changboy
EVGA never said the card will boost at 2200 mhz and the spec is boost clock 1800 mhz lol.

Quite. But many of their cards aren't within spec for PCIE power draw, and that appears to be the problem with cards being power limited at a lot less than 500W.

Thanks dejanco and Dabadger84!

arestavo

vlcapata
Did EVGA ever promise 500w? Just asking

Did they promise 450W with their stock VBIOS?
 
Yes, implied through marketing/card specifications. And no, because it's an up to kind of thing. But then again, (again) many cards can't get close no matter the VBIOS because of them being out of spec for PCIE power draw out of the box - which, with GPU boost, limits GPU clock speeds which limits performance.
 
Install the XC3 VBIOS and viola - you bypass whatever the problem is (could be design, could be component selection - could be on purpose, could be an accident). It sure as heck isn't because of the stock or XOC BIOS since so many have tried other VBIOSs (other than the XC3) and found the same issue following the card, not the VBIOS.

if that's the case I gonna return my card....should have gotten an asus strix
The 500 watt bios won't even bring me over 410 so **** pretty much i have a high-end card what i can't overclock because of the power limit issue

My HX1200i was having problems running my 3090ftw3 ultra.... boot issues stability issues BSOD... swapped the PSU and now it doesn't BSOD or have boot issues! 

The problem is the power balancing on the cards.  It's very highly likely it's something onboard in hardware and not vbios related, since otherwise eVGA could just make PCIE slot a lower % of the 8 pin #1 value (example 60W-->150W instead of 75W-->150W) which would solve that issue.  What some people have overlooked, is it could also be a hardware issue related to 8 pin #3 not having the proper power balancing (and not PCIE slot as previously thought), since everyone said that their 8 pin #3 always reports very low.  Maybe it has something to do with the XC3 and FTW3 PCB's being so similar, which is why flashing the XC3 Vbios works so well for FTW owners.  But I can pretty much say 100% certainly it's either PCIE slot reporting its max draw too soon, or 8 pin #3 NOT drawing enough relative to #1/#2.
 
I didn't check the XC3 thread, but do XC3 owners have the same problem?  I'm assuming not because there aren't 3 eight-pins on that card.
 
Here is what proper balancing should look like.
This is from an unmodded 3090 FE and a 114% TDP (400W) Superposition run.
 
https://i.imgur.com/sg1ckgD.jpg
 
You can see PCIE#1 is at its max cap of 175W (PCIE pin limit), PCIE#2 is a bit below that (170W) and PCIE slot tapped out at 69.7W.
They didn't reach those limits at the exact same time (that would be 414W) but you get the point.
 
Note that 79W is the absolute slot limit on FE and 300W for chip (GPU Core NVVDD Input Power) power limit (both are well below those limits).
 
So the FTW3 problems can be either because of 8 pin #3 not drawing enough (drawing more would put it at TDP without PCIE slot triggering a power limit) or PCIE slot drawing too much.
I think the 8 pin #3 should be looked at a bit more.  Did anyone check the PCIE Slot Limit on the 2 pin cards vs their TDP slider limits?
 
On all of the screenshots I saw earlier, where people pulled 500W Sustained on the XOC Bios, they all had 8 pin #1, 2 and 3 pulling more than 140W each, very close to each other, with PCIE slot at 75W.

Kylearan
The problem is the power balancing on the cards.  It's very highly likely it's something onboard in hardware and not vbios related, since otherwise eVGA could just make PCIE slot a lower % of the 8 pin #1 value (example 60W-->150W instead of 75W-->150W) which would solve that issue.  What some people have overlooked, is it could also be a hardware issue related to 8 pin #3 not having the proper power balancing (and not PCIE slot as previously thought), since everyone said that their 8 pin #3 always reports very low.  Maybe it has something to do with the XC3 and FTW3 PCB's being so similar, which is why flashing the XC3 Vbios works so well for FTW owners.  But I can pretty much say 100% certainly it's either PCIE slot reporting its max draw too soon, or 8 pin #3 NOT drawing enough relative to #1/#2.
 
I didn't check the XC3 thread, but do XC3 owners have the same problem?  I'm assuming not because there aren't 3 eight-pins on that card.
 
Here is what proper balancing should look like.
This is from an unmodded 3090 FE and a 114% TDP (400W) Superposition run.
 
https://i.imgur.com/sg1ckgD.jpg
 
You can see PCIE#1 is at its max cap of 175W (PCIE pin limit), PCIE#2 is a bit below that (170W) and PCIE slot tapped out at 69.7W.
They didn't reach those limits at the exact same time (that would be 414W) but you get the point.
 
Note that 79W is the absolute slot limit on FE and 300W for chip (GPU Core NVVDD Input Power) power limit (both are well below those limits).
 
So the FTW3 problems can be either because of 8 pin #3 not drawing enough (drawing more would put it at TDP without PCIE slot triggering a power limit) or PCIE slot drawing too much.
I think the 8 pin #3 should be looked at a bit more.  Did anyone check the PCIE Slot Limit on the 2 pin cards vs their TDP slider limits?
 
On all of the screenshots I saw earlier, where people pulled 500W Sustained on the XOC Bios, they all had 8 pin #1, 2 and 3 pulling more than 140W each, very close to each other, with PCIE slot at 75W.

my 8 pin #3 always reports very high, over 150w when the card is pushed.  8 pin #1 and #2 are at like 115-120w and the PCI-e is around 80w.  EVGA support told me 100w is safe for PCIe and 200w for the 8 pins, but that doesn't change the fact the power balancing isn't allowing me to draw sufficient power.  I'm on the XC3 BIOS.  It works very well for gaming.  Once my water block arrives I think the situation will be significantly improved since thermal throttling will no longer be an issue.  I ordered one from Optimus and one from EK.  I'm keeping whichever arrives first.  According to Optimus they've started shipping batch 1 blocks.  Of course if batch one blocks were a full month late, that means at least two more weeks for batch two, and EK ships on Jan 6.  The XC3 BIOS for me holds boost and voltage VERY well.  I figure the power draw is at minimum of 500 watts, probably more like 525w.
On a side note, troubleshooting this has corrupted my mother board BIOS TWICE!  I'm down to one BIOS.  I have a z390 Dark, an EVGA board, and there's clearly something very wrong here.  And I have an EVGA power supply, 1600 P2.  All I did to the 2nd BIOS was leave one of the power cables to the graphics card unplugged now it won't post under any circumstances.  I requested a new BIOS chip from EVGA, let's see if they cooperate since to me, this has entirely to do with some problem with their hardware.  The swappable BIOS chip is an awesome feature though, I actually needed to swap one on my x58 Classified because the board shipped with an older BIOS that didn't support the 980x so I couldn't get it to boot.  They sent me a new chip with an updated BIOS and everything was fine after that.

cerealkeller

Kylearan
The problem is the power balancing on the cards.  It's very highly likely it's something onboard in hardware and not vbios related, since otherwise eVGA could just make PCIE slot a lower % of the 8 pin #1 value (example 60W-->150W instead of 75W-->150W) which would solve that issue.  What some people have overlooked, is it could also be a hardware issue related to 8 pin #3 not having the proper power balancing (and not PCIE slot as previously thought), since everyone said that their 8 pin #3 always reports very low.  Maybe it has something to do with the XC3 and FTW3 PCB's being so similar, which is why flashing the XC3 Vbios works so well for FTW owners.  But I can pretty much say 100% certainly it's either PCIE slot reporting its max draw too soon, or 8 pin #3 NOT drawing enough relative to #1/#2.
 
I didn't check the XC3 thread, but do XC3 owners have the same problem?  I'm assuming not because there aren't 3 eight-pins on that card.
 
Here is what proper balancing should look like.
This is from an unmodded 3090 FE and a 114% TDP (400W) Superposition run.
 
https://i.imgur.com/sg1ckgD.jpg
 
You can see PCIE#1 is at its max cap of 175W (PCIE pin limit), PCIE#2 is a bit below that (170W) and PCIE slot tapped out at 69.7W.
They didn't reach those limits at the exact same time (that would be 414W) but you get the point.
 
Note that 79W is the absolute slot limit on FE and 300W for chip (GPU Core NVVDD Input Power) power limit (both are well below those limits).
 
So the FTW3 problems can be either because of 8 pin #3 not drawing enough (drawing more would put it at TDP without PCIE slot triggering a power limit) or PCIE slot drawing too much.
I think the 8 pin #3 should be looked at a bit more.  Did anyone check the PCIE Slot Limit on the 2 pin cards vs their TDP slider limits?
 
On all of the screenshots I saw earlier, where people pulled 500W Sustained on the XOC Bios, they all had 8 pin #1, 2 and 3 pulling more than 140W each, very close to each other, with PCIE slot at 75W.

my 8 pin #3 always reports very high, over 150w when the card is pushed.  8 pin #1 and #2 are at like 115-120w and the PCI-e is around 80w.  EVGA support told me 100w is safe for PCIe and 200w for the 8 pins, but that doesn't change the fact the power balancing isn't allowing me to draw sufficient power.  I'm on the XC3 BIOS.  It works very well for gaming.  Once my water block arrives I think the situation will be significantly improved since thermal throttling will no longer be an issue.  I ordered one from Optimus and one from EK.  I'm keeping whichever arrives first.  According to Optimus they've started shipping batch 1 blocks.  Of course if batch one blocks were a full month late, that means at least two more weeks for batch two, and EK ships on Jan 6.  The XC3 BIOS for me holds boost and voltage VERY well.  I figure the power draw is at minimum of 500 watts, probably more like 525w.
On a side note, troubleshooting this has corrupted my mother board BIOS TWICE!  I'm down to one BIOS.  I have a z390 Dark, an EVGA board, and there's clearly something very wrong here.  And I have an EVGA power supply, 1600 P2.  All I did to the 2nd BIOS was leave one of the power cables to the graphics card unplugged now it won't post under any circumstances.  I requested a new BIOS chip from EVGA, let's see if they cooperate since to me, this has entirely to do with some problem with their hardware.  The swappable BIOS chip is an awesome feature though, I actually needed to swap one on my x58 Classified because the board shipped with an older BIOS that didn't support the 980x so I couldn't get it to boot.  They sent me a new chip with an updated BIOS and everything was fine after that.

One very useful thing to invest in is a hardware programmer, so you can flash your own bioses without having to buy new chips (unless the chip itself is fried).
While I destroyed the LCD screen on my Skypro II, both the Skypro I and II I have work perfectly, along with a Pomona 5250 SOIC8 clip (this is an EXCELLENT clip, for inline flashing of soldered vbios SOIC8 chips), male to female cables, and the required 1.8v adapter for 1.8v bios chips.  While my Skypro didn't come with any adapters, I have a bunch from my RT809F adapter I bought years ago.

nice!

For those who wonder on the XC3 BIOS and the PSU for ALL BIOS I'm using a SilverStone ST-1500 TITANIUM and I'm ASRock X299 OC Formula mobo with the auxiliary PCIe Power connected, still when temps on Air reach 60C for an X period of time it jumps from 2055 to 2085 depending on the game. If i turn on the AC I can do much better clocks. Also remember that you have to cool the backplate no matter if you are on water or air, they guy at Framechasers said it doesn't help but I did prove that IT DOES HELP a lot.
 
Cheers, Sergio.

I received my 3090ftw ultra two days ago, so far the card working smooth. Now my question should I update the oc bios, or wait more. Please if you updated the bios let me know how is your card performing. 

digitalmonk
Question, does everyone who complains about this card and  wants to send it in for RMA to get a new one because the 500W bios doesn't work actually play anything, or is this about some crazy WOF score?
I have Taiwan 2014 card and it does ok in all the benchmarks +85gpu and +1000mem. Doesn't hit 500W in anything but makes all my VR sim driving titles smooth AF where my 2080ti struggled. 
97 pages and a lot of complaints that  the card can't reach a certain PR score... kind of silly no,  When guys are soldering scarp onto their card to get a better score?  


In a year these cards will be obsolete anyway. Just enjoy what you have. I seriously doubt any of the other cards on the market are drastically better in performance in actual games than
this card. A couple FPS over another card is stupid anyway. you won't notice it. Can someone can tell me that any Asus, MSI, Gigabyte... or whatever is better in sustaining playable  VR framerates that are WAY above these EVGA cards, I don't think there is though...
 

 
I think you are totally missing the point or didn't bother to read this thread or even skim over it.
 

jayrwar
Is this coming out of beta?

Im sure it will, if and when EVGA see's fit. 

Why ask that ? Why you scare to just update ur software to the latest version ?
 
In the description its write fix various bug.
Are you on windows xp or vista ? lol, i dont understand the point of asking this.
Update it and if you feel verry sad after just unistall it and ré-install the version you want.
Even you ask anything to others, nothing worth ur experience on ur machine, this is how its working dude. 

swiftshark13
Will using the XOC bios void my warranty?

Also, do I have to flip the switch to Normal and then to OC to flash each respective bios? Or does each install file automatically apply the bios to the appropriate switch position?

Will not void.
 
Yes, you have to physically flip the switch to flash the other VBIOS. I'd recommend leaving one stock, but that's just my personal preference. 

Just i suspected it bricked my BIOS i tried to put XC3 BIOS again but I guess it's PX1 Firmware how do I fix this? Red led is near the PCIe 3x 8pin :/
 
Thank You!