So i just recently got my ftw3 ultra 3090 and tried the beta bios and got the power limit slider up to 119% along with temp, but nothing happens, power draw stays the same averaging only 410ish in games with a +125/500 overclock. same as the stock oc bios.. highest power draw ive seen was 437w
but my question is what would the extra power draw help? to get higher overclocks? or something else? sorry im fairly new to overclocking, so i don't understand what the difference would be between the stock bios and the 500w bios. If someone can please explain to me. Thanks 
 

Leelu
So i just recently got my ftw3 ultra 3090 and tried the beta bios and got the power limit slider up to 119% along with temp, but nothing happens, power draw stays the same averaging only 410ish in games with a +125/500 overclock. same as the stock oc bios.. highest power draw ive seen was 437w
but my question is what would the extra power draw help? to get higher overclocks? or something else? sorry im fairly new to overclocking, so i don't understand what the difference would be between the stock bios and the 500w bios. If someone can please explain to me. Thanks 
 

Is your power limit engaged with those draws? 

I have a general question... is everyone seeing the pin 3 power draw much lower than pins 1 and 2? I have seen some reports of this and that is the case with my card. I'm just curious if that is just the way these cards draw the power, or if maybe the 2012 cards have a more balanced draw between the 8 pins where as maybe the 2014 cards don't. Just thinking out loud and would be curious as to what others are seeing... 
 

Has anyone tried the Strix 480W bios? If the Taiwan cards get that much power then we know it’s a bios issue for sure.

Jarmel
Has anyone tried the Strix 480W bios? If the Taiwan cards get that much power then we know it’s a bios issue for sure.

The first week of release yes. Didn't make a difference on my power limited all the time 3090 FTW3 Ultra. Same as the XOC VBIOS now. Or the stock VBIOS. Doesn't matter.

whaleboy_2048

Leelu

whaleboy_2048

Leelu

whaleboy_2048

Leelu
So i just recently got my ftw3 ultra 3090 and tried the beta bios and got the power limit slider up to 119% along with temp, but nothing happens, power draw stays the same averaging only 410ish in games with a +125/500 overclock. same as the stock oc bios.. highest power draw ive seen was 437w
but my question is what would the extra power draw help? to get higher overclocks? or something else? sorry im fairly new to overclocking, so i don't understand what the difference would be between the stock bios and the 500w bios. If someone can please explain to me. Thanks 

Is your power limit engaged with those draws? 

sorry i dont know what you mean by that? 

the card will go into a power mode that drops clocks and voltage (?) to prevent the card from drawing more power than it should. On the stock bios when set to 107% power this shouldn't happen until you hit around 450w (or 500w at 119% on the XOC bios). In GPUz this is listed under Perf Cap reason (power) or in Afterburner as Power limit (1 is engaged and 0 not). 

oh that I would have to check later tonight since I had no clue at all.. but what would it do since I wasn’t even averaging near the limit? Thanks for explaining

That is a problem with some of our cards, the power limit kicks in early preventing it from reaching the spec'd power it should be able to use. I have seen my card hit 450ish, but I have also seen it cap out at 420ish and being prevented from going higher because the power limit is engaged. I was just wondering if yours was not going higher because the limiter, or if your card simply didn't need more for what you were running. Keep in mind that your clocks will drop as your temps rise, and that may also determine your power use. 

Ahh I think I kinda get what you mean, so basically wanting a higher power limit is to get higher speeds? So let’s say if my card can run 2100mhz at just 430w and that’s what I’m aiming for then I simply don’t need more power? But if I was looking to get up to 2150 and my 430w wasn’t enough for that then I would need more power to push that speed?

Somehow during Metro Exodus with RTX Ultra and 4K, my card was able to reach 496Watt max, with an average of 480Watt power pull. So I guess it works for certain applications.

whaleboy_2048

Leelu

Ahh I think I kinda get what you mean, so basically wanting a higher power limit is to get higher speeds? So let’s say if my card can run 2100mhz at just 430w and that’s what I’m aiming for then I simply don’t need more power? But if I was looking to get up to 2150 and my 430w wasn’t enough for that then I would need more power to push that speed?

basically, yes. To run the card faster, you need more voltage/power. If the card caps that power, then you are going to be limited. Keep in mind that the more power you use, the hotter the card runs, and that will limit how fast it will run. As the temp rises, the card will slow its frequency. There are several things that will trigger the card to slow down, but the one that usually kicks in first is power, which is why EVGA released the 500w bios, so the limit wouldn't kick in so soon. That would be great, except for the issue that a lot of our cards are still capping power well below the new limit. Of course this is a simplistic explanation, and I don't claim to know all the details, because it's kind of complicated and there are many factors with different power sources going to different parts of the card, and I have no idea how the card calculates the info it uses to decide when you start capping the power. 
There is also the fact that not all of the GPU chips are equal. You can have 10 identical cards and some will perform better than others and possibly have the various limits kick in at different values. 
 

Leelu
And also if my power was engaged aka limited? Is there anything I can do to disengage it or something?

without modifying the hardware on the card itself? I don't think so. Although if you read through this thread (not a light or quick read I admit), there are some who have flashed different bios' onto the card to get around the issue. Also water cooling will help with temp throttling, but I have no idea if that would affect the power limit or not. 

Ahh I totally get it now. Thanks so much for the info

whaleboy_2048

Leelu

Ahh I think I kinda get what you mean, so basically wanting a higher power limit is to get higher speeds? So let’s say if my card can run 2100mhz at just 430w and that’s what I’m aiming for then I simply don’t need more power? But if I was looking to get up to 2150 and my 430w wasn’t enough for that then I would need more power to push that speed?

basically, yes. To run the card faster, you need more voltage/power. If the card caps that power, then you are going to be limited. Keep in mind that the more power you use, the hotter the card runs, and that will limit how fast it will run. As the temp rises, the card will slow its frequency. There are several things that will trigger the card to slow down, but the one that usually kicks in first is power, which is why EVGA released the 500w bios, so the limit wouldn't kick in so soon. That would be great, except for the issue that a lot of our cards are still capping power well below the new limit. Of course this is a simplistic explanation, and I don't claim to know all the details, because it's kind of complicated and there are many factors with different power sources going to different parts of the card, and I have no idea how the card calculates the info it uses to decide when you start capping the power. 
There is also the fact that not all of the GPU chips are equal. You can have 10 identical cards and some will perform better than others and possibly have the various limits kick in at different values. 
 

Leelu
And also if my power was engaged aka limited? Is there anything I can do to disengage it or something?

without modifying the hardware on the card itself? I don't think so. Although if you read through this thread (not a light or quick read I admit), there are some who have flashed different bios' onto the card to get around the issue. Also water cooling will help with temp throttling, but I have no idea if that would affect the power limit or not. 

whaleboy_2048

Leelu

Ahh I think I kinda get what you mean, so basically wanting a higher power limit is to get higher speeds? So let’s say if my card can run 2100mhz at just 430w and that’s what I’m aiming for then I simply don’t need more power? But if I was looking to get up to 2150 and my 430w wasn’t enough for that then I would need more power to push that speed?

basically, yes. To run the card faster, you need more voltage/power. If the card caps that power, then you are going to be limited. Keep in mind that the more power you use, the hotter the card runs, and that will limit how fast it will run. As the temp rises, the card will slow its frequency. There are several things that will trigger the card to slow down, but the one that usually kicks in first is power, which is why EVGA released the 500w bios, so the limit wouldn't kick in so soon. That would be great, except for the issue that a lot of our cards are still capping power well below the new limit. Of course this is a simplistic explanation, and I don't claim to know all the details, because it's kind of complicated and there are many factors with different power sources going to different parts of the card, and I have no idea how the card calculates the info it uses to decide when you start capping the power. 
There is also the fact that not all of the GPU chips are equal. You can have 10 identical cards and some will perform better than others and possibly have the various limits kick in at different values. 
 

Leelu
And also if my power was engaged aka limited? Is there anything I can do to disengage it or something?

without modifying the hardware on the card itself? I don't think so. Although if you read through this thread (not a light or quick read I admit), there are some who have flashed different bios' onto the card to get around the issue. Also water cooling will help with temp throttling, but I have no idea if that would affect the power limit or not. 

whaleboy_2048

Leelu

Ahh I think I kinda get what you mean, so basically wanting a higher power limit is to get higher speeds? So let’s say if my card can run 2100mhz at just 430w and that’s what I’m aiming for then I simply don’t need more power? But if I was looking to get up to 2150 and my 430w wasn’t enough for that then I would need more power to push that speed?

basically, yes. To run the card faster, you need more voltage/power. If the card caps that power, then you are going to be limited. Keep in mind that the more power you use, the hotter the card runs, and that will limit how fast it will run. As the temp rises, the card will slow its frequency. There are several things that will trigger the card to slow down, but the one that usually kicks in first is power, which is why EVGA released the 500w bios, so the limit wouldn't kick in so soon. That would be great, except for the issue that a lot of our cards are still capping power well below the new limit. Of course this is a simplistic explanation, and I don't claim to know all the details, because it's kind of complicated and there are many factors with different power sources going to different parts of the card, and I have no idea how the card calculates the info it uses to decide when you start capping the power. 
There is also the fact that not all of the GPU chips are equal. You can have 10 identical cards and some will perform better than others and possibly have the various limits kick in at different values. 
 

Leelu
And also if my power was engaged aka limited? Is there anything I can do to disengage it or something?

without modifying the hardware on the card itself? I don't think so. Although if you read through this thread (not a light or quick read I admit), there are some who have flashed different bios' onto the card to get around the issue. Also water cooling will help with temp throttling, but I have no idea if that would affect the power limit or not. 

whaleboy_2048

Leelu

Ahh I think I kinda get what you mean, so basically wanting a higher power limit is to get higher speeds? So let’s say if my card can run 2100mhz at just 430w and that’s what I’m aiming for then I simply don’t need more power? But if I was looking to get up to 2150 and my 430w wasn’t enough for that then I would need more power to push that speed?

basically, yes. To run the card faster, you need more voltage/power. If the card caps that power, then you are going to be limited. Keep in mind that the more power you use, the hotter the card runs, and that will limit how fast it will run. As the temp rises, the card will slow its frequency. There are several things that will trigger the card to slow down, but the one that usually kicks in first is power, which is why EVGA released the 500w bios, so the limit wouldn't kick in so soon. That would be great, except for the issue that a lot of our cards are still capping power well below the new limit. Of course this is a simplistic explanation, and I don't claim to know all the details, because it's kind of complicated and there are many factors with different power sources going to different parts of the card, and I have no idea how the card calculates the info it uses to decide when you start capping the power. 
There is also the fact that not all of the GPU chips are equal. You can have 10 identical cards and some will perform better than others and possibly have the various limits kick in at different values. 
 

Leelu
And also if my power was engaged aka limited? Is there anything I can do to disengage it or something?

without modifying the hardware on the card itself? I don't think so. Although if you read through this thread (not a light or quick read I admit), there are some who have flashed different bios' onto the card to get around the issue. Also water cooling will help with temp throttling, but I have no idea if that would affect the power limit or not. 

and also i just checked hwinfo it says performance limit - power/reliable voltage/utilization "Yes" under maximum, so is that considered engaged (limited)? also if i just max the power limit to 119% without adding any offsets the board would draw more power but the clock speed goes down, when i do add offsets back to 125/500 the power goes down but then it speeds up? thats kinda confusing lol..

I solved all the funky issues with my 3090 FTW3 Ultra Gaming finally! I was getting low avg scores, weird fan curves, occasional graphical issues, and bizarre O/C results.
 
1) Turned off Fast Boot and memory training in bios
2) Beta firmware installed for both the OC AND Normal firmwares
2) Fresh Windows 10 install w/ latest gpu drivers
3) Verified each of the 8pin PCI-E were individually plugged into their own full 8pin output on the PSU. Until I found a couple of my 1:1 PCI-E 8 pin - PSU power connectors, I had the 3rd PCI-E 8 pin slot on the 3090 populated by one of the 1:2 "Y-split" (2x) 8 pin PCI-E cables, with the extra dangling 8 pin of the (2x) 8 pin left...well, dangling.
4) DO NOT install any of the "Optional" updates in Windows Update after a fresh install. These are actually just legacy WHQL drivers in case the new Win 10 driver scheme has issues; perhaps letting Win 10 stick to all its new self installing drivers played a role in playing nicer with my 3090.
5) Enable hardware GPU scheduling after all Win10 updates are done
 
Result: went from ~17900 TimeSpy GPU score on beta OC bios () to 20172 on NORMAL beta bios (). Another large difference I noticed even before benchmarking was lower idle core and memory clocks in lower power state, with seemingly more frequent frequency updates. Seems like these cards need all the software and hardware updates at every level in order to function properly in addition to being sticklers for 1:1 8pin-8pin PCI-E, no (2x) 8 pin PCIE - 8 pin PSU cables even if it worked on previous generation cards.
 
Hope this helps!
 
 

professordumbdumb
I''ve received a similar response from tech support, and responded with a link pointing to this thread.  I'm hopeful that this will be discussed in more detail at their next team meeting.  I feel like an appropriate response would attempt to provide an explanation as to:
 
1.  Why do some of these cards throttle and report PWR as a PERFCAP reason in GPU-Z - at much lower power draws (and subsequently lower clockspeeds) than the advertised maximums of 420w / 450w / XOC 500w (in my case 360w stock - PWR limiting the entire time)?
 
2.  Why can people flash an XC3 bios to their FTW3 cards - and achieve much higher clockspeeds / bench scores - than previously - if 'silicon lottery' was the limiting factor in both scenarios?
 
2.  Why does this seem to affect some Taiwan 2014 cards, and none of (if I'm reading the thread sufficiently) the 2012 China cards?  If this is truly an accurate description of the samples out in the wild - what is different between these cards?
 
Enough of the people on this forum are incredibly savvy (I won't include myself here - I just know how to read) - and giving them the response that this is a "silicon lottery" phenomenon without answering the above questions is not a good look for EVGA for reasons already stated.  The people who notice these problems don't buy EVGA by accident.

It being silicon lottery doesn't explain it. Why can I pull 496w at stock clocks but with even a mild overclock it drops to & 430-450w?

It would seem we have our answer from EVGA. Tech support has their marching orders to write this all off as silicon lottery and wash their hands of it.

Leelu

whaleboy_2048

Leelu

Ahh I think I kinda get what you mean, so basically wanting a higher power limit is to get higher speeds? So let’s say if my card can run 2100mhz at just 430w and that’s what I’m aiming for then I simply don’t need more power? But if I was looking to get up to 2150 and my 430w wasn’t enough for that then I would need more power to push that speed?

basically, yes. To run the card faster, you need more voltage/power. If the card caps that power, then you are going to be limited. Keep in mind that the more power you use, the hotter the card runs, and that will limit how fast it will run. As the temp rises, the card will slow its frequency. There are several things that will trigger the card to slow down, but the one that usually kicks in first is power, which is why EVGA released the 500w bios, so the limit wouldn't kick in so soon. That would be great, except for the issue that a lot of our cards are still capping power well below the new limit. Of course this is a simplistic explanation, and I don't claim to know all the details, because it's kind of complicated and there are many factors with different power sources going to different parts of the card, and I have no idea how the card calculates the info it uses to decide when you start capping the power. 
There is also the fact that not all of the GPU chips are equal. You can have 10 identical cards and some will perform better than others and possibly have the various limits kick in at different values. 
 

Leelu
And also if my power was engaged aka limited? Is there anything I can do to disengage it or something?

without modifying the hardware on the card itself? I don't think so. Although if you read through this thread (not a light or quick read I admit), there are some who have flashed different bios' onto the card to get around the issue. Also water cooling will help with temp throttling, but I have no idea if that would affect the power limit or not. 

whaleboy_2048

Leelu

Ahh I think I kinda get what you mean, so basically wanting a higher power limit is to get higher speeds? So let’s say if my card can run 2100mhz at just 430w and that’s what I’m aiming for then I simply don’t need more power? But if I was looking to get up to 2150 and my 430w wasn’t enough for that then I would need more power to push that speed?

basically, yes. To run the card faster, you need more voltage/power. If the card caps that power, then you are going to be limited. Keep in mind that the more power you use, the hotter the card runs, and that will limit how fast it will run. As the temp rises, the card will slow its frequency. There are several things that will trigger the card to slow down, but the one that usually kicks in first is power, which is why EVGA released the 500w bios, so the limit wouldn't kick in so soon. That would be great, except for the issue that a lot of our cards are still capping power well below the new limit. Of course this is a simplistic explanation, and I don't claim to know all the details, because it's kind of complicated and there are many factors with different power sources going to different parts of the card, and I have no idea how the card calculates the info it uses to decide when you start capping the power. 
There is also the fact that not all of the GPU chips are equal. You can have 10 identical cards and some will perform better than others and possibly have the various limits kick in at different values. 
 

Leelu
And also if my power was engaged aka limited? Is there anything I can do to disengage it or something?

without modifying the hardware on the card itself? I don't think so. Although if you read through this thread (not a light or quick read I admit), there are some who have flashed different bios' onto the card to get around the issue. Also water cooling will help with temp throttling, but I have no idea if that would affect the power limit or not. 

whaleboy_2048

Leelu

Ahh I think I kinda get what you mean, so basically wanting a higher power limit is to get higher speeds? So let’s say if my card can run 2100mhz at just 430w and that’s what I’m aiming for then I simply don’t need more power? But if I was looking to get up to 2150 and my 430w wasn’t enough for that then I would need more power to push that speed?

basically, yes. To run the card faster, you need more voltage/power. If the card caps that power, then you are going to be limited. Keep in mind that the more power you use, the hotter the card runs, and that will limit how fast it will run. As the temp rises, the card will slow its frequency. There are several things that will trigger the card to slow down, but the one that usually kicks in first is power, which is why EVGA released the 500w bios, so the limit wouldn't kick in so soon. That would be great, except for the issue that a lot of our cards are still capping power well below the new limit. Of course this is a simplistic explanation, and I don't claim to know all the details, because it's kind of complicated and there are many factors with different power sources going to different parts of the card, and I have no idea how the card calculates the info it uses to decide when you start capping the power. 
There is also the fact that not all of the GPU chips are equal. You can have 10 identical cards and some will perform better than others and possibly have the various limits kick in at different values. 
 

Leelu
And also if my power was engaged aka limited? Is there anything I can do to disengage it or something?

without modifying the hardware on the card itself? I don't think so. Although if you read through this thread (not a light or quick read I admit), there are some who have flashed different bios' onto the card to get around the issue. Also water cooling will help with temp throttling, but I have no idea if that would affect the power limit or not. 

whaleboy_2048

Leelu

Ahh I think I kinda get what you mean, so basically wanting a higher power limit is to get higher speeds? So let’s say if my card can run 2100mhz at just 430w and that’s what I’m aiming for then I simply don’t need more power? But if I was looking to get up to 2150 and my 430w wasn’t enough for that then I would need more power to push that speed?

basically, yes. To run the card faster, you need more voltage/power. If the card caps that power, then you are going to be limited. Keep in mind that the more power you use, the hotter the card runs, and that will limit how fast it will run. As the temp rises, the card will slow its frequency. There are several things that will trigger the card to slow down, but the one that usually kicks in first is power, which is why EVGA released the 500w bios, so the limit wouldn't kick in so soon. That would be great, except for the issue that a lot of our cards are still capping power well below the new limit. Of course this is a simplistic explanation, and I don't claim to know all the details, because it's kind of complicated and there are many factors with different power sources going to different parts of the card, and I have no idea how the card calculates the info it uses to decide when you start capping the power. 
There is also the fact that not all of the GPU chips are equal. You can have 10 identical cards and some will perform better than others and possibly have the various limits kick in at different values. 
 

Leelu
And also if my power was engaged aka limited? Is there anything I can do to disengage it or something?

without modifying the hardware on the card itself? I don't think so. Although if you read through this thread (not a light or quick read I admit), there are some who have flashed different bios' onto the card to get around the issue. Also water cooling will help with temp throttling, but I have no idea if that would affect the power limit or not. 

and also i just checked hwinfo it says performance limit - power/reliable voltage/utilization "Yes" under maximum, so is that considered engaged (limited)? also if i just max the power limit to 119% without adding any offsets the board would draw more power but the clock speed goes down, when i do add offsets back to 125/500 the power goes down but then it speeds up? thats kinda confusing lol..

You will not see a major increase in games, this bios is for benchmarking or CRAZY optimized games like Division 2 or Quake 2 RTX. If you run furmark or 3dMark and only see 410 watts you got a Non China board

So, some pages ago I mentioned that I contacted EVGA and got a new BIOS for the FTW3 Ultra that should according to them fix the Wattage issue. Unfortunately they seemed to have sent the wrong one. I got another one to test, today. Unfortunately I no longer own the card, perhaps some of you guys want to check out whether this really is a new and fixed version. I uploaded it for you guys:
 
https://filehorst.de/d/dCJtlnGj

arestavo

crossbone
So, some pages ago I mentioned that I contacted EVGA and got a new BIOS for the FTW3 Ultra that should according to them fix the Wattage issue. Unfortunately they seemed to have sent the wrong one. I got another one to test, today. Unfortunately I no longer own the card, perhaps some of you guys want to check out whether this really is a new and fixed version. I uploaded it for you guys:
 
https://filehorst.de/d/dCJtlnGj

Made December 7th, 2083? Interesting date created on those two files in the zip. I'll test the OC version tonight when I get the chance.

From displayed version string and md5sums, this is just the original .16 bios also present at the beginning of this thread ...