Nvidia rtx 3090 discussion

I don't think I have room. I also have an Elgato 4k60 MK2 in there that needs at least a x4 slot. I have that exact cooler in my saved items but decided it wouldn't fit. I might give it another look though as I wasn't considering moving down the vid card. Thanks for the idea.

you could also try a spot fan.

Spot fan. I’ve done that before and it really does keep the backplate cool, doesn’t make much difference on the core temps though but hey, cooler whatever can never hurt.
 
What would be considered a decent silicon lottery GPU in terms of overclokcking/boost?

My MSI RTX 3090 Suprim X is far from a golden sample, that much I can tell. I can overclock the GPU to 140 and run 3dsMark TimeSpy without doing anything else, but it wont do 150. Increasing the power limit does change anything. Running 3D rendering, it will accept a 150 overclock. Also, it reacts well to under volting. The auto selected GPU voltage seem to hit around 1.08v at load.

All in all, it looks bang middle of the pack?
 
What would be considered a decent silicon lottery GPU in terms of overclokcking/boost?

My MSI RTX 3090 Suprim X is far from a golden sample, that much I can tell. I can overclock the GPU to 140 and run 3dsMark TimeSpy without doing anything else, but it wont do 150. Increasing the power limit does change anything. Running 3D rendering, it will accept a 150 overclock. Also, it reacts well to under volting. The auto selected GPU voltage seem to hit around 1.08v at load.

All in all, it looks bang middle of the pack?
you need to tell us the actual frequency it runs at, not the offset.
 
you need to tell us the actual frequency it runs at, not the offset.
Aaaah yes, silly of me to not think of that. :oops:

On stock settings, running TimeSpy, my card does:
Clock frequency 1,980 MHz (1,395 MHz)
Average clock frequency 1,874 MHz
https://www.3dmark.com/spy/17470752

Adding a 140+ on the GPU (everything else being at stock, my card does:
Clock frequency 2,100 MHz (1,395 MHz)
Average clock frequency 1,964 MHz
https://www.3dmark.com/spy/17471086

I guess that is decent enough. I should also note that I'm running on Studio Drivers, not Game Ready since my RTX 3090 is primarily for 3D rendering.
 
Aaaah yes, silly of me to not think of that. :oops:

On stock settings, running TimeSpy, my card does:
Clock frequency 1,980 MHz (1,395 MHz)
Average clock frequency 1,874 MHz
https://www.3dmark.com/spy/17470752

Adding a 140+ on the GPU (everything else being at stock, my card does:
Clock frequency 2,100 MHz (1,395 MHz)
Average clock frequency 1,964 MHz
https://www.3dmark.com/spy/17471086

I guess that is decent enough. I should also note that I'm running on Studio Drivers, not Game Ready since my RTX 3090 is primarily for 3D rendering.
just an FYI, nvidia cards use a 15mhz separation between clock jumps, so setting 140 is really getting you either 135 or 150mhz. Stick to setting a multiple of 15, or the card is basically going to guess which way to go.
 
Also, the card will boost to 2100 and stay there when running Octane Render, so maybe I shouldn't be too worried.

Ampere really is a beast when it comes to 3D rendering. (y)
 
I’m more interested in seeing the clocks that it reaches compared to my XC3 than temps since it’ll be under water either way.

I also just got notification that the FTW3 shipped and is supposed to be here Tuesday. Gives me a bit of time to test it out as I have until Feb 7th to return the XC3 if I decide to stay with the FTW3.
Both being under water, and without an OC, they would likely perform exactly the same.

However, under water, and the FTW3 having a higher power limit, you can (if silicon agrees) get a much higher OC on the FTW3 I imagine.
 
Both being under water, and without an OC, they would likely perform exactly the same.

However, under water, and the FTW3 having a higher power limit, you can (if silicon agrees) get a much higher OC on the FTW3 I imagine.
That’s what I’m anticipating. My curiosity is just how much more performance I could squeeze out of the FTW3 card. I’d probably want to keep it around 400w as a daily driver which is still 34w higher than my max XC3 power limit. Maybe will bump it up even higher to ~420w if my watercooling loop can manage it without increasing the coolant temp too much.
 
That’s what I’m anticipating. My curiosity is just how much more performance I could squeeze out of the FTW3 card. I’d probably want to keep it around 400w as a daily driver which is still 34w higher than my max XC3 power limit. Maybe will bump it up even higher to ~420w if my watercooling loop can manage it without increasing the coolant temp too much.
I run at the maximum of 450W on my FTW3 and never top 70C on air... you would be fine maxing it out with water for sure.

You might even be able to flash to the XOC bios for 500W and keep it cool. I'm not going to even try that one on air... lol.
 
I run at the maximum of 450W on my FTW3 and never top 70C on air... you would be fine maxing it out with water for sure.

You might even be able to flash to the XOC bios for 500W and keep it cool. I'm not going to even try that one on air... lol.
Maybe. My 1080 Ti FTW3 (330-350w) and 3700X with PBO on already gets my water temp to 36°C under stress testing with a silent fan curve. Going to a 5950X and a 3090 is going to be a lot more heat to dissipate. Could see my coolant easily approaching 40°C with the same silent fan profile but we shall see.
 
Maybe. My 1080 Ti FTW3 (330-350w) and 3700X with PBO on already gets my water temp to 36°C under stress testing with a silent fan curve. Going to a 5950X and a 3090 is going to be a lot more heat to dissipate. Could see my coolant easily approaching 40°C with the same silent fan profile but we shall see.
Yeah, if you're going for silent, thats a different ballgame!

When working, I run my system in stealth mode, but gaming I care more for performance, so I run my AIO on extreme and my GPU on Aggressive. Then again, I also game on 5.1 surround sound, so my volume drowns out any fan or pump noise... lol. My wife says I'm half deaf, probably not a lie... haha. 😆
 
E1975EA5-4F85-425B-91CA-EEB74A95B821.jpeg

My XC3’s big brother arrived today from Amazon. Going to pop it into the PC and see how it compares tonight.
 
Running some 3090 XC3 benchmarks for comparison and just came across this:

1611106732886.png


After Heaven looped for about 15 minutes. 379.2w max board power draw (~108% TDP)...on the stock 366w BIOS. Never went above 75w on the PCI-E slot which is ideal since that is within spec. Average core clock of 1944 MHz @ 950mV undervolt with +135 offset.

EDIT: It actually ended up hitting 380.3W.
 
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Is there a guide available on how to flash the XC3 bios onto the 3090 FTW3 Ultra?
 
Is there such thing as flashing a 2x 8-pin card's bios onto a 3x 8-pin card's bios and eliminating the need to populate the 3rd 8-pin if we don't care about higher power limit performance whatsoever? Or is that an incredibly stupid question?
 
Is there such thing as flashing a 2x 8-pin card's bios onto a 3x 8-pin card's bios and eliminating the need to populate the 3rd 8-pin if we don't care about higher power limit performance whatsoever? Or is that an incredibly stupid question?
No stupid questions :). No, you can't do that though.
 
Is there such thing as flashing a 2x 8-pin card's bios onto a 3x 8-pin card's bios and eliminating the need to populate the 3rd 8-pin if we don't care about higher power limit performance whatsoever? Or is that an incredibly stupid question?
No stupid questions :). No, you can't do that though.

It is possible. Users on the EVGA forum have been doing it claiming the XC3 BIOS allows for better load balancing for their FTW3s that are being throttled due to poor load balancing.

I wouldn’t recommend it though as it hasn’t been thoroughly tested and if your card dies with an unapproved BIOS on it then EVGA may have a reason to not honor the warranty.
 
I feel the load balancing on my FTW3 is perfectly fine. When I look at GPUz while gaming or benchmarking, I'll see like ~128W or so on each 8-Pin connector evenly and 74W on the PCIe slot. What more balancing do we need? lol.
 
I feel the load balancing on my FTW3 is perfectly fine. When I look at GPUz while gaming or benchmarking, I'll see like ~128W or so on each 8-Pin connector evenly and 74W on the PCIe slot. What more balancing do we need? lol.
Not all FTW3s that are affected. There are some FTW3s that pull 150W from the first two 8-pins and only 40-60W or so from the third 8-pin despite pulling 75-90W from the PCI-E slot. Apparently the XC3 BIOS does not recognize the 3rd 8-pin but allows for it to pull more power as a result.

Again, this is what I’ve read on the EVGA forum by the users who completed the flash. Not sure how much of this has been tested enough to be accurate/reliable. IIRC, EVGA recognized the load balancing issue back in October or so and said it could be corrected with a BIOS update, but they’ve been silent since.
 
Not all FTW3s that are affected. There are some FTW3s that pull 150W from the first two 8-pins and only 40-60W or so from the third 8-pin despite pulling 75-90W from the PCI-E slot. Apparently the XC3 BIOS does not recognize the 3rd 8-pin but allows for it to pull more power as a result.

Again, this is what I’ve read on the EVGA forum by the users who completed the flash. Not sure how much of this has been tested enough to be accurate/reliable. IIRC, EVGA recognized the load balancing issue back in October or so and said it could be corrected with a BIOS update, but they’ve been silent since.
Is it random then? My vBIOS date is 10/8/20, version 94.02.26.48.16 (.15 for last if I use "normal" vbios and not OC switch vbios)
 
Is it random then? My vBIOS date is 10/8/20, version 94.02.26.48.16 (.15 for last if I use "normal" vbios and not OC switch vbios)
Seems like it. If you browse around online you’ll notice FTW3 cards appear to vary quite a bit in terms of power draw, power balancing, and overall reliability (red light of death, black screens, inconsistent fan ramping, etc). I’m guessing most are fine but there are some bad apples out there in one form or another.

I wouldn’t worry about it too much if your card is working fine.
 
Reminds me of the whole 2080Ti fiasco... I never had issues with my 2080Ti once, but people said they were dying left and right... lol.
 
I feel the load balancing on my FTW3 is perfectly fine. When I look at GPUz while gaming or benchmarking, I'll see like ~128W or so on each 8-Pin connector evenly and 74W on the PCIe slot. What more balancing do we need? lol.
1611163604740.png

As you can see here my PCIe and #3 power have the same average draw. In reality, the PCIe often draws 5-10 more watts than the #3 power connector. This behavior is displayed on my old card and my fresh RMA. I have a 3090 FTW3 Ultra. Thus why I asked if there is a guide on how to flash the XC3 bios to the FTW3U. Once the PCIe slot hits about 79.8w the card goes into PWR perf cap mode and cuts the requested clocks. The card never gets hotter than 60c.
 
View attachment 320773
As you can see here my PCIe and #3 power have the same average draw. In reality, the PCIe often draws 5-10 more watts than the #3 power connector. This behavior is displayed on my old card and my fresh RMA. I have a 3090 FTW3 Ultra. Thus why I asked if there is a guide on how to flash the XC3 bios to the FTW3U. Once the PCIe slot hits about 79.8w the card goes into PWR perf cap mode and cuts the requested clocks. The card never gets hotter than 60c.
Out of curiosity, that is your vbios version number on your FTW3?
 
It makes no difference which bios I run. Norm, OC, XOC.
Ohhhh, gotcha. Maybe a hardware flaw then? Interesting. I thought maybe you were using the vbios that comes on the FTW3 and wanted to see if the XOC vbios fixed that. Was curious how your Version number compared to mine.
 
Ohhhh, gotcha. Maybe a hardware flaw then? Interesting. I thought maybe you were using the vbios that comes on the FTW3 and wanted to see if the XOC vbios fixed that. Was curious how your Version number compared to mine.
It's hardware. If they had a software fix we'd have it since they fixed the 3080. Here is a 130 page thread with many people finding the same thing. https://forums.evga.com/EVGA-GeForce-RTX-3090-FTW3-XOC-BIOS-BETA-m3124192-p130.aspx

Between this and the cards popping/black screening randomly I'm selling this as soon as I have an Asus or FE in hand. I'll never buy EVGA again.
 
It's hardware. If they had a software fix we'd have it since they fixed the 3080. Here is a 130 page thread with many people finding the same thing. https://forums.evga.com/EVGA-GeForce-RTX-3090-FTW3-XOC-BIOS-BETA-m3124192-p130.aspx

Between this and the cards popping/black screening randomly I'm selling this as soon as I have an Asus or FE in hand. I'll never buy EVGA again.
Oh damn, that's crazy if that is truly the cause. Maybe I lucked out then as I stay below the PCIe limit of 75W and the other 3 rails pull about the same power draw under load.
 
exlink So just to clarify, if an XC3 bios were to be flashed onto a FTW3, it would still REQUIRE all 3 pins to be populated correct? I wouldn't be able to leave the 3rd pin empty and still have it work fine at 300W loads?
 
exlink So just to clarify, if an XC3 bios were to be flashed onto a FTW3, it would still REQUIRE all 3 pins to be populated correct? I wouldn't be able to leave the 3rd pin empty and still have it work fine at 300W loads?
I believe all three pins would still be required but can’t say for sure. Lobstar posted a link where a few people have discussed doing the XC3 flash as well. I would ask them your questions as they’ll have first hand experience.
 
exlink So just to clarify, if an XC3 bios were to be flashed onto a FTW3, it would still REQUIRE all 3 pins to be populated correct? I wouldn't be able to leave the 3rd pin empty and still have it work fine at 300W loads?
Not only do you need all three still but you can still kill the card by not providing it enough power over the third cable so don't use a splitter either.
 
Well, this FTW3 has been a disappointment. When I first installed it and opened Precision X1 to do the firmware update it failed. Half of the RGB bar turned off and a single red light came on over the left most PCI-E connector. It still worked though and had to hard reboot it to get the firmware update to trigger again. Thankfully it went through successfully the second time.

I'm definitely sticking with my 3090 XC3. Ran the 3090 FTW3 through the same 15+ minute Heaven Loop and came back with this:

1611200776548.png


Average 1920 MHz core clock at the same 1995@950mV (+135) as my XC3. Power limit maxed to 107%. My XC3 managed an average of 1944 MHz at a lower power draw (~360W average on XC3 vs ~370W average on FTW3). Also, check the PCI-E slot power draw...83.2W! That's well over spec while the 3x 8-pin connectors sit at 100-120W. Without the undervolt it actually goes over 85W! Don't think I'm even going to bother with the 500W XOC BIOS when the card is already pulling 83.2W from the PCI-E slot with the standard 420W OC BIOS.

And to top it off...LOUD COIL WHINE!

I think I'm much better off saving myself the $200+ and sticking with my 3090 XC3.

EDIT: Installed the 500W XOC BIOS and it increased my average power draw from 370W to...400W. Oof.
 
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Well, this FTW3 has been a disappointment. When I first installed it and opened Precision X1 to do the firmware update it failed. Half of the RGB bar turned off and a single red light came on over the left most PCI-E connector. It still worked though and had to hard reboot it to get the firmware update to trigger again. Thankfully it went through successfully the second time.

I'm definitely sticking with my 3090 XC3. Ran the 3090 FTW3 through the same 15+ minute Heaven Loop and came back with this:



Average 1920 MHz core clock at the same 1995@950mV (+135) as my XC3. Power limit maxed to 107%. My XC3 managed an average of 1944 MHz at a lower power draw (~360W average on XC3 vs ~370W average on FTW3). Also, check the PCI-E slot power draw...83.2W! That's well over spec while the 3x 8-pin connectors sit at 100-120W. Without the undervolt it actually goes over 85W! Don't think I'm even going to bother with the 500W XOC BIOS when the card is already pulling 83.2W from the PCI-E slot with the standard 420W OC BIOS.

And to top it off...LOUD COIL WHINE!

I think I'm much better off saving myself the $200+ and sticking with my 3090 XC3.

EDIT: Installed the 500W XOC BIOS and it increased my average power draw from 370W to...400W. Oof.


This sounds exactly like the majority of FTW3 owners on the forum. Welcome to the club I guess? lol
 
This sounds exactly like the majority of FTW3 owners on the forum. Welcome to the club I guess? lol
Guess I just had higher expectations. On the stock 420W OC BIOS the FTW3 only has about a 10-15W higher average power draw compared to my XC3 with a 366W BIOS. And my XC3 still managed higher average clock speeds because it wasn’t getting throttled. The XC3 also never surpassed 75W on the PCI-E slot while the FTW3 would spike as high as 85W!

The 500W XOC BIOS added only about 20W more power draw on average after more testing. Meaning 30-35W more than my XC3 and at that power draw it basically matches my XC3 for average clock speed.

I’m going to do a clean driver install this evening and see if that’ll help anything because it’s honestly a shock how very little difference there is between my two cards.
 
Guess I just had higher expectations. On the stock 420W OC BIOS the FTW3 only has about a 10-15W higher average power draw compared to my XC3 with a 366W BIOS. And my XC3 still managed higher average clock speeds because it wasn’t getting throttled. The XC3 also never surpassed 75W on the PCI-E slot while the FTW3 would spike as high as 85W!

The 500W XOC BIOS added only about 20W more power draw on average after more testing. Meaning 30-35W more than my XC3 and at that power draw it basically matches my XC3 for average clock speed.

I’m going to do a clean driver install this evening and see if that’ll help anything because it’s honestly a shock how very little difference there is between my two cards.
Man, you got a dud or something, but does match what others are complaining about too I guess. My PCIe never goes above 75W and I have the slider maxed and typically will get 449W total power draw. Average clocks are game dependent for sure, but I seem to average around 2055Mhz in CP2077, 2025Mhz in RDR2 & SOTTR and Timespy I'll average around 2055Mhz as well. Using +130Mhz core & +500Mhz memory.

TBH, once the card warms up slightly (~50C or more) I have 0 coil whine.

Also, my firmware never updated with PX1... so what's with so many people doing that automatically?

You also have have me curious to try the 500W vbios, but everything works so well, I'm afraid to touch/flash it... lol.
 
Man, you got a dud or something, but does match what others are complaining about too I guess. My PCIe never goes above 75W and I have the slider maxed and typically will get 449W total power draw. Average clocks are game dependent for sure, but I seem to average around 2055Mhz in CP2077, 2025Mhz in RDR2 & SOTTR and Timespy I'll average around 2055Mhz as well. Using +130Mhz core & +500Mhz memory.

TBH, once the card warms up slightly (~50C or more) I have 0 coil whine.

Also, my firmware never updated with PX1... so what's with so many people doing that automatically?

You also have have me curious to try the 500W vbios, but everything works so well, I'm afraid to touch/flash it... lol.
My FTW3 stays around 75W power draw like yours, but just has random spikes to 77-85W. That’s apparently where it throttles.

Do you mind posting your TimeSpy benchmark so I can compare with my 2 cards?
 
My FTW3 stays around 75W power draw like yours, but just has random spikes to 77-85W. That’s apparently where it throttles.

Do you mind posting your TimeSpy benchmark so I can compare with my 2 cards?
Can't say i ever noticed spikes on my PCIe, but I always do hit the Power Limit before anything else, but that's because it hits the limit of 450W across all rails, not the PCIe spiking above spec.

Also, here is my Timespy for comparison if you want. It's the highest I ever got so far. I think I pushed +1000Mhz memory on that run with my current core OC. Did the run on a cold morning, that helped with cooling... haha.

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/56702530?
 
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