Nvidia rtx 3090 discussion

Jokes on me. Dick move evga.
Why is it a dick move? They make a card in a product class and set pricing. It's already an overpriced luxury item, and they have different products if you want more performance upside.

The upper tier models always get designed from the pcb up for more headroom and power potential while bumping up the heat mitigation. I can understand why you arer disappointed that putting it under water wasn't the boost you had anticipated, but that's not on EVGA.
 
Yeah that’s pretty much what I’m finding. Afterburner just hits the limit and adjusts. Theoretically I shouldn’t care as the main reason for the 3090 over others was work related but I hate that they made the decision.

I’m somewhat tempted to try and whinge at them to try and let me step up but have no real expectations. If it had been the the price difference at the time I’d have paid it no worries, but with prices having crept up, plus the loss on reselling It’s too much of a hit.

I thought I was being clever because I had to make a decision quick and just thought “well I’m water cooling anyway so what’s the point paying for fancy shit I’ll rip off anyway”

Jokes on me. Dick move evga.
Loss on reselling the 3090? When I upgraded to the 3090 FTW3 HC I listed my 3090 XC3 on Facebook Marketplace and sold it in 47 minutes flat. Miners are buying 3090s like crazy still even at inflated prices.

I got a few hundred dollars more for it than what I originally paid and more than what my 3090 FTW3 HC cost me (I did get the HC for pre-tariff MSRP though). In the end I got a 3090 FTW3 HC and a couple extra hundred bucks cash from upgrading the XC3.

Might be worth listing the XC3 in your area to see what you’d get it for and then upgrade to a model with a higher power limit if the power limit bugs you. But it would only be worth it if you got another 3090 for non-scalper prices.
 
Yeah that’s pretty much what I’m finding. Afterburner just hits the limit and adjusts. Theoretically I shouldn’t care as the main reason for the 3090 over others was work related but I hate that they made the decision.

I’m somewhat tempted to try and whinge at them to try and let me step up but have no real expectations. If it had been the the price difference at the time I’d have paid it no worries, but with prices having crept up, plus the loss on reselling It’s too much of a hit.

I thought I was being clever because I had to make a decision quick and just thought “well I’m water cooling anyway so what’s the point paying for fancy shit I’ll rip off anyway”

Jokes on me. Dick move evga.
The XC3 model from EVGA always follows reference specifications, so it's not a dick move. Product segmentation is a thing and you get what you pay for. The XC3 Ultra just has a slight OC over reference. Notice that it uses 2x 8-pin PCI-E cables as well, while the FTW3U uses 3x 8-pin. The XC3 TDP of 350W is already pushing the total power specification of 375W in its configuration. I realize that the cables can handle a lot more power, but EVGA can't sell them that way without facing liability issues.
 
some pics of the bykski block. Still waiting for amazon to deliver my thermal pads.... 2 days late after being marked delivered. Oh well. As for the block, it did show up with some scuff marks on the black POM material as shown. Not really a deal breaker for me but you might have better luck on a polished finish if you order the acrylic.

03160001.00_05_57_02.Still007.jpg
03160001.00_05_47_12.Still006.jpg
03160001.00_04_09_02.Still005.jpg


as you can see, the block has direct contact with the die, and contact through thermal pads with the memory, VRMs, and 3 other chips on the face of the card (2 of which nvidia do not have thermal pads on natively on the FE). On the backplate, there are cutouts for larger components, otherwise the backplate remains flat for contact through thermal pads with raised components such as memory. Therefore, you can do the 'thermal pad mod' to cool additional rear components, as long as they are roughly the same height as gddr6x (~1mm). The backplate is 3mm thick aluminum, and the included thermal pads for the front and back of the card measure ~1.5mm thick (though stated in the directions as 1.8mm).
 
Couldn’t help but wonder something. If no one has cards, what happens if you have a warranty situation where they can’t replace your card because of availability?
 
Couldn’t help but wonder something. If no one has cards, what happens if you have a warranty situation where they can’t replace your card because of availability?
I had to send my EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Gaming in because it died.

EVGA replaced the card with a presumably refurbished card in retail packaging. Total process took about 2 weeks.

That is my experience with EVGA.
 
I had to send my EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Gaming in because it died.

EVGA replaced the card with a presumably refurbished card in retail packaging. Total process took about 2 weeks.

That is my experience with EVGA.
I had a near identical experience, though i'd upgraded to the Hybrid cooler. Minor PITA removing that, replacing air cooler and putting it back on my new card, but not bad overall.
 
https://www.evga.com/EVGA/GeneralDownloading.aspx?file=EVGA_Precision_X1_1.1.8.0.zip

The new Precision X1 enables Resizable BAR support for their 3-series cards. Saw this link in their forums (it doesn't seem to have been officially announced yet), and it does appear to work. Performance is no different on my end after enabling it, though.
Looks officially stated to me on the webpage... lol.

I wonder if X1 will update my VBIOS, or if evga still needs to release an "official" VBIOS separate from X1. I know X1 will update firmware; but not sure how (or if) it handles the VBIOS.

"Enhance Performance with NVIDIA Resizable BAR

EVGA GeForce RTX 30 Series utilizing NVIDIA Resizable BAR gives gamers an extra boost in gameplay framerate on select titles by letting the CPU directly access the GPU’s entire frame buffer memory.


EVGA Precision X1 simplifies the upgrade process and makes it more intuitive, so you can spend less time updating software and firmware and get back to your gaming!


All EVGA GeForce RTX 30 Series now feature support for NVIDIA Resizable BAR after updating a brand new EVGA VBIOS."
 
Where did you buy one? And what's your GPU clock speed in games ?

thx
EVGA queue. I was in the first batch.

I can’t give you an answer for clock speed because that varies from game to game and settings to settings. Name a game and the settings and maybe I’ll test it out.
 
Anyone here with a 3090 RTX FE do the pad swap with great success? What pads did you end up going with? I’m wanting better performance but my memory temps get insane when gaming for awhile on a non-DLSS game.
 
Anyone here with a 3090 RTX FE do the pad swap with great success? What pads did you end up going with? I’m wanting better performance but my memory temps get insane when gaming for awhile on a non-DLSS game.

I used the Thermalright and Gelid pads from Amazon. Both 1.5mm and 12 W/mK. I put them on the front and back of the PCB and repasted. Dropped memory temps by 15 degrees. Back plate was warm to the touch prior, and now it is downright hot to the touch under a load. Much better heat transfer to back plate. You could probably go further and put heatsinks on the rear to further drop temps.
 
I used the Thermalright and Gelid pads from Amazon. Both 1.5mm and 12 W/mK. I put them on the front and back of the PCB and repasted. Dropped memory temps by 15 degrees. Back plate was warm to the touch prior, and now it is downright hot to the touch under a load. Much better heat transfer to back plate. You could probably go further and put heatsinks on the rear to further drop temps.


I got the same thermal right and changed the back on my zotac 3090 2mm. I am an Idiot so I didn’t change the once’s under the front heat sink and is I can’t tell if it’s the memory by the GPU or the back because I got the same temps plus my ambient went up lol. It’s not bad though mostly seem less then a hundred in gaming. But when I saw no difference on the back I ordered more to replace the one under the heat sink lol. Right now I was like wtf these pads didn’t do shit then I realize it’s just reporting the highest temps it might just be under the heat sink. 🙄. So getting those tomorrow.

I tried 3mm on the back first and then 2 and the whole time my dumb ass didn’t change the front lol. Then I saw someone random online use the same pads 2mm front and back and got big temp drops. So I was like it’s probably the front memory it’s reporting hotter then the back.
 
I got the same thermal right and changed the back on my zotac 3090 2mm. I am an Idiot so I didn’t change the once’s under the front heat sink and is I can’t tell if it’s the memory by the GPU or the back because I got the same temps plus my ambient went up lol. It’s not bad though mostly seem less then a hundred in gaming. But when I saw no difference on the back I ordered more to replace the one under the heat sink lol. Right now I was like wtf these pads didn’t do shit then I realize it’s just reporting the highest temps it might just be under the heat sink. 🙄. So getting those tomorrow.

I tried 3mm on the back first and then 2 and the whole time my dumb ass didn’t change the front lol. Then I saw someone random online use the same pads 2mm front and back and got big temp drops. So I was like it’s probably the front memory it’s reporting hotter then the back.
The front side memory is cooled by the cooler while the backside has just the backplate. In most cases I would expect hot memory to be on the backside of the card unless the front side memory modules have poorly installed thermal pads. I installed new thermal pads on the backside, did not change the front side and actually saw a 2c increase. That also indicates in my case the hot memory is indeed on the backside of the card since the temperature went up (highest junction temperature is what is indicated). Anyways I will exhaust cooling the backside before tearing apart and doing the front side, if I get to that point then I will just go to water cooling the GPU.
 
The front side memory is cooled by the cooler while the backside has just the backplate. In most cases I would expect hot memory to be on the backside of the card unless the front side memory modules have poorly installed thermal pads. I installed new thermal pads on the backside, did not change the front side and actually saw a 2c increase. That also indicates in my case the hot memory is indeed on the backside of the card since the temperature went up (highest junction temperature is what is indicated). Anyways I will exhaust cooling the backside before tearing apart and doing the front side, if I get to that point then I will just go to water cooling the GPU.

I kind of agree with this. If I had to do it all over again, I'm not sure I'd take apart the front side of the card to get to that memory on the FE.
 
The front side memory is cooled by the cooler while the backside has just the backplate. In most cases I would expect hot memory to be on the backside of the card unless the front side memory modules have poorly installed thermal pads. I installed new thermal pads on the backside, did not change the front side and actually saw a 2c increase. That also indicates in my case the hot memory is indeed on the backside of the card since the temperature went up (highest junction temperature is what is indicated). Anyways I will exhaust cooling the backside before tearing apart and doing the front side, if I get to that point then I will just go to water cooling the GPU.

The Zotac is 4 screws to take off the front. And I was right. I put on new 2mm pads on and my temp dropped by 10-15C. So it wasn't the back. The heat was transferring to back more with pads only on the back but this actually looks like the heat is transferred better to the heatsink with these pads in the front so it removes from both sides on 3090 which helps better. Big difference in temp. On top the biggest difference is the fan speed. It barely ramps up now during gaming. Memory temp has a lot to do with fan speed it seems. Also I just put on these tiny heatsinks on the back that just stick on there and that shit actually helps now and it didn't before. Looks like the pads in the front changed the game for me and now more heat is transferred to the heatsink and the back memory runs cooler in return as well and even better with heatsinks.
 
Last edited:
The Zotac is 4 screws to take off the front. And I was right. I put on new 2mm pads on and my temp dropped by 10-15C. So it wasn't the back. The heat was transferring to back more with pads only on the back but this actually looks like the heat is transferred better to the heatsink with these pads in the front so it removes from both sides on 3090 which helps better. Big difference in temp. On top the biggest difference is the fan speed. It barely ramps up now during gaming. Memory temp has a lot to do with fan speed it seems. Also I just put on these tiny heatsinks on the back that just stick on there and that shit actually helps now and it didn't before. Looks like the pads in the front changed the game for me and now more heat is transferred to the heatsink and the back memory runs cooler in return as well and even better with heatsinks.
So improper pads or installation originally was the culprit, great results with the correction. Yes, do agree that heat can flow from the back memory chips, through the front side memory chips to the heat sink, but in order for that to happen, they would have to be hotter then the front side memory chips to transfer that heat. Heat transfers from hot to cold. Making the back side memory still the hottest of the bunch unless the backplate is much better in cooling than the cooler heatsink and fan which I doubt. Looks like many 3090s have poor interface material and installation of it.
 
So improper pads or installation originally was the culprit, great results with the correction. Yes, do agree that heat can flow from the back memory chips, through the front side memory chips to the heat sink, but in order for that to happen, they would have to be hotter then the front side memory chips to transfer that heat. Heat transfers from hot to cold. Making the back side memory still the hottest of the bunch unless the backplate is much better in cooling than the cooler heatsink and fan which I doubt. Looks like many 3090s have poor interface material and installation of it.

It was just the cheap black heat pads what felt like they were slowly melting lol. But hadn’t gotten to that point yet. They did acceptable job but it’s really amazing what a difference quality heat pads make.
 
The Zotac is 4 screws to take off the front. And I was right. I put on new 2mm pads on and my temp dropped by 10-15C. So it wasn't the back.

This is what I've urged in a few threads; except there are now half a dozen thermal-pad threads on the board so info's scattered: On a 3090 you either re-pad the front only, or front + back. Don't pad or re-pad the back only, because you'll probably make temps worse. These cards are monsters when properly treated and cared for.

1618092111117.png

1618092516915.png
 
Last edited:
This is what I've urged in a few threads; except there are 6+ thermal-pad threads on the board now so info's kinda scattered: On a 3090 you either do the front pads only, or front + back. Don't pad or re-pad the back only, because you'll probably make temps worse. These cards are monsters when properly treated and cared for.

View attachment 346902

View attachment 346903

Nice. What’s your memory running at when it comes to speed to get 125mh? My fan is on auto now and doesn’t even feel loud. I tested mining after changing pads about 118mh at 85% power which is around 296w or so with +1000 on memory but I lowered it to 950.
 
This is what I've urged in a few threads; except there are now half a dozen thermal-pad threads on the board so info's scattered: On a 3090 you either re-pad the front only, or front + back. Don't pad or re-pad the back only, because you'll probably make temps worse. These cards are monsters when properly treated and cared for.

View attachment 346902

View attachment 346903

If you don't touch the front, why would it make it worst? Why would putting better pads on the back make it worst? Reasoning behind that statement please.

As a note that is exactly what happened in my case :D. Turned out a 4c+ increase and not 2c+ indicated before. Put an Artic Freezer II 280 on the CPU. The CPU is much happier to say the lease. This gave me room to install the heat sinks on the backplate where the memory is (EVGA 3090 EC3 Ultra) which did lower the temperature but not as low as it was before I changed out the rear pads. My next step is to get some 1.5mm pads and not from the same company that gave me crap.

Just ordered some of these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CGVZ4YG?psc=1&smid=A1FMXW53ZXVEHM&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Further update on 3090 EVGA XC3 Ultra thermal pads. Switch some system fans around, added another so it would blow on the back side of card.

Result: mining with MSI Afterburner -500 mem, yep minus, gpu locked at 785mhz. JUNCTION temp 110c. WTF? Hashrate was 81mh/s.

This card now is probably limited in gaming. Cannot mine in present condition.

The Why, which has to be tested and cause.
  • Backplate is thin and flexible
  • Thermal pads will compress but do not expand after being crushed
  • The area around the GPU and memory is open and not much support
  • When I installed pads I pressed the back plate, flexing it down crushing the thermal pad beyond what the backplate would do, flexing each memory section down
  • When I released from pressing down the back plate flexed back but the thermal pad, the ones I used did not. Causing a gap
  • I redid this again with more force trying to get better contact with backplate and thermal pads on the fan changeout
  • Except by doing that I made it even worst
EVGA pads are 2.25mm for the backplate which are not readily available. I have 3mm coming so that will test my theory. The 1.5mm ordered, I will just put on the shelf.

Basically replace the thermal pads with 3mm. Install the backplate and never press in beyond what the screws will do with the backplate. Let it bulge. Then test.
 
3090 XC3 Ultra

Changed out the backside thermal pads with 3mm ones from the 2mm I changed out previously which had bad results. The previous deterioration of the 2mm thermal pads with 2c worst temperatures and then 10c+ later was cause by me pressing in on the backplate on the pads. Pressing in on the thermal pads compressed them further and once backplate was released from my grip it sprung away from the thermal pads. Thermal pads are not sponges and don't expand once the pressure is off of them, so basically the memory to backplate had an air space and very poor heat transfer. The backplate is junk on this card, the GPU section has no screws close by to hold down that area, in addition with the GPU area open, makes the backplate weak due to only the thin sides supporting it. Since the backplate is so easy to bend, just taking it off most likely bent it around the old original pads. Anyways with the 3mm pads and some straightening of the backplate I saw a 18c reduction from the 2mm pads at their worst and a 8c reduction from the original.

Wish I had a mill, anyways I think I am going to manufacture a new backplate with suitable rigidity, by ordering some Aluminum flat stock from McMaster, spacers for the height and do it the old fashion way with a die grinder, drill, file and grinder with flap disc.
 
I am going to do the thermal pad replacement on my 3090FE prolly next weekend. I got a 120x120 extreme odyssey 1.5mm pad and used Cutlist. The pieces only uses 65% of the total area.
 
  • Like
Reactions: noko
like this
I oc'ed my eVGA 3090 FTW3 Ultra 950mem and 96gpu and was just wondering what are the temps I should be getting while underload.

Right now nothing goes over 90C as it's set to 90c MAX on the evga app I'm using. It does get really loud every few mins and hot, then repeats the process every 5 min which I'm guessing is normal while under load.
 
I oc'ed my eVGA 3090 FTW3 Ultra 950mem and 96gpu and was just wondering what are the temps I should be getting while underload.

Right now nothing goes over 90C as it's set to 90c MAX on the evga app I'm using. It does get really loud every few mins and hot, then repeats the process every 5 min which I'm guessing is normal while under load.
Try adjusting your fan curve or change your airflow in your case. Mine never goes above 70C air cooled. But, I also have a pretty aggressive fan curve on it to maintain boost speeds. This is with +120GPU and +1000MEM average.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sky15
like this
Try adjusting your fan curve or change your airflow in your case. Mine never goes above 70C air cooled. But, I also have a pretty aggressive fan curve on it to maintain boost speeds. This is with +120GPU and +1000MEM average.

By fan curve do you mean adjusting the fan speed? Right now I have not touched the fan speed at all, but was thinking about having it run at 40-50% on all 3 to keep it from always running hot while underload.

I do have a case with a swinging tempered glass door I'll keep it open to expel air.
 
By fan curve do you mean adjusting the fan speed? Right now I have not touched the fan speed at all, but was thinking about having it run at 40-50% on all 3 to keep it from always running hot while underload.

I do have a case with a swinging tempered glass door I'll keep it open to expel air.

The "curve" part is you can adjust the fan speed to vary based on the temperature of your GPU. Sounds like in your description above, the fan ramps up and then when the temp drops, it slows, temp rises again because of the slower fan, and then the cycle repeats itself.
 
The "curve" part is you can adjust the fan speed to vary based on the temperature of your GPU. Sounds like in your description above, the fan ramps up and then when the temp drops, it slows, temp rises again because of the slower fan, and then the cycle repeats itself.

Yup, I'm guessing keeping the fan speed and or curve helps prevent this.
 
Yup, I'm guessing keeping the fan speed and or curve helps prevent this.

I'd probably adjust the curve slightly so it doesn't cycle. Should be able to do it in the EVGA Precision X1 app.
 
I'd probably adjust the curve slightly so it doesn't cycle. Should be able to do it in the EVGA Precision X1 app.
How would that look like. Never really played with fan curves, so it's new to me.

something like 0-50c at 20%spd 50-70c 60% and 70c+ 80%spd?
 
How would that look like. Never really played with fan curves, so it's new to me.

something like 0-50c at 20%spd 50-70c 60% and 70c+ 80%spd?

That's the idea. But it really depends on your individual setup and usage. Play around with the curve under your normal load and see if you can get a happy medium between fan speed and temps.
 
That's the idea. But it really depends on your individual setup and usage. Play around with the curve under your normal load and see if you can get a happy medium between fan speed and temps.

Well, played with the curve and have it at a level I like. WAY WAY better, now I'm idling at about 29-30 and at max load 69-72. Such a difference!
 
Finally got time to do the Thermal Pad replacements on my 3090FE. I cut out the pieces according to the diagram. I count 18 pieces in the cutout drawing but only count 17 pieces in the board pics.
 

Attachments

  • 3090 FE Thermal Pad layout.pdf
    861.1 KB · Views: 0
Finally got time to do the Thermal Pad replacements on my 3090FE. I cut out the pieces according to the diagram. I count 18 pieces in the cutout drawing but only count 17 pieces in the board pics.
thats what i see too (edit: 8x33 is extra). there is also a 8x74 that isnt on the diagram but is on the card(second pic, left). you sure those are supposed to go together?
 
There is also a 41x8 cutout that has nowhere to go.
Looks like the cutout diagrams arent for this card, or the card images arent the FE.
 
Back
Top