of my time on - MS Flight Simulator and CP 2077 - both had announced DLSS3 / FrameGen / NVReflex which is a great match for my primary system's 48 inch 4K120. FH 5 and F1 also benefit.

[ENTERPRISE]

20 hours ago, J7SC_Orion said:

 

I like oc'ing this beastie for the fun of it to max in GPUZ, but for real benching this card on ambient water, I have not gone above 3240 MHz - obviously don't want to clock it higher than that with any kind of serious load on it. With the high clock GPUZ, I am also establishing a base mark to compare to a couple of years from now, just like I did with the prior GPUs, such as the 3090. This allows to check for any kind of degradation over time.

 

FYI, I still enjoy my oc'ed 3090 on another system in another room (powering a 55 inch 4K60). I went for the 4090 as well because I run more than one system also for work, the 4090 was available locally at the base intro price and because the two apps I spent most of my time on - MS Flight Simulator and CP 2077 - both had announced DLSS3 / FrameGen / NVReflex which is a great match for my primary system's 48 inch 4K120. FH 5 and F1 also benefit.

In that situation it certainly made sense to go for the 4090, more so due to the price. I would go for it if the price makes sense. At this point in the game, I better start saving for next gen + block lol.

[J7SC_Orion]

...first tentative steps into DDR5 territory (via mobo-on-box approach) with the new system based on an Aorus X670E Master and 7950X3D...will take a while to complete and integrate into the existing w-cooling loop(s) and transfer the 'correct' GPU.