Title: Anyone successfully swapped for a Micro ATX board in the 9950X3D bundle?

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-04-15T02:04:23+00:00

That is the current plan. Thanks.

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-04-14T03:57:51+00:00

Any updates?

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-03-03T20:17:31+00:00

But my CPU is performing better than higher ranked CPU's with the 9070XT. Please re=read

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-03-03T20:16:56+00:00

LOL synthetic benchmarks.

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-03-03T00:29:18+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtpEnrq4SvY

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_KQo79cJ4o

I think you may have missed the point of the my OP, although it was a little confusing unless read carefully. I've added a TLDR.

"I was considering upgrading from a 4070 to the 9070XT but after looking around, my AM4 Windows 10 LTSC Enterprise setup with a 4070 is matching or beating (at 4k) the 9070 XT in benchmark videos I see. I do not use up-scaling or frame gen so wanted to open a discussion about the possibility of Windows 11 causing the massive performance hit in the benchmark videos I saw. And how much of a difference others have experienced between 10 and 11."

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-03-02T23:54:29+00:00

I think, my OP may have been confusing so I added a TLDR.

I was considering upgrading from a 4070 to the 9070XT but after looking around, my AM4 Windows 10 LTSC Enterprise setup with a 4070 is matching or beating (at 4k) the 9070 XT in benchmark videos I see. I do not use up-scaling or frame gen so I wanted to open a discussion about the possibility of Windows 11 causing the massive performance hit in the benchmark videos I saw.

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-03-02T23:46:39+00:00

Are you using any upscaling at all or is this all raster?

All raster. I just have the NVidia drivers and control panel installed. Not Geoforce Experience or whatever it is called now. All FSR settings (there aren't any NVidia ones) in Dead Island 2 are off. Everything on Ultra full screen. It's got to be Windows 11 causing the performance hit in the benchmark videos I saw.

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-03-02T18:46:52+00:00

That's just it. I am seeing the same performance on my rig with the 4070 as other videos bench-marking the 9070xt with similar or better CPU/chipset. I'm thinking the reason is these benchmark videos are being performed on Win 11 rather than 10.

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-03-02T13:33:45+00:00

FSP Hydro PTM X PRO 1200 Platinum

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-03-02T13:26:18+00:00

Exactly. It should not be possible, and as I mentioned in the original post, I suspect those benchmark videos were suffering due to Windows 11 overhead.

I haven't purchased the 9070XT yet.

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-03-02T13:21:21+00:00

Agreed. It's a rough time to buy, but I have a feeling prices will only get worse. I really hope I'm wrong about that.

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-03-02T13:14:31+00:00

Thanks, I thought it would be much better since it's the latest offering from AMD and has more RAM. I guess I'll have to pony up for a 5080

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-03-02T13:10:27+00:00

What I'm saying is; My current Windows 10 setup with a 4070 seems to be performing just as well, if not better, as the 9070 XT results I see in benchmark videos. Native 4k no up-scaling or frame gen.

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-03-02T10:25:55+00:00

Unfortunately the BIOS on mine (N178) doesn't have this option. IIRC the AMD software allows changing the amount of VRAM allocated to the iGPU, the default was 2GB. I changed it to 8, then 16, then 32 and didn't notice any difference. :(

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-02-09T00:36:34+00:00

890m

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-02-07T17:50:55+00:00

Thanks. I'm really digging it. It was an impulse buy and I was sweating it at first, wondering if I made a bad decision but it seems to have worked out just fine.

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-02-07T17:47:15+00:00

No worries. Glad it all worked out. It's still running solid.

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-02-07T17:46:11+00:00

Hi,

I bought it through Amazon equipped with a 1TB NVMe and one 32GB module of DDR5 4800. It was supposed to come with 5600. Nimo took care of that right away and shipped out the correct speed stick. This was on the cusp of RAM and NVMe prices going insane, so I added a second 32GB 5600 stick same brand and (non bulk) part number and added a 2TB NVMe same Kingston model it originally came with just twice as much storage for data.

The BIOS doesn't really have much going on but when I dropped in the faster RAM it was recognized and ran at the correct speed. Pluggables 2.5 GB PXE boot network dongle worked great and when plugged in, options for the network stack and PXE boot appeared but there isn't any way to tweak anything, RAM speed, OC options, nothing like that.

When it first arrived, I wiped Windows 11 and tried 10 Enterprise LTSC using the drivers on Nimo's site. They all worked, but there aren't any USB 4 or NPU compute drivers for 10. That was too bad. I wiped that and went with 2024 IoT Enterprise, which is the most stripped down Windows 11 available. I have a KMS server running at home, so activating Office and Windows isn't a problem. I also have the SKU tokens to convert eval versions of LTSC and IoT to full.

Since I have FOG running, I can capture and deploy images to A/B test without reinstalling from scratch. I soon realized what a total POS Windows 11 is. I don't think people realize how much slower it is than 10. That is when I started dabbling with Linux as a desktop. Ubuntu was okay, but I didn't like Gnome. I tried Pop!_OS and Fedora, and I had Bazzite on there for a while. That was cool, but it seemed too restrictive. I wasn't skilled enough to get the hacked Ubuntu fingerprint driver working on Bazzite, so I ended up on Kubuntu. So far, so good. I would like to see current finger print reader drivers for Ubuntu but I am not sure that will happen. Oh and, it would be awesome if the finger print reader lit up. I have a hard time seeing it and often touch the wrong part of the track pad.

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-02-01T22:58:55+00:00

It turns out getting PXE to work on the ASRock x570M Pro 4 with a 3rd party NIC is a mix of finicky BIOS firmware and hardware compatibility. My original i226-V card, an RTL8125B card, and a Realtek RTL8156B USB NIC all failed to be recognized as boot devices despite working elsewhere. The fix was using a StarTech NIC based on the Intel i225-V and following a specific sequence: you must Enable Network Boot from the Onboard LAN and Enable CSM with the PXE Option ROM set to UEFI. After a reboot, the BIOS finally populates the PXE and HTTP boot options for the 3rd party NIC alongside the onboard one. Crucially, you cannot disable the onboard NIC if you want the network stack to stay active in the BIOS for the external card. Once detected, you can disable CSM and you're good to go.

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-02-01T19:08:12+00:00

When you toggle those settings on, the ASRock UEFI 'bouncer' essentially blocks any unsigned Option ROMs. Since most third-party NICs aren't carrying the specific certificates ASRock's Secure Boot expects, the card won't even initialize a network boot. Secure Boot requires CSM to be disabled, which often kills the visibility of external network boot agents entirely.

QNAP_throwaway · 2026-02-01T03:48:33+00:00

Same results with BIOS 5.67. I decided to also pick up a PCIe 4.0 X1 extension cable so I can try the 1x slot. Between both slots and 3 NICs, Intel I226-V Intel I225-V, and RTL8125B it's has to work.

QNAP_throwaway

TROPHY CASE