The computer and electronics super geek thread

[mikeszekely]

1 minute ago, azrael said:

Snapdragon 685...4...5 year old SOC. 4GB RAM...unfortunately that's very anemic in 2025. It will work for your use case, but I don't expect too many updates to float your way for too much longer.

Yeah.  On the flip side, though, I could replace it with a hypothetical similar-priced refresh in a year or two and still pay the same or less than I would for a 10th-gen iPad, Pixel Tab, or Galaxy Tab S9FE.  It's a tricky balancing act, trying to find a level of performance adequate to what I want to do (I dumped a Galaxy Tab A9 Lite because it struggled to open Chrome), but not going overboard on what's ultimately a tertiary device... especially when almost every other Android tablet on the market is using a 16:10 aspect ratio.  It's one of those things that seems like it's not a huge difference in landscape, but 4:3 looks so much better for a lot of the content I'll be consuming on it the minute you rotate it to portrait.

[azrael]

It's CES-time. I'm already seeing some TV, server and other new product videos from the show floor. Not much expected from Intel (seeing as Gelsinger met early retirement). AMD is expected to debut the RX 9070XT. Nvidia is expected to debut the RTX 5000-series (and the fact that the RTX 5090 is inching ever closer to needing that nuclear reactor to power).

[mikeszekely]

I love CES. It's my favorite holiday.😁

[azrael]

Nvidia's presentation, unfortunately, was rife with "*", Oh and AI. And more AI. And more AI. Generated by AI. And with their high performance numbers masked under DLDSS 4 multi-frame gen, it's hard to gauge how much real performance this generation will actually deliver (3rd party reviews will no doubt nitpick this fact).

The issue I have with the 5070 vs the 5070Ti is the RAM. 12GB (5070) vs 16GB(5070Ti). Seeing how Intel just put out a budget card with 16GB of VRAM, 12GB on the 5070 feels like a slap in the face (or on par for Nvidia).

edit: Oh and the 5090 power requirement is at 575W...close enough to 600W. 🤦‍♂️ yep...inching ever closer to needing that nuclear reactor... And getting too close for comfort on that young 12VHPWR spec. That spec is only rated for 600W. 575W does not leave much wiggle room.

[mikeszekely]

So Nvidia's basically claiming that their 50-series cards should be around double the performance over the 40-series.  It's a pretty bold claim... especially when that boost in performance seems less about raw power and more about DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation.  Still, with an MSRP of $550 if there's any truth to Nvidia's claims I'm probably going to grab an RTX 5070.  Depending on how the prices shake out on the rest of my build (time for a totally new PC, my 9th-gen i7 is turning into a bottleneck), I might even splurge the extra $200 for the 5070 Ti.  But the 5080 ($1000) and 5090 ($2000) are too rich for my blood (and that's coming from a guy saving to buy a Porsche).

AMD's announcements were less exciting, at least to me.  A metric boatload of CPU skus with model numbers that seem purposefully designed to confuse consumers.  The gist of it seems to be that there's a Zen 5 CPU for everyone, and I'm sure one of them will go into my next PC.  I just need to puzzle out which one.

They did announce the expected Z2 series for handheld PCs, and... it's kind of underwhelming.  Like, yeah, it's definitely better than the Z1, but in a very evolutionary not revolutionary way; it sounds like the non-extreme Z2 is roughly on par with the Z1 Extreme.

[azrael]

12 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

They did announce the expected Z2 series for handheld PCs, and... it's kind of underwhelming.  Like, yeah, it's definitely better than the Z1, but in a very evolutionary not revolutionary way; it sounds like the non-extreme Z2 is roughly on par with the Z1 Extreme.

That's because the non-Z2 Extreme chips are, essentially, higher end Z1 Extreme chips.

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, azrael said:

That's because the non-Z2 Extreme chips are, essentially, higher end Z1 Extreme chips.

Either way, I don't feel bad about crap upgrading from the Ally to the Ally X for features that benefitted me now instead of waiting for the Z2 Extreme for what's looking to be a pretty modest spec boost. Maybe when Z3 hits.

[TangledThorns]

Very interested in the nVidia RTX 50xx GPUs to finally replace my 5 year old gaming PC with RTX2060.

Also, apparently EVs are still a thing at CES and Sony is stupid af expecting people to pay $90K to $110K for their EV when you can buy a LUCID Air for less.

https://www.engadget.com/transporta...-1-ev-reservations-at-ces-2025-011826937.html

[mikeszekely]

4 minutes ago, TangledThorns said:

Very interested in the nVidia RTX 50xx GPUs to finally replace my 5 year old gaming PC with RTX2060.

Also, apparently EVs are still a thing at CES and Sony is stupid af expecting people to pay $90K to $110K for their EV when you can buy a LUCID Air for less.

https://www.engadget.com/transporta...-1-ev-reservations-at-ces-2025-011826937.html

I forgot about Sony's car. I'd like to see some actual specs, but it's a very bland-looking car with a lot of serious competition at that price range.

[TangledThorns]

19 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I forgot about Sony's car. I'd like to see some actual specs, but it's a very bland-looking car with a lot of serious competition at that price range.

 

More details at their site. It's tech heavy but it doesn't have anything that wows me in comparison to the competition. I'm all for EVs but the hype train ended 2 years ago and I think many of the new expensive EVs are doomed just like the Fisker Ocean but probably not as spectacularly. Especially since you can get a pre-owned EV for significantly less which I'm looking at buying probably this year.

https://www.shm-afeela.com/en/

[Test_Pilot_2]

5070ti looks like the sweet spot. We'll see what partners do with it. I think this is an underwhelming release because the focus wasn't on raw performance increase, but frame generation magic. I don't think it really matters how they get there though so long as the performance is seen by the user.

Only the high-end processors for the handheld market are real evolutions. We're going to see alot of frame gen shenanigans there, but expecting that for handhelds. I'm paying attention to what the Switch 2 is doing with DLSS.

I think the bump in performance for the handheld PCs is most relevant, especially with Thunderbolt 5. My Ally X + EGPU has just gotten better and better with driver updates.

[mikeszekely]

45 minutes ago, TangledThorns said:

 

More details at their site. It's tech heavy but it doesn't have anything that wows me in comparison to the competition. I'm all for EVs but the hype train ended 2 years ago and I think many of the new expensive EVs are doomed just like the Fisker Ocean but probably not as spectacularly. Especially since you can get a pre-owned EV for significantly less which I'm looking at buying probably this year.

https://www.shm-afeela.com/en/

Where I live it's hilly with lots of back roads and  my wife's daily commute is 75 miles, so we jumped on the EV bandwagon- first with a Hyundai Ioniq 5, then a Kia EV9 after some clown in a pickup decided stop signs didn't apply to him. Looking at the specs it does look like the Afeela has decent specs, but the price tag (whole arguably comparable to similarly-specced EVs) is squarely in the, "no thanks, I'm still going to go with a Taycan" territory.

[TangledThorns]

18 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Where I live it's hilly with lots of back roads and  my wife's daily commute is 75 miles, so we jumped on the EV bandwagon- first with a Hyundai Ioniq 5, then a Kia EV9 after some clown in a pickup decided stop signs didn't apply to him. Looking at the specs it does look like the Afeela has decent specs, but the price tag (whole arguably comparable to similarly-specced EVs) is squarely in the, "no thanks, I'm still going to go with a Taycan" territory.

 

Oh man, that sucks. Yeah, I'd rather get a Porsche Macan EV for that money but pre-owned EV looks like the way to go for right now.

[davidwhangchoi]

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

So Nvidia's basically claiming that their 50-series cards should be around double the performance over the 40-series.  It's a pretty bold claim... especially when that boost in performance seems less about raw power and more about DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation.  Still, with an MSRP of $550 if there's any truth to Nvidia's claims I'm probably going to grab an RTX 5070. 

probably misleading but we'll have to wait. 

 

 

[kajnrig]

About the only thing interesting about Nvidia's announcement is the pricing on the lower end, and that's only if their claims match reality... which they almost certainly don't.

At least they HAD an announcement, though, instead of cutting it from their presentation at the last second like a certain OTHER tech company. Still, I was always more excited for AMD's mobile lineup anyway, in particular their Strix Halo and Z2 chips. I'm finally using my Steam Deck for more than just old-school emulators, and I'm finding out it packs quite enough punch and runs all the games I need it to run at a good frame rate with a good battery life. Z1 was a modest upgrade over Van Gogh but didn't perform well enough at the low wattages demanded of mobile gaming; hopefully Z2 and Z2E address that. And Z2 Go is basically a Deck APU but with a slightly stronger GPU component - so pretty much exactly what people were asking for - and looks like a prime choice for sub-$500 handhelds. I can easily see Valve sticking this in future Deck 1 revisions once Van Gogh production ends while waiting for more generational efficiency gains from Z2 or beyond.

As for Strix Halo... Well, it's exactly the kind of Big APU I've been asking for for damn near a decade now, so I'm excited to see how it performs. The only thing more I would want is HBM to overcome the memory bottleneck.

[azrael]

4 hours ago, TangledThorns said:

Also, apparently EVs are still a thing at CES and Sony is stupid af expecting people to pay $90K to $110K for their EV when you can buy a LUCID Air for less.

EVs are a consumer electronic device and it is the Consumer Electronics Show. And Tesla is selling their Cybertruck's highest tier for 90k. 🤷‍♂️

4 hours ago, TangledThorns said:

Especially since you can get a pre-owned EV for significantly less which I'm looking at buying probably this year.

It's now a race to the bottom to see who can deliver the lowest price to features now.

We do have the Automotive thread if you want more in-depth discussions about cars.

52 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

About the only thing interesting about Nvidia's announcement is the pricing on the lower end, and that's only if their claims match reality... which they almost certainly don't.

The first thing people noticed was the "*" on Nvidia's slides (and I made note of it ☝️ as well). Which means we have to wait till we can see rasterization performance. Interpolated frames from DLSS with MFG is skewing Nvidia's numbers, badly. 😒
 

3 hours ago, Test_Pilot_2 said:

5070ti looks like the sweet spot

Which is unfortunate since we are inching more toward 4k displays. 1440p is now that sweet spot for Esports. In a few more years, 4k will take over. A bunch of vendors are showing off that new QD-OLED 27" 4k 240Hz panel this week at the sub-$1000 price point. I doubt we'll see too many takers on the 5090 or the 5080, unless you have a minimum 1200W PSU and money causing a severe meltdown in your pocket. The only reason the 5070Ti is on my radar is because the 16GB vs the 5070’s 12GB. Intel is putting 12GB on a budget card.

[davidwhangchoi]

Hardware Unboxed already is excellent but here's another good break from Jay Two Cent's channel.

If you want FPS numbers to look high and don't care about latency. 

[Test_Pilot_2]

4 hours ago, davidwhangchoi said:

Hardware Unboxed already is excellent but here's another good break from Jay Two Cent's channel.

If you want FPS numbers to look high and don't care about latency. 

Yup, this is why I'm not a fan of this push into frame generation - this should be a value feature or for specific applications that can benefit from it.

If you're dropping two grand or more (these prices are pre-tariff I imagine) then you should get that kind of performance. I think Nvidia is just making up for the 1080ti awesomeness. That was an awesome crazy value.

[mikeszekely]

I get the feeling that we're starting to get to the limits of what can be done with raw rasterization... in a home setting, you can only draw so much power from the wall and dissipate so much waste heat.  So no, I don't expect huge bumps in rasterization performance on the 50-series over the 40-series.  Nvidia's "double the performance" and "a 5070 is equal to a 4090" claims definitely come down more to improvements in DLSS and Frame Generation than raw rasterization.

That said... DLSS 3 was already pretty good, so I'm feeling pretty optimistic for DLSS 4.  I'm at a point where, unless I'm really looking for issues, I don't notice the difference when I'm into the game.

I'm a bit more skeptical of Frame Generation, though.  For me, at least, it's definitely caused more weird graphical artifacts than DLSS alone, and those artifacts are more noticeable the lower your frame rate is.  If you're only getting 30-40fps and you're trying to hit 60 you're definitely going to notice issues and will be better off turning down other settings.  At higher frame rates the inserted frames are on the screen for a shorter time so issues are less noticeable, and can be used more comfortably going from, say, 90fps to 120fps.  But if you're already getting 90fps that extra boost is more "nice to have" than absolute necessity.

Regardless, where I stand right now I'm leaning toward paring an RTX 5070ti with one of AMD's Ryzen X3D CPUs in a desktop sometime later this year.  I also want to replace my original Zephyrus G14 (Ryzen 9 4900HS with an RTX 2060 Max-Q), ideally with a newer model G14.  I very nearly almost bought the 2024 version with Ryzen 9 8945HS and the RTX 4070, especially since the new OLED display would be a huge upgrade in and of itself, but I've dragged my feet for so long on that now I might as well wait a few more months and see if they stuff an RTX 5000-series GPU into one.

[azrael]

Consumer-level raw rasterization? Sure we're hitting with the current designs. There is some Nvidia hardware that could do it today, but those are for datacenter and AI.

 

[TangledThorns]

I am looking at buying a new gaming PC with possibly a RTX 5080 this year to replace my 5 year old gaming PC with RTX2060. However I'm also dreading it, lol. Because of price of new PC with new 4K monitor and I'll also be replacing my old messy desk too. Plus more work in handing down my old gaming PC to my daughter and have to "clean" it up physically and digitally, lol. 

I won't build a new PC this time because of lack of time time and build space. It can take me days to get a gaming PC just right and can be stressful for me making sure everything works right and tweaking it too.

 

[mikeszekely]

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I also want to replace my original Zephyrus G14 (Ryzen 9 4900HS with an RTX 2060 Max-Q), ideally with a newer model G14.  I very nearly almost bought the 2024 version with Ryzen 9 8945HS and the RTX 4070, especially since the new OLED display would be a huge upgrade in and of itself, but I've dragged my feet for so long on that now I might as well wait a few more months and see if they stuff an RTX 5000-series GPU into one.

Well there we go.  I found Asus' Zephyrus CES announcement.  Sounds like the 2025 G14 will have a Ryzen AI HX 370 and "up to an RTX 5080", with a 3K OLED display.  All I need is a price and release date, but if Asus can keep a 32GB 5070 version the same price as the 2024 32GB 4070 I'm in.

[kajnrig]

First Strix Halo preview I've come across. No numbers, but impression seems positive, plus the device is running at its lowest power setting on battery. The current clamor in the comments is for this to see a handheld release, but I'm skeptical that's a good idea. It'd make for a great laptop, but it would force a handheld to be absolutely huge to provide adequate cooling and a battery size worth having; at that point you may as well make it a laptop/tablet.

 

Edited January 8 by kajnrig

[azrael]

7 hours ago, TangledThorns said:

I am looking at buying a new gaming PC with possibly a RTX 5080 this year to replace my 5 year old gaming PC with RTX2060. However I'm also dreading it, lol. Because of price of new PC with new 4K monitor and I'll also be replacing my old messy desk too. Plus more work in handing down my old gaming PC to my daughter and have to "clean" it up physically and digitally, lol. 

I won't build a new PC this time because of lack of time time and build space. It can take me days to get a gaming PC just right and can be stressful for me making sure everything works right and tweaking it too.

Any specific SI vendor you want to go with? Unfortunately we don't have time tables on when specific vendors will start selling 5080s with their systems.

[davidwhangchoi]

7 hours ago, TangledThorns said:

I am looking at buying a new gaming PC with possibly a RTX 5080 this year to replace my 5 year old gaming PC with RTX2060. However I'm also dreading it, lol. Because of price of new PC with new 4K monitor and I'll also be replacing my old messy desk too. Plus more work in handing down my old gaming PC to my daughter and have to "clean" it up physically and digitally, lol. 

I won't build a new PC this time because of lack of time time and build space. It can take me days to get a gaming PC just right and can be stressful for me making sure everything works right and tweaking it too.

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Well there we go.  I found Asus' Zephyrus CES announcement.  Sounds like the 2025 G14 will have a Ryzen AI HX 370 and "up to an RTX 5080", with a 3K OLED display.  All I need is a price and release date, but if Asus can keep a 32GB 5070 version the same price as the 2024 32GB 4070 I'm in.

here's a link for Asus if you want to get a price point for a the new offerings of the Zephyrus laptop with a 5080 (and other configs)

or desktop pre builds for a starting point reference. 

[TangledThorns]

3 hours ago, azrael said:

Any specific SI vendor you want to go with? Unfortunately we don't have time tables on when specific vendors will start selling 5080s with their systems.

None yet. I want to wait for benchmarks but also for deals. May wait till Memorial Day for deals. I also need a new desk that fits my needs (gaming & work) and space too. Thankfully I'm in no hurry.

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, davidwhangchoi said:

here's a link for Asus if you want to get a price point for a the new offerings of the Zephyrus laptop with a 5080 (and other configs)

or desktop pre builds for a starting point reference. 

Hmm... no G14 with a 5070, and the one with the 5070ti is $2200.  So do I go $200 over budget when I'm already also planning on doing a new desktop, or do I wait for another $1650 sale on the 2024 model with the 4070?

[davidwhangchoi]

19 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Hmm... no G14 with a 5070, and the one with the 5070ti is $2200.  So do I go $200 over budget when I'm already also planning on doing a new desktop, or do I wait for another $1650 sale on the 2024 model with the 4070?

@mikeszekely btw, along with the prices, I forgot to post the release date were announced at the CES live event.

Z13 for February, the rest of the devices March 2025.

 

Didn't see the 5070 or 5060, (5060 will be launch prob in May, probably why they held back the 5060 laptops)

 

[anime52k8]

Man, I hate computer hardware.

So like, I currently have a 3070 and a 750w PSU in a case that fits up to 340mm cards. whats the most I can upgrade to without having to build a new PC?

[azrael]

8 minutes ago, anime52k8 said:

Man, I hate computer hardware.

So like, I currently have a 3070 and a 750w PSU in a case that fits up to 340mm cards. whats the most I can upgrade to without having to build a new PC?

Specs?

[mikeszekely]

28 minutes ago, anime52k8 said:

Man, I hate computer hardware.

So like, I currently have a 3070 and a 750w PSU in a case that fits up to 340mm cards. whats the most I can upgrade to without having to build a new PC?

Based on the reference card, a 5070ti should fit in your case and you probably won't need a PSU upgrade, though you'll be bumping up against the limit.  Anything more than that and you'll have to check the measurements for the specific vendor's card, and you'll definitely have to upgrade the PSU along with it.

[Test_Pilot_2]

31 minutes ago, azrael said:

Specs?

Lol, slippery slope, but I too like to live dangerously /Austin Powers.

[anime52k8]

39 minutes ago, azrael said:

Specs?

• 3070 (non ti),
• 12600k
• 240mm AiO cooler
• Z690 Mobo
• 32GB DDR4 (4x8)
• 2TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe
• 750W PS
• Corsair 4000D case
• 1440p 144hz monitor.

[azrael]

27 minutes ago, anime52k8 said:

• 3070 (non ti),
• 12600k
• 240mm AiO cooler
• Z690 Mobo
• 32GB DDR4 (4x8)
• 2TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe
• 750W PS
• Corsair 4000D case
• 1440p 144hz monitor.

You could do a 5070 or 5070Ti, but you might be pushing the PSU. Upgrading the PSU will give you more headroom for a better GPU.
The 12600k could be stepped up to 13 or 14th gen but check your motherboard manufacturer for CPU support. However, given 13th and 14th gen's issues, you could probably keep the 12600k.The rest of the specs are still good and could probably last you another couple more years. For more storage, I would just wait for a good 4TB or a second 2TB NVMe drive to go on sale. 

[JB0]

Of course, right now we don't know how the 5070 performs, so we can't really sa* how much of an upgrade it is.

We know how nVidia claims it performs, but manufacturer claims in this industry range from "optimistic" to "bald-faced lies". And personally, nVidia leans a bit strongly towards the latter for my tastes. I personally believe their "5070 performs like a 4090" claim is "with the 4090 rendering every frame at 3840x2160 resolution while the 5070 upscales from 1920x1080 and does three frames of motion interpolation for every frame it renders"... or just "4090 DLSS off vs 5070 DLSS Performance" if you'd prefer to conceal the reality with marketing buzzwords.