Life is a Mind Bending Puzzle

 Following on from the CPU upgrade mentioned in my last post I am going to record my current build for posterity.  CPU: AMD Ryzen 9800x3D Motherboard: Asus TUF x670E plus Wifi Ram: 2x16GB 6400MHz DDR5 (running at 6000MHz CAS 32 for stability)  GPU: Nvidia RTX 56070ti SSD: 2Tb DDR 4 NVME HDD: 4Tb HDD with 512Mb ssd cache PSU: 850W EVGA Case: Still using my old Fractal Design Define R5. No window and no RGB.  Screen: MSI MAG274QRF-QD 27" 165Hz 1440p monitor + Dell P2719HC 27" 75Hz 1080p second monitor  Sound:  Swan OS 10 speakers + Sennheiser HD598SE headphones Peripherals: Logitech G915 keyboard / Logitech G502 X mouse / Microsoft Xbox One controllers (x2), Lenovo 500 FHD webcam.  Operating System: Windows 11 Pro 25H2 The Lenovo webcam is a recent acquisition because it was the cheapest webcam I could get that has the infrared camera necessary to support face log in with Windows Hello. It works but after it arrive I realised that it doesn't have a built...

 I have just upgraded my CPU from a Ryzen 9700x to a 9800x3D. The 9700x was plenty fast enough for my 5070ti  but I wanted to try one of AMDs much vaunted x3D cpus for myself. It is the most expensive CPU I have ever bought but then again my 5070ti is the most expensive GPU I have ever bought.  At least the €400 9800x3D is currently the best gaming CPU on the planet. My €800 5070ti on the other hand offers less than 60% the performance of an RTX 5090ti. Given that the RTX5090 currently costs around €2.7k I don't think I will be upgrading my GPU again any time soon.   I haven't noticed much of a difference in Windows or in Games yet. Total War Warhammer seems a bit quicker over the end turn but that could be wishful thinking. I ran a few synthetic benchmarks and the 9800x3D is a bit slower than the 9700x in single threaded tests but faster in multi threaded. That makes sense because the 9700x has faster clocks but a smaller cache. The single threaded test probabl...

I have just spent €802 on a PNY Triple Fan OC Nvidia  Geforce 5070ti . This is actually a good deal for a card with US sticker price of $750 taking into account Ireland's 23% VAT and the extra costs associated with living on a small island. It is also the most expensive PC component I have ever bought. I am definitely not OK with the fact that enthusiast level GPUs  cost double what equivalent tier cards cost ten years ago.  I chose this version because it is one of the cheaper variants available but it is well built and one of the faster overclocked models with a large 3 slot heatsink that keeps it cool and quiet under pressure. It has no RGB or other frills but I don't care about that.  Initial impressions after playing around with it for about an hour: In 3D Mark, Total Warhammer 3 and Cyberpunk the card does seem quite a bit faster than the 7800Xt particularly at very high graphics settings. On the other hand the Nvidia Control panel still looks archaic. AMD's Ad...

Life is infinitely complex. In the language of mathematics it is everywhere continuous and nowhere differentiable. This is the definition of a fractal.  The thing about fractals is that you can zoom in as far as you like and it never gets any less complex. I think life is like that. At one level you see kings and emperors and their epoch defining movements. Zoom in and you see common people arguing over the price of corn. Zoom in further and it is just one person trying to decide what clothes to wear. I think that God, if there is a God inhabits all of these levels and all of the complexity that each entails.