god503
So i have been luring the boards since i decided that a 3090 ftw3 Ultra was the way to go.  got lucky and got mine this past monday.  Have been reading here on this item since i updated to the beta bios.  So here are my power numbers according to GPUZ  The max hit 115% power and 485 watts. used precision X set at 119 power, 100 voltage, +175 on the GPU and +600 memory.  this is on a threadripper 3 24 core, thiachi mobo and corsair 1600 power supply. Also i want to mention that i have been doing benchmarks and stability tests yesterday and today.  Today i got better stability and a little higher 3Dmarks scores than i did yesterday.  The ONLY thing i did diffrent was that today I turned on the AC in my room.  Im in NYC so my room was freezing with the AC on.  My PC case is the Thermaltake coffin so i took off all the glass walls.  I am fully convinced that the air cooling cannot handle the 119 power level.  I also noticed watching the GPU speed during runs that it starts to throttle some after 60 C and alot after 70 C.  My card has been averaging 70 C during runs with a max at 81 C.  Was able to pick up an optimus water block (missed out on the raw copper one and paid extra for the Nickle) so waiting to see how much difference it will make.  From what I see I will assume it will.  Also just some math.  I dont expect evga to release a bios that goes past the max wattage spec of the power connectors plus bus.  so that means 150x3+75=525  I willing to bet the kingping version will be a 525 watt pec and the hydro copper and hybrid with be what we have now with the beta bios 500 watts.
 
FYI  I set the fans to 100 %  they spin at 3000RPM.  So my question is does the wattage of the fans count towards the total power of the board?  Because if it does I wonder how much power head room will be saved once a water block is installed.  3 fans x (watts)=extra juice????

Yes exactly what I want to know?!?!?! How much does the card retain power wise with the fans taken off?!? My Radeon 5700XT had three 12v .8amp fans. One does the math there's a bit of power savings right there!!

3090 Hybrid kit is a waste, a 240mm Radiator on a 500 watt TDP card is useless.
I came from a custom Loop Kingpin 2080ti that on XOC Bios i've had at 600 watts in benchmarks that barely broke 42c and now on this 3090 hybrid that hits 60c with stock bios and stock clocks.

I'd say stay with the stock air cooled setup and go custom loop down the road.  Hybrid 240mm is a waste.

arestavo
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 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:
 (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)

 
 
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 .
 
 

I can confirm that I did this and my final OC results are way better than the beta xoc ftw ultra 3 bios. On the beta bios, my  OC would still hit power limit all the time and some games were terrible how much it would bounce and downclock me from 2040 to 1925. Only some games  i could get spikes to 490 watts but it would still downclock my card. With following this man's directions and using the xc3 bios, it does show the watts incorrectly now (says im at about 280 watts), but i can assure those numbers are incorrect and it has actually increased the power limit and draw because now i can a hold  a steady 2025mhz core locked at 0.968V that doesnt bounce at all, mem is at +750, my temp has increased from about 68 average to 75 (time for a water block) from the added power, but currently, this is the best option to OC the 3090 ultra ftw3. The fan bug he described I did not notice. I'm using AB 4.6.3 beta 2 and have manual fan curve set to 98% at 58 degrees, and rpms stay steady at max load. So until evga fixes their beta bios, this is currently the best method I've tried so far for the highest stable clocks. I hope more people see this!!
 
Cheers for finding this!!

pat182
still deciding if the hbrid kit is worth it 

I installed the Hybrid about two weeks ago on my FTW3 Ultra with Thermal grizzly, i think its a great upgrade, all around its 20c cooler for me vs the the stock fan setup. 

Where can I download the XC3 Ultra VBIOS? Is the bios also available at techpowerup?
 

XC3 Bios

www techpowerup com/vgabios/225493/evga-rtx3090-24576-200902

I have also been using this Galax Gamer OC 2pin bios with 390w limit and getting even slightly better performance than the XC3 bios not much better maybe just 15mhz clock or something. I haven’t really pushed for limit just seems slightly more steady so far gaming/benching holding clocks than even the XC3 bios which is better than any FTW3 bios for me. But you will lose the extra ICX sensor reporting as well since it’s not an EVGA bios.

Galax Gamer OC

www techpowerup com/vgabios/227845/227845

Sorry guess I can’t paste working links yet so you’ll have to figure it out ;)

I haven’t tried the 1000 KPE yet just because of the high wattage thru pcie slot on these FTW3 cards unfortunately due to there design. So with all the limitations removed on that 1000 KPE bios makes it bit scary for daily/gaming use and I am mostly looking for my best daily option not just top benchmark bios which that should easily be on most cards except for maybe the FTW3 because of the power balancing/pcie slot high wattage issue.

Let us know how it works for you if you try.

youcanteatthat
i just updated precision x1 and it updated the firmware. can anybody tell me if this reverted this beta bios?

PX1 doesn't update the VBIOS. It updates the MCU (MicroController Unit) which controls RGB and the fans.

andressergio

swinemulefoot

pat182
still deciding if the hbrid kit is worth it 

I installed the Hybrid about two weeks ago on my FTW3 Ultra with Thermal grizzly, i think its a great upgrade, all around its 20c cooler for me vs the the stock fan setup. 

What's your ambient temp?
Every Hybrid Kit I see shows worse temps than my actual Air Stock Card...I use benchtable maybe that's why I have better temps, let's see when mine arrives. 
 
Cheers, Sergio!

I live in Northern CA, its around 65*f in my gaming room , while gaming my card barely hits 50*c with fans set @ 55%, Its worth the money, the stock cooler was 70*c all day

93f0rc3

arestavo

youcanteatthat
i just updated precision x1 and it updated the firmware. can anybody tell me if this reverted this beta bios?

PX1 doesn't update the VBIOS. It updates the MCU (MicroController Unit) which controls RGB and the fans.

Is it possible to downgrade the MCU firmware? I have been experiencing FAN3 issues after installing PX1 V1.1.4 which updated the MCU firmware as well. Thanks

Downgrade? Not to my knowledge.

https://www.evga.com/about/contactus/
 
EDIT: Theoretically, you could flash a different EVGA SKU VBIOS (like the XC3) and reboot. Then update the firmware via PX1 1.1.2 which might require an uninstall/reboot/reinstall to get it to flash the MCU (not sure which version had the last MCU update before the problem one, 1.1.2 was a guess) which will likely mess up your fans / cause them not to spin at all even under load - so don't game/benchmark, then flash the FTW3 VBIOS of your choice (XOC or stock), uninstall PX1 (likely required to get it to flash MCU again), reboot, reinstall PX1 1.1.2(?) and update the FTW3 MCU firmware to the desired older version. This may or may not work, and could possibly brick the MCU.

swinemulefoot

andressergio

swinemulefoot

pat182
still deciding if the hbrid kit is worth it 

I installed the Hybrid about two weeks ago on my FTW3 Ultra with Thermal grizzly, i think its a great upgrade, all around its 20c cooler for me vs the the stock fan setup. 

What's your ambient temp?
Every Hybrid Kit I see shows worse temps than my actual Air Stock Card...I use benchtable maybe that's why I have better temps, let's see when mine arrives. 
 
Cheers, Sergio!

I live in Northern CA, its around 65*f in my gaming room , while gaming my card barely hits 50*c with fans set @ 55%, Its worth the money, the stock cooler was 70*c all day

I'll second this, before I had to get a serious undervolt to get below 65 on air, but at stock hit 75+.  With the Hybrid kit on my 3080 I am hitting 55 stock in a room that is typically 25-27C depending on time of day (even in winter, it gets hot here in Texas...)

swinemulefoot
I live in Northern CA, its around 65*f in my gaming room , while gaming my card barely hits 50*c with fans set @ 55%, Its worth the money, the stock cooler was 70*c all day

Thanks!
I see that it also depends on "how" it's installed, saw some people with problems to remove the thermal paste from the card, I see Hybrid Kits with the Thermalpads not in place, some others tightening not the correct way, etc, etc. Would be nice to try it with the coldplate over the GDDR6X and the AIO and leave the cover and instead put one fan on each side to see how it behaves. My KINGPIN RTX 2080TI has a similar Hybrid Kit but inside it's full of copper heatsinks.
 
Cheers!
 

I flashed the xc3 ultra bios.
With afterburner 4.6.3 b2 i have : +150 on core and +500 on memory.
Port royal score 14412
cpu: 3960x 4.2/4.5ghz +
 
Power reading is wrong of course.
Fans at 100%duty, rotate at 3300 rpm but sometimes they go for few seconds at 3100.
 
Temps are higher: 72/73 after 5 minutes of furmark.
 
I did a furmark test with +200 on core and it crashed after few seconds. On the xoc beta bios +100 was stable. I need to see if now +150 is stable. Otherwise, I there isn't any real gain.
 
I will put the hybrid kit later the next month.
 
Let me know what you think. We need a good bios and also someone to test the watt absorbtion.

Regarding the Hybrid kit, seems like a really bad design if it can't do better than 60C.  If noise is important to you, then yeah, maybe go that route. But my stock card runs around 68C with the XC3 BIOS.  Water blocks are coming soon, I would go that route if you have the gear for it.  Or if you want to have a custom loop, although, be prepared to spend a pile of money to get everything all at once.

crisgt19
 
I installed the Hybrid Kit and I'm hitting 30 on idle. I reused the cross-brace with the stock gpu screws. I also used Artic MX4 instead of the pre-applied thermal paste on the block. I swapped out the fans for Noctua chromax and offloaded them onto the MOBO instead. Cleaning off the old thermals was a pain, but got it done with 90% Iso Alc with a microfiber towel and brush. Compress air to dry it all up. 

 
Yes I even see guys with the EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Hybrid factory and they have very high temps. So you think that using the stock cross plate tightens it better? About the thermal compound yes I can imagine it will be a pain, and I agree to replace the stock thermal compound that comes witht the AIO. 
 
Thank You, Happy New Year!!!