I’ve heard murmurs of this issue right now. Most of the discussion is focused on actually getting a card. But this seems like an important topic:

https://www.igorslab.de/e...-rtx-3080-andrtx-3090/

I’ve just been doing a quick skim of this article, but has anyone seen any reports of EVGA cards with similar crashing problems? This seems isolated to the lower tier cards like the cheap Zotac models. However I haven’t seen many reports covering this issue.

Edit: can any of the EVGA techs here comment on whether or not certain EVGA models have the cheaper POSCAPs or MLCCs?

https://forums.evga.com/FindPost/3090783
 
 

Not sure if this is your problem , but .....
 
https://wccftech.com/nvid...screens-during-gaming/
 
https://www.guru3d.com/ne...shes-while-gaming.html

^ Yeah, those are bandaid fixes. The issue lies with the capacitors themselves. Having to deliberately downclock a card to get it to not crash is unacceptable. Especially in a 700 dollar product. Even more so if this same thing exists on the 3090 boards.

@Andzx

What card do you have?

torick

Andzx
Yesterday was day 1 with it for me, its crashed a lot until I put -100 core clock, seems stable now ran it for a few hours in games last night.

Do you think they pushed these cards over their limits or just not fully optimized drivers?

Probably a little bit of a driver problem in some instances. Nvidia bungled the launch and AIBs couldn’t even get drivers until the day of.

But based on the Igor article, this is an inherent hardware problem. The card will crash at higher frequencies because of the cheaper POSCAPs.

I've had an XC3 Ultra for a week and have not had a crash.  Playing mostly Control and CoD: Warzone.

I think Igor is onto something.
 
A few things to keep in mind, though. This effect will depend on a lot of things and circuitry elsewhere could mitigate the noise making the difference between POSCAPs and MLCCs a moot point for EVGA boards. But it also may not be mitigated and could affect EVGA boards. 3090s have slightly different/higher current draw and that could also change things up. I’d expect that to make things worse but that is not a given. It looks like 3090s have an extra power phase or so that could easily make this not apply to the 3090s. It takes good test equipment to see things at that level and speed but overclockability is a practical handle on this. Got to emphasize there will be lots of things likely affecting the noise levels so just because POSCAPs may be used doesn’t necessarily mean problems.
 
The 3080 XC3 Ultra has a patch of MLCCs in the EVGA product photo but there’s a majority that appear to be all POSCAPs. The board I wanted (3090 FTW3 Ultra) shows all POSCAPs. Could be the line was changed to switch to at least some MLCCs and the photos just need updating, or the photos could be accurate. It will take people getting their cards reporting what they got, if they have lockups or low overclocks, or a statement from EVGA to clear this up.
 
For now at least, I’m glad I didn’t get a 1st wave board and will be watching this closely. Very curious if the product images here are accurate (those could be early production and not up to date), what capacitors are actually shipping to customers, and if the effect is even real (though I suspect it is), and if this applies to 3090s too or just 3080s.

For those reporting results - good or bad - please be sure to also note if you have all POSCAPs or any MLCC patches.
 

Argh, so this is going to be like silicon lottery? :(
I guess maybe there's a silver lining to being unable to get a card.

HawkOculus

Rage_M
I have the XC Black 3080, which isn't factory overclocked. OC'd GPU+40 and Memory+700 in Precision X1, using a Thermaltake 750W Toughpower G1. So far I've yet to run across any crashes in games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Monster Hunter World, Skyrim VR, and DOOM Eternal. Gonna try out some more games in a little while, but so far so good.

Can you take a picture of the back of the card? Specifically the PCB where the bracket for the die is. An up close picture.

@Frammish

Excellent post, and I concur. I’m glad I missed out on a first wave card now. 2 years ago we had the Space Invaders and now this. I always seem to get caught up in hype, but at the same time, I’m glad that I’ve missed out on a card right at launch because of these issues that always seem to crop up.

A bit on the low quality side, but you can still sort of make it out

Frammish
I think Igor is onto something.
 
A few things to keep in mind, though. This effect will depend on a lot of things and circuitry elsewhere could mitigate the noise making the difference between POSCAPs and MLCCs a moot point for EVGA boards. But it also may not be mitigated and could affect EVGA boards. 3090s have slightly different/higher current draw and that could also change things up. I’d expect that to make things worse but that is not a given. It looks like 3090s have an extra power phase or so that could easily make this not apply to the 3090s. It takes good test equipment to see things at that level and speed but overclockability is a practical handle on this. Got to emphasize there will be lots of things likely affecting the noise levels so just because POSCAPs may be used doesn’t necessarily mean problems.
 
The 3080 XC3 Ultra has a patch of MLCCs in the EVGA product photo but there’s a majority that appear to be all POSCAPs. The board I wanted (3090 FTW3 Ultra) shows all POSCAPs. Could be the line was changed to switch to at least some MLCCs and the photos just need updating, or the photos could be accurate. It will take people getting their cards reporting what they got, if they have lockups or low overclocks, or a statement from EVGA to clear this up.
 
For now at least, I’m glad I didn’t get a 1st wave board and will be watching this closely. Very curious if the product images here are accurate (those could be early production and not up to date), what capacitors are actually shipping to customers, and if the effect is even real (though I suspect it is), and if this applies to 3090s too or just 3080s.

 
So I made the same comment on reddit. I was going by the pics that are posted on techpowerup and I assume you did the same. The actual FTW3 cards in the wild use MLCC in the middle, just like the XC3. 
 
https://www.hd-tecnologia...090-ftw3-ultra-24gb/2/

What exactly are we looking at and looking for as i have no idea what MLCCs and POSCAPs are? Any pictures and location to at.

I hadn’t seen the Techpowerup images but am glad that the product images appear to be old.
 
EVGA might want to update where appropriate since this is now a thing at least some are looking at.
 

Are there any pictures that show the capacitor configuration on an EVGA 3090 XC3 Ultra?
Bought one of those from caseking.de and feeling now a tiny bit apprehensive...

Crashes usually happen first week due to drivers and games not being properly optimized.