arestavo

Dabadger84
I really want to give it a try but I'm genuinely worried about bricking the card...
 
If I were to brick a BIOS, I can just boot up with the BIOS switch in the other position, switch it back to the broken one & reflash, correct?

Yes? It's a 2 VBIOS card. If for some reason you power down the PC during the flash and soft brick the card, flip the VBIOS switch and reboot. Then when in windows, flip the switch (don't reboot yet) and flash the VBIOS. Simple as can be.
 
Now, if you let PX1 flash the wrong MCU update to your card, you might have a problem with the fans/lighting. I recommend using AB and ditching PX1 because of this and a myriad other issues with PX1.

Well I'm trying to do it, whilst using the "patched" ID Mismatch Disabled NVFlash, and it's not working, keeps saying "No NVIDia display adapters found" and I followed a step by step guide I found.
Dunno what the deal is.

Here's a more complete guide/information that I've gathered:
 
If you have a power limited 3090 FTW3 card like I do (power perfcap shown even at 390W in the Valley benchmark), the XC3 Ultra VBIOS (which I sometimes just refer to as XC3 or XC3 VBIOS) will open up your card. It bugs out the power readings (AB, GPU-Z, etc.), so total power draw isn't accurate - use a kilowatt meter or UPS reading to see the before/after results. You should use Afterburner (which I usually refer to as AB) instead of Precision X1 (which I refer to as PX1) since using the XC3 VBIOS will have PX1 wanting to flash the XC3 firmware to your FTW3 Microcontroller Unit (MCU - the fan controller / RGB controller) - which will likely cause fan / RGB control issues.
 
This VBIOS WILL result in your card producing more heat because your card will be drawing more watts - on air my card got up to 78C at 100% fan speed, but with the hybrid kit it maxed out at 64C.
 
The fans will likely act a bit buggy too - when at 100% fan speed they'll wind down and then ramp back up under load. I got around this by offloading my hybrid kit's radiator fans onto a fan controller.
 
Why do this? Well, my card would usually game at 1920 to 1950Mhz with any VBIOS other than the XC3, and benchmarking would see a max average of 1996Mhz in Port Royal (on a good run). With the XC3 VBIOS, my card's GPU stays at 2100MHz while gaming, and benchmarking can see 2160+MHz in Port Royal. Quite the difference!
 
Of note - this is not an unlocked VBIOS, so it should not void any warranties like the kingpin 1000W "unlocked" VBIOS and because it is a dual VBIOS card. It just changes something on the card so that it doesn't downclock / undervolt itself to near stock levels of performance even with a hefty +200 GPU offset, like my card does. Likely something to do with the fixed voltage level analog controller that EVGA decided to use, and so it lowers my 77W PCIE slot power draw to the 66W (or lower) and likely the same for my VRAM (which is another reason the card will perfcap power).
 
Also of note, the reason for using the XC3 VBIOS instead of some other 2 power pin VBIOS is because the display outputs (HDMI, DP) are the same between the XC3 and FTW3 - and thus will all work.
 
Tools that you will need:
NVFlash (download the October 1st version, otherwise you won't have the nvflash64 executable - you might be able to use nvflash instead, and use "nvflash" instead of "nvflash64" as a command - I've not tested it)
XC3 Ultra VBIOS
MSI Afterburner 
 
1. Reset/remove any GPU/VRAM overclocks in AB (you shouldn't use PX1 for the reason stated in the first paragraph). Close AB completely (right click on the tray icon and choose Close).
2. Open command prompt in administrator mode. Windows key, type CMD, right click on Command Prompt, select Run as Administrator, choose Yes.
3. Navigate to where you unzipped NVflash and put the unzipped XC3 VBIOS. Open the folder and highlight the path bar and copy it (something like C:\Users\USERNAME\Desktop\nvflash ). Type, without quotes, "CD" a space (for Change Directory), then right click in the command prompt to paste the NVFlash folder. Press the Enter key to change the directory.
4. Backup your current VBIOS for later. Use the following command, without quotes, in command prompt to do so: "nvflash64 -b name.rom" (name can be whatever you want it to be WITHOUT spaces). Don't be alarmed when the screen blanks - that's just the driver being deactivated / reactivated in order for the tool to download the VBIOS.
5. Flash the XC3 Ultra VBIOS. Using the same command prompt window, and still without the quotation marks, type the following command: "nvflash64 -6 EVGA.RTX3090.24576.200902.rom" and press Enter.
6. When prompted, press "y" which will be asked twice.
7. When the process finishes (after some more screen blanking) reboot the PC when prompted to do so.
8. After windows loads again, it will reinstall the graphics driver. I highly recommend one more reboot.
9. Use AB and your benchmark / game of choice to find your new max overclock offsets. VRAM likely won't change, but your GPU offset likely will - and your card will likely be at a higher GPU clock speed than it ever was before even with a hefty overclock.
 
 
To restore your backup VBIOS, simply repeat steps 1 through 5 (skipping 4), and use NAME.rom (whatever you named the file as). Or use any 3090 VBIOS, including the XOC or stock VBIOS, from Techpowerup's database.
 
 

Wow good score dude and just with that bios, iam impress. I think i will try it after i have put my ek waterblock.
 
I tried flashing a bios but its never working on my system....but i have lsi x8 sas card in pice 3 on my mobo and i think this is the issue for flashing next time i will pull out this card for flashing the bios. 

slovak_killer
go go go : http://overclockingpin.com/3998/NDA_%20xoc_tools_3998.zip

That the unlocked kingpin VBIOS? Just be aware that flashing it will void your warranty.

I circled all the way back around to putting the original stock OC switch BIOS (which I saved back when I got the card) back on to the card then reflashing it with the eVGA tool - and it did a thingy (ignore the score because my CPU is at stock, as was the GPU, set to Stock Core, -250 vRAM) :
 

 
It still doesn't get anywhere close to 500W in Port Royal though.
 
I would very much like to try out the 520W Kingpin BIOS, but I'll just wait til I have a Kingpin card in hand then give it a try on this card, see if it does anything or use.
 
The XC3 BIOS appeared to be working as you said it would, but either my card has some sick-level coil whine when it's actually pegging at 500W, or something else was making slightly abnormal noises.  Based on how the noise varied with load, I would say it was coil whine, whatever VRM was having to actually carry a full load that wasn't before was going REEEEEEEEEEEEE lol

arestavo
 
That's what I see for perfcap all the time as well, and yes total power isn't accurate - kilowatt meter or UPS reading is the way to know for sure.
 
Now go find your chip's actual max OC. Mine in 3DMark's Port Royal is 2.2GHz, with a 2122Mhz average clock speed (with Hybrid kit - it was a bit lower on air). https://www.3dmark.com/pr/645547 

To clarify for my brain because I've been up a while already, the ACTUAL CLOCKS (not the ones on the first tab, but the one's it's saying it is running at) it's reading out at on the OSD/in GPUz are correct regardless of what BIOS it's on right?
I will have to play around with this another time when I'm less exhausted - don't wanna make a mental flub because I'm tired.

arestavo

slovak_killer
go go go : http://overclockingpin.com/3998/NDA_%20xoc_tools_3998.zip

That the unlocked kingpin VBIOS? Just be aware that flashing it will void your warranty.

ln2 1000W 3090 XOC bios

slovak_killer
go go go :  (link was posted on another forum, copying it here)

Finally, a bios that doesn't suck. Thank you, my card's clock speed no longer jumps all over the place!

Lol I wouldn't have to **** around with so many bios' if they sorted this **** out already instead of being silent this whole time. At least this one doesn't cripple my card.

arestavo

Dabadger84
I got it workin' - assuming it's normal for the power limit readout to be all wonky, seeing "296W" peak draw in Port Royal but I'm actually getting higher & more stable stock clocks, with more "VRel" than "PWR" in PerfCap reason... and the score is about what I used to get stock, little bit higher.
I'm guessing there's no way of actually knowing how much power it's drawing now other than watching the power readout on my backup power? lol

That's what I see for perfcap all the time as well, and yes total power isn't accurate - kilowatt meter or UPS reading is the way to know for sure.
 
Now go find your chip's actual max OC. Mine in 3DMark's Port Royal is 2.2GHz, with a 2122Mhz average clock speed (with Hybrid kit - it was a bit lower on air). https://www.3dmark.com/pr/645547 

Thats a super impressive clock speed and average!!!!
I have a few questions if you dont mind. Monitoring such a small amount of voltage worries me that I wouldnt know exactly if the card is using to much power even with my powerbar reading. Could anything get damaged using this bios even if the temps were under control? Do you use any of the voltage slider in afterburner?
Even if the card will have warranty using this I still dont think im knowledge enough yet to use it. Any useful links for me to read up on would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again for all the info.
 
 
 
 

Quick recap of what i have seen, XC3 Bios on my FTW3 Ultra is a current fix? 

Just a quick reply - I’ve got both the FTW3 Ultra OC 500 watt bios as well as the Kingpin bios installed on my 3090 FTW3 Ultra.

This being my first EVGA GPU I don’t use PrecisionX as I’ve found it to be quite buggy and WAY more difficult to fine tune than Afterburner 4.3.6 beta 4.

My card is still otherwise stock - meaning stock cooling with 3 fans maxed at 3000 rpm.

I was able to max out at 505watts total board power draw on my heaviest benchmark, according to GPUz - USING the 500 watt bios.

The Kingpin bios will only spin fan #1 up to 2000 rpm, but I’m unable to get more power out of KP bios than I can the official 500 watt bios for my card.

I’m currently #45 on TimeSpy for my cpu and this gpu on air, with 500 watt bios (in a Lian Li 011 Dynamic that has 3 X 120 QLs pumping up into it. (i7-10700k at 5.2 all core, 5.0 bus) with a score of 20134.

For a daily oc, I’ve found 2100 and 9951 to be perfect with a bit of fine tuning around the 77c Mark, which it only hits if my PC room ambient is around 80F.

Typically in stable gaming loads I see 490 to 495 watts.

I just bought an EK Vector full block, a EK 360mm PE rad, 3x 3000 RPM Noctua fir the back, 3x120 QLs for the front and a Koolance 400watt cooper liquid chiller - just for the gpu. (CPU is already on it’s on modded 360 x73 aio with 6 fan push/pull.)

I have room for another internal 360 in 3 fan as well if needed.

Time to see what I can really get, EVGA.

/edit - at Jacob - The 500 watt bios was installed on the OC bios, and the Kingpin bios was installed on my “Normal” jumper setting.

I assume that doesnt limit the 520 bios power draw since you supplied us two versions of the bios, correct?

There is no difference between jumper settings other than the bios settings that are flashed onto them, correct?

glocked89
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/227771/227771
 
1000w kingpin! Gunna try this when I get home. If someone can try immediately, please post results!
 
EDIT: Exercise caution

Someone with a power limited (edit: water cooled) FTW3 shared their results with me (no I won't disclose who). The XC3 VBIOS was better for their card for benchmarking even though the 1000W VBIOS was indeed pulling ~520W. Lower average clock speed attained, and it was about 4C hotter with very short tests vs their normal max temperature. Oh, and over 90W(!!!!) sustained, not spikes, PCIE slot power draw.
 
Granted, this may not be true for every card that is power limited - or true for non-power limited cards. However, with those results in hand, I'll be sticking with the XC3 VBIOS.

arestavo

glocked89
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/227771/227771
 
1000w kingpin! Gunna try this when I get home. If someone can try immediately, please post results!
 
EDIT: Exercise caution

Someone with a power limited (edit: water cooled) FTW3 shared their results with me (no I won't disclose who). The XC3 VBIOS was better for their card for benchmarking even though the 1000W VBIOS was indeed pulling ~520W. Lower average clock speed attained, and it was about 4C hotter with very short tests vs their normal max temperature. Oh, and over 90W(!!!!) sustained, not spikes, PCIE slot power draw.
 
Granted, this may not be true for every card that is power limited - or true for non-power limited cards. However, with those results in hand, I'll be sticking with the XC3 VBIOS.

See this is exactly i was curious about. 90 watts pcie draw to reach over 500 watts board power. The load balance on a bunch of these cards are messed up and this is enough proof for me. I'm giving up on this power limit issue. I'll come back to it if I ever have to RMA my current card and see if the replacement does any better. Appreciate all the info on this arestavo, thank you

 This can help some of you for install the hybrid cooling :
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2XeFciC8Ig