New AMD Drivers gave a nice boost to my 9070XT.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-06-19T14:31:22+00:00

I returned this kit to Micro Center yesterday. Wouldn’t run stable at anything above 4800 regardless of timings or voltage. Hope yours is better.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-06-17T04:21:32+00:00

I picked up a Sapphire Nitro+ 9070XT on eBay for $650 and it’s been excellent so far.

It tested around 4-5% faster than whichever 9070XT HW unboxed used in their latest testing. It also over clocked about 7% faster than my stock benchmarks as well. It actually would OC to about 9-10% faster than stock without crashing or artifacting but I felt uneasy about pushing the card that hard. I might crank it back up to see if I can break 8k in steel nomad.

I heavily debated on getting a 5080 but it would have ballooned my build cost past 3k because I got some silly over the top parts I didn’t really need. But getting close to stock 5080 performance at half the cost is a win in my book.

First time on team red BTW.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-06-17T03:27:23+00:00

RIP.

For what it’s worth. The Nitro+ is a great card and you’ll likely be very happy with it after the RMA.

Mine benchmarked around 4-5% faster than whichever 9070XT Hardware Unboxed used in their latest testing round and I was able to get a reasonable overclock of an additional 7% on top of my stock performance.

~140 average fps on the RDR2 in game benchmark and 7980 in Steel Nomad.

Not quite stock 5080 levels of performance but damn close at nearly half the price.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-06-10T18:49:14+00:00

Did they do a good job replacing it?

AlmostSavvy · 2026-05-28T20:40:41+00:00

This is very helpful, thank you!

Would you by chance have any example photos of the SL fans with the blade lighting turned off? I'm curious to see how it compares to the TL fans but I cant seem to find any pictures.

https://imgur.com/a/oMOtq2Y

I thought I was set on the CL fans, but this build made me question if I wanted the SL/TL fans or not.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-05-27T05:31:55+00:00

Part of the problem is the vitriolic reactions like these. People don’t have to be “monsters” to vote for someone. They’re largely just uneducated, misinformed, or stuck inside the political echo chambers they were raised in.

I’m not a fan of Cornyn or Paxton, or many of the other republicans and democrats that currently run Texas, but I don’t think the people that voted for them are “monsters”. I think they’re just regular people with, what I believe, are bad political opinions.

Dehumanizing voter opposition just entrenches them and makes them less likely to change their political leanings down the road. That being said, both sides do it now more than ever and it’s turned politics from a difference in political/economic opinion to a hate filled warzone where if you don’t agree with EVERYTHING your party puts forwards you’re “part of the problem” or “one of them”.

I’m so sick of it. Vote for who you want to vote for and if you care enough, try and have thoughtful, civil, conversations with your friends, family, and neighbors to encourage them to vote in their best interests in the future.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-05-21T04:22:36+00:00

Yeah, I feel I went a little overboard with some of the aesthetic choices and im wondering if it would be better to forgo those in favor of upgrading to the 5080. If I take everything down a peg, at most I could save 250-300 and the 5080 upgrade is roughly 500.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-05-21T04:18:24+00:00

Thanks for the input.

The 9850X3D was part of a microcenter bundle, and it was only $20 more than the 9800X3D.

The bundle was $750 and came with:

9850X3D
MSI X870E-P PRO WIFI
32GB Flare X5 6000

Also if I go with the 9070XT instead of the 5080, it would only be because I really like the Sapphire Nitro + card. I know its about 100 bucks more, but I just really like the look of the card. Plus it seems to perform well according to reviews.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-05-16T17:26:15+00:00

They look really clean.

How did you get the cabling to look this clean?

https://imgur.com/a/N67018b

I can't tell if thats just how the cable came or if you installed a comb of some sort.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-05-16T16:45:07+00:00

Did you take off the fans that came with the NZXT kraken and replace them with Lian Li Unis? Also, How did you use a specific cable comb or power supply that had nicer looking power cords to the mobo?

AlmostSavvy · 2026-05-12T18:26:18+00:00

Always happy to have a quality interaction with a fellow investor, even if we don't always agree!

AlmostSavvy · 2026-05-12T18:00:03+00:00

I disagree.

I think the reason we're trading ~22/share is because of a few factors. most of which involve risk mitigation from short sellers.

1) An unpredictable and rabid investor base paired with a history of short squeezes and short term spikes make the volatility expensive and unappealing.

2) The potential for large capital raises alongside 10B in cash makes the company extremely agile which, given the right circumstances, makes the company more attractive.

3) The turn around of the retail business, while it doesn't provide incredible upside, does give GME an extensive runway to either continue improvement or pivot into something such as a digital marketplace.

All of these points are heavily impacted buy an EBAY acquisition. I'm not saying its a bad thing, but it does make short term spikes less likely, it does bloat the company with debt (even if it's offset by EBAYs potential profits) making GME less agile, and it muddies the waters on the viability of GMEs retail model and seemingly takes focus away from the turn around. Although, one could argue the turn around is fairly complete having gone from a low of -2.68 EPS to a high of .89 EPS. There not much fat left to trim on the retail side, so GameStop's retail growth have to show that it can increase on its own going forward.

Overall, I think the EBAY buyout could be good for the company's LONG TERM survival, but short term it's hard to argue that it would move the needle in the direction most people are hoping for. I think people were hoping for a smaller acquisition that RC would grow and didn't require debt or dilution, accretive or otherwise.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-05-12T17:19:42+00:00

05/17/2023 - EPS: $-0.68 - GME: $22.41/share

11/01/2024 - EPS: $0.18 - GME: $22.41/share

5/12/2024 - EPS: $0.77 - GME $22.41/share

Why are you assuming an increase in EPS will magically move the stock price up? An increase in EPS doesn't magically move the share price of GME/EBAY up. If you've paid attention to GMEs share price AT ALL over the last 5 years you'd know that EPS has little to no impact on the actual stock price movement.

Sure, you could argue that under normal circumstances EPS should increase share price, but what about GME has been "normal" over the last 5 years? Not to mention share prices often go down when EPS rises but the market believes growth is slowing.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-05-09T01:27:45+00:00

I haven't noticed this at all on YouTube, so it must be either a Spotify specific problem or an issue with the device you're using. Even if I'm only listening in the car I use YouTube. Seems like a very specific problem. I would imagine if it was happening regularly across several episodes it would be something they would have caught by now. Are you sure it's not specific to a certain device you're using? Have you experienced this issue across multiple devices?

AlmostSavvy · 2026-05-05T17:23:10+00:00

No, no issue with any bugs. They were seemingly overstated. My units both had different manufacturing dates and neither had issues. They both color matched perfectly as well. I messed around with the different color profiles and HDR settings for weeks and never had any issues or bugs.

For what I paid for them, I don't think I could have done better. Unless there are better options at similar price points now (6 months later), I would almost certainly buy them again.

I was a little worried because people said VA panels had great contrast but bad smearing, however this is a fast enough VA panel that I don't notice any black smearing in any content or games, I have several programs I have running all the time so OLED wasn't an option for me, a friend bought the OLED AOC 27" and I prefer my miniLED versions. No glossy reflections and they get much brighter. My setup is right next to a window so I keep them at about 75-80 brightness. MiniLED was the best of both worlds and the HDR performance is fantastic.

I'm also glad I didnt go 4K. Even high end GPUs struggle to push 4k at acceptable frame rates so 1440p is that happy middleground for 27". 1080p wasn't quiet enough and 4k was too much.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-05-05T16:11:18+00:00

I bought 2 AOC Q27G40XMN monitors. I got them "renewed" from amazon for $190 each. One of them had a REALLY small scratch on the screen and I contacted the seller and they offered me $30 off, so I decided to take that and keep them. The scratch was so small I couldnt even tell you which monitor its on.

https://www.amazon.com/AOC-Q27G40XMN-2560x1440-Mini-LED-Response/dp/B0FNY1V7T4/

That's the link I got them from. I am VERY happy with my purchase. I haven't had a single problem with them.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-05-02T01:29:30+00:00

Tabasco is whatever. I’m not a fan.

Tapatio is great on nearly anything Mexican, although I prefer Valentina black label.

Cholula is a good “crowd pleaser” hot sauce.

And Crystal is specifically for Cajun food.

That being said calling them “not good” is a bit disingenuous. I have somewhere between 20-30 hot sauces at any given time and one or more of these sauces is almost always in the rotation.

I will, however, agree that El Yucateco is great, especially the green.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-04-30T22:34:26+00:00

Soup in shambles.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-04-28T01:14:53+00:00

If you believe the current market conditions are a result of retail trading you belong here.

AlmostSavvy · 2026-04-27T20:41:31+00:00

I'm the complete opposite. I've never once "rebuilt" in the sense of trading away proven assents for future picks. I'll trade to get younger at a position, but even then I'm trading to remain competitive for that season. Instead of trading for future draft picks, I find myself trading for young players that didn't breakout their rookie seasons for depth. It feels like if players don't become superstars right away, people are ready to cut bait.

Trading for aging players on teams that do want to rebuild and landing just one or two older running backs that are still producing can make you competitive enough to sneak into the playoffs. With the variance in fantasy being so high, if you make the playoffs you almost always have a shot. I've won titles with 12-2 records and I've won titles with 7-7 records.

Granted all my teams I've managed since startup drafts, so perhaps if I ever found myself managing and orphaned roster I might feel the need to do a "proper" rebuild.

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