arcky

R3L3NTL3SS
My serial is 2012. Is the Chinese ones supposed to be better or something?
 
Dunno if related or not, but my card seems to be a beast. I boost at 1960-1990 in games and it doesn't budge with no OC at all. And at those clock speeds, it never goes higher than mid 60's with fans at only 40-50%.

Can you provide the first 10 numbers (these aren't your uniques so don't worry. Is it 2012x33987? Just need the x

willm1224

drunknfoo
i think you guys are grasping at straws here... 
 
take some hi-res shots of the pcb front and back and compare it with one another....
 
 

Nope, not grasping at straws the scores are like 4-5 500 W 20125 Chinese and Like 12 430-60 maybe peaks 470 w sn 20141 Taiwan. not 1 Taiwanese 500w period

bret0213
Those with 2014 that are not getting RMA approval. Put the original BIOS on and stress test the cards. See if PCIE goes above 75w, then it should get approved, I would think... Mine sits around 73-74 but still spikes above 80w. I know most are concerned with the OC power draw of 500w but the real problem is the power balance with the board pulling power from PCIE slot.

arcky
Got some additional data from another forum/member. 

First two digits: Year Manufactured

Third digit: Product type (1 being graphics card).

Fourth, Fifth: What factory the product was built at?

6th: Warranty Length.

7th to 10: Part Number

So '20' = 2020, 1=GPU, XX = factory, 3=3 year warranty, 3987 = 3090 FTW3 Ultra 
 
Mine is 41 (2014133987)
 
Notchy - what is yours?

arcky
OK so 4th and 5th digits are the difference. 41=Taiwan, 25=China. Notchy to confirm?

R3L3NTL3SS

willm1224
mine is still pending review. I mean I suppose legally they have no obligation here...but morally....it's pretty terrible for them to start out as 450 w power target, then immediately release a 500 w BIOS to literally one up the 480w (functional) strix BIOS, now keep in mind this 500 w BIOS made internet headlines and is now listed on literally every big review site as a feature, and knowingly or unknowingly have like half of the cards (sold and unsold) physically gimped permanently to 450. and their response to you discovering that this, listed on major internet reviews and articles feature, does not work on your card and never will is "hey we never said that would work." but i kind of feel it was implied so strongly that a class action lawsuit could easily be won.

 

Ehh...
Through my post history it's clear I'm not some EVGA fanboy.
That said, I dont really see how EVGA is in the wrong here.
The bottom line is at the end of the day, EVGA does not explicitly advertise anywhere that any given card will hit a certain power draw as a feature (that i know of). ESPECIALLY not a power draw that goes way beyond what it goes to out the box.
Seems to me that if they hit their minimum advertised boost clock - then EVGA has lived up to what they claim the card will do from a performance standpoint.
I dunno. Just don't see how you can he mad at them beyond that. It does what they say its supposed to do. If you get anything more, you just got lucky IMO.
But hey, I'm not an overclocker and I'm personally more than happy with my FTW3. It boosts to nearly 2000mhz with ease and never budges. That's way more than EVGA promised me with the advertised 1800mhz. I'll take my extra, be happy, and move on.

Kylearan
So, it's looking like not only are the "25" cards able to pull >500W, the 8 pin power connectors also have their own power limit of >161W!
But we still do not know what the PCIE slot limit is.  If it's 85W-90W, that's limiting the 8 pin.  If the 8 pin limit is 161W, then that's limiting the PCIE because the 8 pin is triggering the power limit.
This is also assuming the "TDP Limit" isn't triggering the power limit first.  Each individual rail has its own power limit.
 
So that means the card is technically capable hardware wise of pulling
 
161W * 3 + 85W=568W!  This assumes that we know what the 8 pin triggers its own power limit at.
I believe the FE cards trigger power limit at 150W at 100% and 170W at 112%.  I "believe" the PCIE slot limit is 68W.

Notchy44

bavor
I wonder if cards after a certain production date have a better chance of hitting close to 500 watts?
 
I have the 500W XOC BIOS on this card and I'm averaging 470+ average watts in Furmark and getting 460+ watts average in Quake II RTX
 

Well I can see your problem.... this is a oc bios and you have 0 overclock. Turn the core up to 150+ and mem up 850+ and I’m sure you will see a much higher average.