mark_thaddeus
Okidoki, I've been trying to figure one more thing about the hybrid kit. How the heck do you turn off the white rectangular bar led near the GPM leds? Very annoying and I'm hoping I don't have to use electrical tape on it.

PietroBR

mark_thaddeus
Okidoki, I've been trying to figure one more thing about the hybrid kit. How the heck do you turn off the white rectangular bar led near the GPM leds? Very annoying and I'm hoping I don't have to use electrical tape on it.

You don't, as far as I know.

PietroBR
 
You need a minimun of 10 posts before being able to post links / photos.
You can post it on imgur.com a paste the link with a space on it (like http s://www.imgur.com)

Oxide36
Has anyone had success RMA'ing their card without the air cooler? I have this exact issue but no longer have the air cooler (a shop built the system for me and didn't give me the air cooler back). Evga will not accept the RMA without it. This seems absurd as they even said it's a known issue with their own product being defective! And I have the hybrid cooler which essentially makes this a FTW3 Hybrid series card.

I've heard great things about evga and their support but right now I have a $1200 brick and their middle finger.

gregts
Hope I don't need to RMA mine (already gone through one of those) but does that mean that I have to find the heatpads that were under the original cooler too?
They pretty much broke in pieces when I remove them (I did the mistake of disassembling the card just after use so they were quite soft...)

dual109
 
Read this thread there are many pointers regarding the installation of the kit as the instructions are vague.   There's one at the top of this page.  "Make sure you card is cool before ripping off heatsink if you want to retain your thermal pads"   I've had my kit in a box since december and I'm glad I have and I'm still in two minds about installing it with all the other reports of pump noise and the minimal cooling benefits I've been hearing.  

gregts

TahoeDustI read through the thread and just ordered it.  Buy once cry once, no guts no glory, it's only money, etc....

 
Good luck mate. I hope you get the most out of it!
My experience has been mixed as I got the batch with the wonky metal shroud and a very loud pump.
1. Make sure your card is cool before ripping off heatsink if you want to retain your thermal pads as dual109 pointed out. I didn't and they turned into putty.
2. When removing the shroud be very careful when prying out the top led cable (the short one next to the power connectors). It can be a bugger to unclip.
I chipped the header & cut one of the cables. I will have to solder it back in should I ever need to use the stock cooler again.
3. Check that the metal shroud is clipped in properly as shown by silentmarket in this post. His whole post is a lifesaver.
Not checking his post can result to anything from no boost on the card all the way up to complete system lockups. I experienced all of it.
As I had already RMA'ed my new FTW3, I could be bothered to go through all that again, so I ended up taping both the shroud and the PCB contacts he proposes.
pics here.
4. As for the pump...I guess that's just down to luck. 
 
I am sure a lot of folks here are enjoying their purchase but in hindsight, I could easily say that I would never buy a kit again, just too much hassle for me.
I would deffo buy a watercooled GPU but AFTER reading around about the pump noise.
The pump noise is very annoying in my dead silent case and I ended up having to customize my card to alleviate this - which is crazy after spending so much money.
Temp differences are substantial (depending on your case/fan setup) but you will have to run your fan at a high speed for that and the fan provided is loud. 
I am running both the radiator fan (using a 4pin Silent Wings 3 fan) and the pump (with a cable extension) from my mobo headers (after flashing the slave vbios with an Asus fw) to be able to control everything through AI Suite.
Pics here https://imgur.com/a/wJoCk
 
Now, everything runs dead silent when idle and the card temps run around 55C when gaming. Bear in mind that I am getting these temps while undervolting (0,900) and running my card at 1860mhz..
If I OC my card, I have to crank up my fan speeds and it still runs around 60-65C. Hoping for better all around temps when I switch from my Fractal Meshify C to a Fractal R6 TG next month.
 
And since I wrote all this, I just want to add that I wish EVGA includes pump speed controls in XOC next time around and a better fan or at least a 4pin header allowing us to connect a custom pwm fan that can be controlled via XOC...
Their support team has been uber helpful and I love the brand (this is my second ftw card) but if these are not included, I think I will be buying an asus card. Aura and control via Ai suite are an unbeatable combo for me.

Icarus2
New user here. This problem has happened to me TWICE now :( I recently bought a gaming PC off craigslist (I know, I know...) and it had a FTW3 and Hybrid kit already installed. Guy said the computer worked great and a quick inspection with the device manager looked good - but when I got it home, I immediately noticed the card was under-performing. After some benchmarks and tests, I came across this forum - contacted EVGA and was approved for Cross-Ship RMA's on both items because it was "a known issue". Today - I received both the new FTW3 and Hybrid Kit. First, I threw the FTW3 into the computer (stock air cooler) and was super happy because I finally had a card that was working properly, getting GREAT benchmark scores. Then, I verrrrrrry carefully installed the new hybrid kit and....the same problem happened again :((( VVDC during benchmarks stays at 0.7810 voltage - Card is locked at 1569Mhz and EVGA Precision crashes if I touch ANYTHING.
 
I'm completely defeated at this point. Going to bed now - will contact EVGA to see what can be done but I'm not feeling hopeful at his point...