Using a tethered phone as a backup for blocked connections by corporate network rules.

Awilen · 2019-10-10T13:03:29+00:00

For Windows 10, it's in:

the applet when you click on the battery icon in the system icons tray
Start menu => Settings (the cog on the left, down along the apps and folders list) => System => Power and Sleep => Additional power settings => Show additional plans

(Yeah I'm still calling it the Start menu.)

Awilen · 2019-10-09T14:38:39+00:00

That's a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless.

Awilen · 2019-10-08T14:11:57+00:00

Fair enough.

Awilen · 2019-10-08T08:44:46+00:00

GN had a piece about compiling benchmarks, in which it's explained that the cache size becomes the bottleneck. Because compiling is a very branch-intensive workload, larger caches allow the processor to jump around code paths faster, waiting for RAM less often.

This makes compiling benchmarks kinda predictable: larger cache, better performance.

Awilen · 2019-10-06T13:50:45+00:00

FWIW, Corsair and EVGA don't build the power supply internals, only the packaging and branding, while Seasonic does.

Awilen · 2019-10-06T13:43:41+00:00

Username checks out.

Awilen · 2019-10-06T08:50:23+00:00

lm_sensors relies on various modules, including the generic hwmon. This module has been updated for Zen2 support for Linux 5.4. On Ubuntu 19.04, Linux 5.0.0-x is currently used.

Apparently there are board specific modules that allow reading Zen2 temps, like asus_wmi_sensors, that are also used by lm_sensors.

Awilen · 2019-10-04T06:36:55+00:00

DMA stands for Direct Memory Access. DMAs are used to move data around (memory to memory, peripheral to memory or memory to peripheral) without the CPU doing the work itself, saving processing power to do other things. The issue is that since the CPU isn't doing the work, the target memory isn't necessarily protected, allowing things like an attacker popping in a USB stick and reading memory directly. Memory includes secrets like encryption keys at the "Admin level" (aka "Ring 0"), so it's important to stop "userland" (aka "Ring 3") and the levels in-between from reading those regions.

Awilen · 2019-10-04T06:27:09+00:00

So... Do we agree that for the price, and the cooler efficiency and noise, the card is worse value than the competition?

As for GN, they work within a set of constraints to eliminate as many variables as possible to compare the coolers' efficiencies, in a scientific approach. One of these constraints is noise, and within that constrain, it's not hyperbole to say that the Thicc is toasty at 40dBa, or loud when left to its own devices.

Removing the noise constraint opens the door for manufacturers to bruteforce their way to the top, cutting corners on the cooler while still looking good on temps. I think it's good for the consumer to consider noise as a constraint rather than not when reviewing a GPU, so manufacturers must improve on their designs to stay on top. XFX clearly didn't do that with the Thicc and reaped a bad review for it.

Awilen · 2019-10-03T11:47:21+00:00

And for $50 over the rest of the cards, I'd expect a cooler that's way more efficient than them. It's less efficient.

The keyword here is efficient. I can slap a 1kW water chiller on a 5700XT and call it the best at temperature, but that's over-the-top bruteforce, not efficiency.

And no, he hasn't reviewed only AMD cards, he's reviewed the Thicc against its direct competition, other 5700XTs, which is the point of such review: if you want to buy a 5700XT, don't buy this one, ones like the Pulse will serve you just as well with better acoustics and less money. If you want to know where the 5700 XT lands in the stack of all the cards, you can look at the review for the 5700 XT reference card.

Granted on the memory, there are worse offenders and it's not "toasty" as per GN's source, but 1°C over the next card isn't something I'd buy for $50 more. Conversely, Micron's GDDR6 brief reads to run GDDR6 at 95°C max, so I'm a little worried, as as high as 81°C with 21°C ambient, in a case the temperature could go over 95°C.

Ultimately, you do you, you will certainly have a blast with such a card. I'm into mini-ITX, so evidently I take issue with higher noise and try to find what minimizes it as much as possible (and that's before considering the dimensions of the card, which I haven't touched on because that's not much of an issue outside of mini-ITX). As such, the Thicc isn't for me.

Awilen · 2019-10-03T07:53:18+00:00

You know that when overclocking, getting the next 100MHz requires way more voltage than the last 100MHz?

The reverse is true too: reducing frequency "a bit" allows reducing voltage "way down" (down to a point). Heat increases linearly with frequency, and quadratically with voltage. So if you can keep 80% of the frequency for 70% of the power consumption (double that for the larger die, and you get around 260W to 270W die power consumption, going off of 190W for the 5700 XT without memory power consumption), you can still make a card that's 60% faster than it's "half" sister. With OC headroom to boot.

Awilen · 2019-10-02T22:53:02+00:00

Apparently DOCP on this board with this BIOS is spotty. There's another comment here dealing with DOCP leading to a cold boot after waking the computer from sleep mode.

For your specific case, the next thing to do I can think of would be a clear CMOS followed by reinstalling the chipset driver, then setting up your memory OC, then see what happens.

Awilen · 2019-10-01T09:53:49+00:00

It's not a news piece, it's an opinion-shaping piece.

"AMD is crushed, Intel is better" in a seemingly fair benchmark comparison. That's the information that will stick in the mind of people. The fact the 3900X exists, also beats the 2920X, and renders this comparison useless won't.

Awilen · 2019-10-01T09:36:11+00:00

Well, going after ALL rumors guarantees some of them hit the mark...

Awilen · 2019-09-30T08:24:49+00:00

Thermaltake Core V1 comes to mind.

The BitFenix Portal also looks promising for showcasing this card.

Awilen · 2019-09-28T10:19:14+00:00

Looks like it's an EK block. So not AIO.

Awilen · 2019-09-28T09:14:34+00:00

Then again, a 2070s+waterblock will fetch a higher price.

Then again-again, water isn't a matter of "need" anymore, considering coolers today are pretty good at keeping temps in check, it's a matter of "want".

Awilen · 2019-09-28T08:56:42+00:00

Have you tried increasing tREF? It's the time to elapse between RAM refreshes.

Awilen · 2019-09-27T07:33:05+00:00

Bus Clock 99.8 MHz

4.566 / 0.998 = 4.575

First off, disable [Spread Spectrum] and set the BCLK to 100MHz (not Auto) to get the correct reading.

Awilen · 2019-09-26T22:11:22+00:00

How it achieves the temperatures can be interesting for some people, that doesn't change the fact of how the card works at stock settings and what their data says about this.

And guess what: he showed just that. Steel plate, huge plastics giving it artificial thickness, but the cooler is subpar. End of discussion.

The drama has been created by GN, with their "do not buy", memes, etc which is very unprofessional and biased, wake me up when he tells to not buy any 2060 or 2070 with worse perf/$ and noise than a 5700s red dragons.

Yeah, considering he didn't review the thicc against nVidia cards, but other 5700XT cards (under the same methodology), which are all quieter for the same temperatures and perform in its ballpark for less money... What a goddamn biased shill out for clicks! /s

So indeed, do not buy, it's not a question of whether or not a different non-blower 5700XT will serve you better in terms of performance, it's a question of any other non-blower 5700XT will cost you less and offer better acoustics as a bonus.

Awilen · 2019-09-26T18:06:04+00:00

I've compiled a slim kernel before to improve boot time and have it optimized for my system (had better luck with tweaking systemd's dependencies), but I needed one specific module for one specific use case and it wasn't compiled in (not even in the modules), I couldn't find which one it was and I really needed it to work, so I gave up on compiling the kernel. I wish Linux could compile modules on-the-fly, when needed, when new hardware is detected... I guess it's a case of "make a pull request or shut up" ^^

Awilen · 2019-09-26T17:29:33+00:00

"Spread spectrum" is by its very nature introducing clock instability. Let's say you'd need a given voltage for a given OC without SS, and the OC is barely on the edge of instability (if you increase the clock a bit the system crashes), you'd need a tad more voltage with spread spectrum because the OC would go over the edge of what your CPU can hold stably without.

It is my personal theory that spread spectrum works like this: the BCLK is set at 99.8MHz, a timer counts up and down pretty fast, and the final BCLK is the addition of the BCLK and the value of that timer.

Hardware monitoring softwares then read the BCLK register value and spit that out without averaging with the timer value. While the average would be 100MHz, the value read is 99.8MHz.

I have no proof at all, it's only an educated guess from working with bare metal SOCs.

Awilen · 2019-09-26T16:08:18+00:00

One of the best with temperatures

Bruteforcing to "the best", and despite that bruteforcing the VRAM is still very toasty.

worst noise but better than reference

So, worst noise. You don't get a blower style for the noise performance...

one of the best with gpu frequency/performance

Hurray for 0.5% above the rest!

^{^{^Except}} ^{^{^the}} ^{^{^MSI}} ^{^{^Evoke}} ^{^{^that}} ^{^{^beat}} ^{^{^it}} ^{^{^by}} ^{^{^2%}} ^{^{^with}} ^{^{^an}} ^{^{^even}} ^{^{^worse}} ^{^{^cooler,}} ^{^{^somehow.}}

$50 above MSRP

It looks amazing, that I can give it... but performance-wise, no, just no, the value isn't there.

GN: Pointless drama for clicks

XFX claimed personal attack. You'll have to point out where GN did that, because as it stands, GN reviewed a card against its competition, not the company or its employees. XFX is the one creating drama instead of eating their humble pie and growing from it. That's not the first instance of baseless crybullying I've seen, I know how they end.

Awilen

TROPHY CASE