kvswim
**SOAPBOX BEGIN**
Y'all need to drink some water, waaaaay too much salt over something that EVGA is providing to the community. An extreme vbios was not in the scope of delivery, last time I checked. While it's very curious that other 3x8 cards can flash this BIOS and use 500W fine, and any sort of communication from EVGA would be appreciated, this is labeled a BETA! Take a breath and just play with your overclocks within the confines of the 450W stock limit while this gets sorted out.
**SOAPBOX END**
 
Got my FTW3 Ultra in today. As I promised earlier, I flashed the XOC vbios. The vbios that my card shipped with was 94.02.26.48.16, which is not on TechPowerup. Luckily I backed it up, but a newer one is posted there (I think). Here's some things I noticed while running Time Spy Extreme stress test, with Boost Lock enabled in PX1 and the card on a preliminary overclock:

• The average power draw over the course of the stress test was 472w (cleared just before test started).
• The maximum power draw reported by GPU-Z was 492w. 
• The perfcap reason the entire time was Power. 

The power limit is indeed higher than the stock non-XOC vbios. On the stock bios, I could only exceed 450W during spikes, up to about 460W. However, with the XOC vbios, it seems to only to go higher than 450w if it feels like it, as opposed to normal vbioses (that I'm used to) wanting to constantly run up against the limiter. What does the Strix behave like with its stock vbios? What do other cards behave like with this XOC bios flashed? Are they banging the power limit like we see on the factory bios? 

94.02.26.48.16 is the newer bios. Compiled in October. 94.02.26.80.D0 is the OC bios shipped with launch day cards. I'm curious if anyone has tried flashing the 94.02.26.48.16 bios to cards with the D0 bios to see if there's any better balance of power between the pcie and 8 pin. My only idea (or blind hope) that maybe the newer bios could update voltage controller firmware or something.

orkan

tresnugget
94.02.26.48.16 is the newer bios. Compiled in October. 94.02.26.80.D0 is the OC bios shipped with launch day cards. I'm curious if anyone has tried flashing the 94.02.26.48.16 bios to cards with the D0 bios to see if there's any better balance of power between the pcie and 8 pin. My only idea (or blind hope) that maybe the newer bios could update voltage controller firmware or something.

My ultra showed up with 94.02.26.48.15 bios. ... it was quite a lot faster, like by 250 points in port royal, than the 94.02.26.48.16 bios offered for download in this OP. I didn't save it before flashing though. :(  

I'm almost positive that the 15 bios is the bios intended for the switch in the "normal" position and 16 is the bios for the "oc" position. I didn't realize that those were the ones used to flash back to in the OP. You could always use the D0 launch day bios from techpowerup.

kvswim

arestavo
Well this is kinda retarded (XC3 Ultra VBIOS on a FTW3 card). Here's a not trying very hard (no clean boot or really dialing in an OC, WITH AB running OSD) XC3 Ultra run vs my very best FTW3 500W run (where I went whole hog, even the 30 min downtime between runs): 
 
 
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
 
100% fans instead of 80%: 
 
 
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE X20:
Clean boot with a dialed in OC:  
 
 

Curious. My best with the "500W" vbios in Port Royal was 14,655 (squeaking into the HOF for now). I'll have a go with the XC3 vbios, standby...
 
Edit: Nope, not for me. Couldn't get the same offset to stabilize that passed with the 500w bios. Highest one that would pass ended up being 68 points lower, with a 21 mhz drop in average clock. Additionally, the fan RPM was all over the place, even after reinstalling PX1. 

I think something is not right for u, precision should work without any issues (fans, oc ..etc) also u should be able to achieve same/better oc with xc3 bios

Maybe coz its a non ultra

slovak_killer

kvswim

arestavo
Well this is kinda retarded (XC3 Ultra VBIOS on a FTW3 card). Here's a not trying very hard (no clean boot or really dialing in an OC, WITH AB running OSD) XC3 Ultra run vs my very best FTW3 500W run (where I went whole hog, even the 30 min downtime between runs): 
 
 
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
 
100% fans instead of 80%: 
 
 
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE X20:
Clean boot with a dialed in OC:  
 
 

Curious. My best with the "500W" vbios in Port Royal was 14,655 (squeaking into the HOF for now). I'll have a go with the XC3 vbios, standby...
 
Edit: Nope, not for me. Couldn't get the same offset to stabilize that passed with the 500w bios. Highest one that would pass ended up being 68 points lower, with a 21 mhz drop in average clock. Additionally, the fan RPM was all over the place, even after reinstalling PX1. 

I think something is not right for u, precision should work without any issues (fans, oc ..etc) also u should be able to achieve same/better oc with xc3 bios

I'm pretty sure 68 points is within margin of error when talking about a 14600 score.

That said, my card was one that always exhibited power perfcap and pulled at most 440W on average no matter what - and usually lower at 420 for PR or normal TS. I don't think his was power capped as hard as mine. 14233 and just under 2000MHz for PR before (and that took a LONG time to get), now it's 14500 and 2058 MHz average for me (and took 30 minutes).

Also, the fans at 100% do dip and come back to 100% noticeably with the XC3 VBIOS.

I'm waiting... though not patiently... for a new bios release that addresses the issues in this thread and actually provides the performance I paid for. 

kvswim

arestavo

slovak_killer

kvswim

arestavo
Well this is kinda retarded (XC3 Ultra VBIOS on a FTW3 card). Here's a not trying very hard (no clean boot or really dialing in an OC, WITH AB running OSD) XC3 Ultra run vs my very best FTW3 500W run (where I went whole hog, even the 30 min downtime between runs): 


REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

100% fans instead of 80%: 


REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE X20:
Clean boot with a dialed in OC:  

Curious. My best with the "500W" vbios in Port Royal was 14,655 (squeaking into the HOF for now). I'll have a go with the XC3 vbios, standby...

Edit: Nope, not for me. Couldn't get the same offset to stabilize that passed with the 500w bios. Highest one that would pass ended up being 68 points lower, with a 21 mhz drop in average clock. Additionally, the fan RPM was all over the place, even after reinstalling PX1. 

I think something is not right for u, precision should work without any issues (fans, oc ..etc) also u should be able to achieve same/better oc with xc3 bios

I'm pretty sure 68 points is within margin of error when talking about a 14600 score.

That said, my card was one that always exhibited power perfcap and pulled at most 440W on average no matter what - and usually lower at 420 for PR or normal TS. I don't think his was power capped as hard as mine. 14233 and just under 2000MHz for PR before (and that took a LONG time to get), now it's 14500 and 2058 MHz average for me (and took 30 minutes).

Also, the fans at 100% do dip and come back to 100% noticeably with the XC3 VBIOS.

68 points was the difference in my best score -- I tried a few times even with fresh boot and that was my highest of several attempts. Maybe I would need a reinstall of both the driver and PX1 if I couldn't hold the same offset? Or maybe it's down to the higher power limit? 

I just don't think you were being limited very much to begin with on your card, unlike mine.

It could be differences in drivers and windows updates as well. Oh, and I stopped using PX1 and started using the beta 3 AB (but I still close it after setting offsets).

 If you have the game The division 2, with the XOC bios i top over 500 watt when i play that game, so the bios work.
 If you dont have the game but have uplay then you can try it with the trial.

cerealkeller
Where are FTW3 Ultra 450w BIOS core clock running for any of you guys when bumping up against power limit? If I’m power throttling hard it’s usually 1995 max, 1920 if it’s bouncing around and at 60C+
Im finding it difficult to determine other people’s results because I can’t really OC my core unless I’m under the power limit. And so far being under the limit typically means I don’t really need to OC because I’m at 60 or 120 FPS solid.
I haven’t tested too many games RDR2 4K max but no MSAA or raymarch clouds, runs between 60-80 FPS depending on the area. Doom Eternal 4K120 no trouble whatsoever, Doom 8K60 15.5 GB VRAM usage lol 50-60 FPS with v sync set to 60 Hz. So far those are the only two games I’ve played.

I've hit 2175 MHz on my FTW3 Ultra with the 450 watt stock OC BIOS and sustained 2100+ MHz with the same BIOS.  It depends on what game or benchmark you are running and if you OC the GPU in whatever software you are using.  The 3DMark DirectX Ray Tracing Feature Test allows for sustained 2100+ MHz on my 3090 FTW3.  

Turbo-12R

ajreynol

 
All the chess pieces have arrived. 
 
Best of luck to EVGA and the other contenders.
 

 
4 cards enter. 1 card leave. Place your bets on the performance winner.

 
So this was a big drum roll at the time.  I'm not seeing any follow-up posts from you as to what your results were....
 
I'd be interested to know.

Sorry I forgot to update this.
I did all my testing on the same rig, case sides off, 100% fans, reasonably cool room. As benchmarks went, for the silicon I received:
 
XTrio w/500W EVGA Bios > FE > Strix >> FTW3U
 
XTrio was shockingly quiet even at max fan speed. Card was the second coolest of the bunch, maxing out at around 73C in stress testing and did the best job maintaining its clocks stable. All of the reviews saying it is super quiet are spot-on. 500W bios allows the card to bounce between 480W-510W in benchmarks. This was the card I decided to keep, and am running it daily at 0.956mV @ 2040MHz. It's rock solid there and is drawing 380W-420W typical. Memory is very strong, and actually goes up to about +1248 before seeing performance degrade. That memory clock wasn't stable @ 0.956mV so I dialed that down to +1048 daily usage.
BEST STABLE OC (Afterburner): +161 / +1148
CLOCK STABILITY: 2085-2130, ~480W-510W, max temp 69C
 
FE at 100% fans is extremely loud. Like, unacceptably loud. But the nice thing about the FE is that it will likely never reach 100% fan speed because its cooler is SO GOOD. The same stress tests? Card maxed at 56C. That's almost 20C cooler than the XTrio. Even when undervolting the XTrio to around 400W (which is where the FE hangs around in benchmarks), it's still a solid 10C warmer than the FE. I continue to go back and forth on keeping this one because that EK FE waterblock is gorgeous and a shunt mod would be a trivial way to really find out how good this card could be. I have another couple of months to decide if I want to keep it or not (Best Buy), but I'm probably going to return it as I am now VERY intrigued by the EVGA FTW3 HC. 
BEST STABLE OC (Afterburner): +170 / +698
CLOCK STABILITY: 1950-2010, ~390W-408W, max temp 56C
 
Strix just ran too damn hot. It would get up to about 80C with stock bios, and around 84C on the 500W EVGA bios. Volume at 100% fan speed was acceptable but was definitely audible. Under water or with a repaste it may have performed better, but I'm not going to open a card that I'm not 100% sure I want to keep and this wasn't the impression I was looking for out of the vaunted Strix model. What sealed my decision was being able to compare OC's for this and the XTrio on the SAME 500W bios. The XTrio could simply do more. Higher core OC, higher mem OC. Strix kept it close and I do think it was very limited by temps, but again, wasn't ready to take any risk given the cost of the card.  I was going to return it but I ended up selling this one for my cost + ship which worked out because someone who wanted a Strix got one and I got to keep my credit card's reward points. lol.
BEST STABLE OC (Afterburner): +141/+898
CLOCK STABILITY: 1980-2070, 463W-480W, max temp 74C, stock bios
CLOCK STABILITY: 2010-2115, ~510W, max temp 84C, 500W FTW3U bios
 
FTW3 was slightly louder than the Strix at 100% fan speed, but not offensive like the FE. Not a lot to say here; clocks would regularly dip below 2GHz and the max temp got up there much higher than I would consider acceptable. Just a reminder at this point: all 4 cards were tested in the exact same environment. Huge room, nice and cool, open case. This card and the Strix were literally 20C+ hotter than the FE. This card had the most average performing silicon on the core of the bunch, maxing at +90 core offset AND the second weakest memory offset, beating out only the FE.
BEST STABLE OC (Afterburner): +90/+800
CLOCK STABILITY: 1950-2045, ~425-450W, max temp 80C, stock bios (did not try 500W bios because of the issues)
 
--
 
There was a bunch of other data and scores and stuff (scoring as I incrementally rose core and mem offsets, some game bench scores), but I'll only post some of those if someone is really interested. They were all close enough to consider them a wash in real world applications, but the FTW3 was about 300 points behind the other 3 cards which were all within 50 points of each other. The FE beat out the Strix and FTW3U in both Port Royal and Time Spy despite having 100W less power available to it. 
 
In the end, as we should all know at this point: the silicon lottery is more important than the make and model on the side of your box. The chips for these cards are not binned; you can get a core that can't OC much...or one that can OC a lot. Same with memory.
 
Back to the Hydro Copper, I didn't expect them to be so competitively priced and was always planning to put whatever card I settled on under water. The HC represents a savings of at least a couple hundred depending on the card + block (Strix + block is like $200 more than the HC, for example). Unless I deem teh XTrio to be a proper golden chip (I think it might be given those offsets and ease of applying the 500W bios), the HC value proposition seems unbeatable for the price. Also, what a nuts air cooler the FE has. If I were building on air and not concerned at all about leaderboard benchmarking, I don't see why I would purchase any other card. It's beautiful, it runs cold, boosts to 400W (which is where you want to be for daily gaming regardless of card to keep temps down on air), and sits right around 2GHz. At best, we're looking at a few FPS advantage for one of the more expensive AIBs? While being able to gawk at arguably the sexiest waterblock ever made in that EK FE block.
 
So yea, having a bit of paralysis of analysis. FE + EK block? XTrio + someone's block? Sell everything and try to score a Hydro Copper sometime next month? Decisions, decisions.

ajreynol
 
 
In the end, as we should all know at this point: the silicon lottery is more important than the make and model on the side of your box. The chips for these cards are not binned; you can get a core that can't OC much...or one that can OC a lot. Same with memory.
 
 

 
I'd say this is one of the most sensible things from anyone said yet.  Pretty much true for past, present, and future cards I'd say.

ajreynol
 
Sorry I forgot to update this.
I did all my testing on the same rig, case sides off, 100% fans, reasonably cool room. As benchmarks went, for the silicon I received:
 
XTrio w/500W EVGA Bios > FE > Strix >> FTW3U
 
XTrio was shockingly quiet even at max fan speed. Card was the second coolest of the bunch, maxing out at around 73C in stress testing and did the best job maintaining its clocks stable. All of the reviews saying it is super quiet are spot-on. 500W bios allows the card to bounce between 480W-510W in benchmarks. This was the card I decided to keep, and am running it daily at 0.956mV @ 2040MHz. It's rock solid there and is drawing 380W-420W typical. Memory is very strong, and actually goes up to about +1248 before seeing performance degrade. That memory clock wasn't stable @ 0.956mV so I dialed that down to +1048 daily usage.
BEST STABLE OC (Afterburner): +161 / +1148
CLOCK STABILITY: 2085-2130, ~480W-510W, max temp 69C
 
FE at 100% fans is extremely loud. Like, unacceptably loud. But the nice thing about the FE is that it will likely never reach 100% fan speed because its cooler is SO GOOD. The same stress tests? Card maxed at 56C. That's almost 20C cooler than the XTrio. Even when undervolting the XTrio to around 400W (which is where the FE hangs around in benchmarks), it's still a solid 10C warmer than the FE. I continue to go back and forth on keeping this one because that EK FE waterblock is gorgeous and a shunt mod would be a trivial way to really find out how good this card could be. I have another couple of months to decide if I want to keep it or not (Best Buy), but I'm probably going to return it as I am now VERY intrigued by the EVGA FTW3 HC. 
BEST STABLE OC (Afterburner): +170 / +698
CLOCK STABILITY: 1950-2010, ~390W-408W, max temp 56C
 
Strix just ran too damn hot. It would get up to about 80C with stock bios, and around 84C on the 500W EVGA bios. Volume at 100% fan speed was acceptable but was definitely audible. Under water or with a repaste it may have performed better, but I'm not going to open a card that I'm not 100% sure I want to keep and this wasn't the impression I was looking for out of the vaunted Strix model. What sealed my decision was being able to compare OC's for this and the XTrio on the SAME 500W bios. The XTrio could simply do more. Higher core OC, higher mem OC. Strix kept it close and I do think it was very limited by temps, but again, wasn't ready to take any risk given the cost of the card.  I was going to return it but I ended up selling this one for my cost + ship which worked out because someone who wanted a Strix got one and I got to keep my credit card's reward points. lol.
BEST STABLE OC (Afterburner): +141/+898
CLOCK STABILITY: 1980-2070, 463W-480W, max temp 74C, stock bios
CLOCK STABILITY: 2010-2115, ~510W, max temp 84C, 500W FTW3U bios
 
FTW3 was slightly louder than the Strix at 100% fan speed, but not offensive like the FE. Not a lot to say here; clocks would regularly dip below 2GHz and the max temp got up there much higher than I would consider acceptable. Just a reminder at this point: all 4 cards were tested in the exact same environment. Huge room, nice and cool, open case. This card and the Strix were literally 20C+ hotter than the FE. This card had the most average performing silicon on the core of the bunch, maxing at +90 core offset AND the second weakest memory offset, beating out only the FE.
BEST STABLE OC (Afterburner): +90/+800
CLOCK STABILITY: 1950-2045, ~425-450W, max temp 80C, stock bios (did not try 500W bios because of the issues)
 
--
 
There was a bunch of other data and scores and stuff (scoring as I incrementally rose core and mem offsets, some game bench scores), but I'll only post some of those if someone is really interested. They were all close enough to consider them a wash in real world applications, but the FTW3 was about 300 points behind the other 3 cards which were all within 50 points of each other. The FE beat out the Strix and FTW3U in both Port Royal and Time Spy despite having 100W less power available to it. 
 
In the end, as we should all know at this point: the silicon lottery is more important than the make and model on the side of your box. The chips for these cards are not binned; you can get a core that can't OC much...or one that can OC a lot. Same with memory.
 
Back to the Hydro Copper, I didn't expect them to be so competitively priced and was always planning to put whatever card I settled on under water. The HC represents a savings of at least a couple hundred depending on the card + block (Strix + block is like $200 more than the HC, for example). Unless I deem teh XTrio to be a proper golden chip (I think it might be given those offsets and ease of applying the 500W bios), the HC value proposition seems unbeatable for the price. Also, what a nuts air cooler the FE has. If I were building on air and not concerned at all about leaderboard benchmarking, I don't see why I would purchase any other card. It's beautiful, it runs cold, boosts to 400W (which is where you want to be for daily gaming regardless of card to keep temps down on air), and sits right around 2GHz. At best, we're looking at a few FPS advantage for one of the more expensive AIBs? While being able to gawk at arguably the sexiest waterblock ever made in that EK FE block.
 
So yea, having a bit of paralysis of analysis. FE + EK block? XTrio + someone's block? Sell everything and try to score a Hydro Copper sometime next month? Decisions, decisions.

Thanks for the detailed write up. Interesting results. I think you should bold this line...
 
In the end, as we should all know at this point: the silicon lottery is more important than the make and model on the side of your box. The chips for these cards are not binned; you can get a core that can't OC much...or one that can OC a lot. Same with memory.
 
This is a huge factor, and based on your writeup I could see myself ordering an MSI (the gaming X trio line is my normal go-to), but with my luck I'd lose the silicone lottery as i always seem to do. At this point I'll likely just keep my FTW, for which I have a WB on order, and hope that EVGA eventually gets a 500w bios that works on all intended cards. Then again, I'm too impulsive for my own good and may grab something else if the opportunity arises before my block ships (I expect it to take a few weeks). 

It's a nice way to take the sharp tip off the dagger, to emphasize silicon lottery like that... 
 
However, I think it's pretty fitting for the experiences shared in this thread that the FTW3 ultra finished DEAD LAST. 

whaleboy_2048

ajreynol
 
Sorry I forgot to update this.
I did all my testing on the same rig, case sides off, 100% fans, reasonably cool room. As benchmarks went, for the silicon I received:
 
XTrio w/500W EVGA Bios > FE > Strix >> FTW3U
 
XTrio was shockingly quiet even at max fan speed. Card was the second coolest of the bunch, maxing out at around 73C in stress testing and did the best job maintaining its clocks stable. All of the reviews saying it is super quiet are spot-on. 500W bios allows the card to bounce between 480W-510W in benchmarks. This was the card I decided to keep, and am running it daily at 0.956mV @ 2040MHz. It's rock solid there and is drawing 380W-420W typical. Memory is very strong, and actually goes up to about +1248 before seeing performance degrade. That memory clock wasn't stable @ 0.956mV so I dialed that down to +1048 daily usage.
BEST STABLE OC (Afterburner): +161 / +1148
CLOCK STABILITY: 2085-2130, ~480W-510W, max temp 69C
 
FE at 100% fans is extremely loud. Like, unacceptably loud. But the nice thing about the FE is that it will likely never reach 100% fan speed because its cooler is SO GOOD. The same stress tests? Card maxed at 56C. That's almost 20C cooler than the XTrio. Even when undervolting the XTrio to around 400W (which is where the FE hangs around in benchmarks), it's still a solid 10C warmer than the FE. I continue to go back and forth on keeping this one because that EK FE waterblock is gorgeous and a shunt mod would be a trivial way to really find out how good this card could be. I have another couple of months to decide if I want to keep it or not (Best Buy), but I'm probably going to return it as I am now VERY intrigued by the EVGA FTW3 HC. 
BEST STABLE OC (Afterburner): +170 / +698
CLOCK STABILITY: 1950-2010, ~390W-408W, max temp 56C
 
Strix just ran too damn hot. It would get up to about 80C with stock bios, and around 84C on the 500W EVGA bios. Volume at 100% fan speed was acceptable but was definitely audible. Under water or with a repaste it may have performed better, but I'm not going to open a card that I'm not 100% sure I want to keep and this wasn't the impression I was looking for out of the vaunted Strix model. What sealed my decision was being able to compare OC's for this and the XTrio on the SAME 500W bios. The XTrio could simply do more. Higher core OC, higher mem OC. Strix kept it close and I do think it was very limited by temps, but again, wasn't ready to take any risk given the cost of the card.  I was going to return it but I ended up selling this one for my cost + ship which worked out because someone who wanted a Strix got one and I got to keep my credit card's reward points. lol.
BEST STABLE OC (Afterburner): +141/+898
CLOCK STABILITY: 1980-2070, 463W-480W, max temp 74C, stock bios
CLOCK STABILITY: 2010-2115, ~510W, max temp 84C, 500W FTW3U bios
 
FTW3 was slightly louder than the Strix at 100% fan speed, but not offensive like the FE. Not a lot to say here; clocks would regularly dip below 2GHz and the max temp got up there much higher than I would consider acceptable. Just a reminder at this point: all 4 cards were tested in the exact same environment. Huge room, nice and cool, open case. This card and the Strix were literally 20C+ hotter than the FE. This card had the most average performing silicon on the core of the bunch, maxing at +90 core offset AND the second weakest memory offset, beating out only the FE.
BEST STABLE OC (Afterburner): +90/+800
CLOCK STABILITY: 1950-2045, ~425-450W, max temp 80C, stock bios (did not try 500W bios because of the issues)
 
--
 
There was a bunch of other data and scores and stuff (scoring as I incrementally rose core and mem offsets, some game bench scores), but I'll only post some of those if someone is really interested. They were all close enough to consider them a wash in real world applications, but the FTW3 was about 300 points behind the other 3 cards which were all within 50 points of each other. The FE beat out the Strix and FTW3U in both Port Royal and Time Spy despite having 100W less power available to it. 
 
In the end, as we should all know at this point: the silicon lottery is more important than the make and model on the side of your box. The chips for these cards are not binned; you can get a core that can't OC much...or one that can OC a lot. Same with memory.
 
Back to the Hydro Copper, I didn't expect them to be so competitively priced and was always planning to put whatever card I settled on under water. The HC represents a savings of at least a couple hundred depending on the card + block (Strix + block is like $200 more than the HC, for example). Unless I deem teh XTrio to be a proper golden chip (I think it might be given those offsets and ease of applying the 500W bios), the HC value proposition seems unbeatable for the price. Also, what a nuts air cooler the FE has. If I were building on air and not concerned at all about leaderboard benchmarking, I don't see why I would purchase any other card. It's beautiful, it runs cold, boosts to 400W (which is where you want to be for daily gaming regardless of card to keep temps down on air), and sits right around 2GHz. At best, we're looking at a few FPS advantage for one of the more expensive AIBs? While being able to gawk at arguably the sexiest waterblock ever made in that EK FE block.
 
So yea, having a bit of paralysis of analysis. FE + EK block? XTrio + someone's block? Sell everything and try to score a Hydro Copper sometime next month? Decisions, decisions.

Thanks for the detailed write up. Interesting results. I think you should bold this line...
 
In the end, as we should all know at this point: the silicon lottery is more important than the make and model on the side of your box. The chips for these cards are not binned; you can get a core that can't OC much...or one that can OC a lot. Same with memory.
 
This is a huge factor, and based on your writeup I could see myself ordering an MSI (the gaming X trio line is my normal go-to), but with my luck I'd lose the silicone lottery as i always seem to do. At this point I'll likely just keep my FTW, for which I have a WB on order, and hope that EVGA eventually gets a 500w bios that works on all intended cards. Then again, I'm too impulsive for my own good and may grab something else if the opportunity arises before my block ships (I expect it to take a few weeks). 

I am running my 3090ftw ultra ram at +1200 all day long! getting 200 fps in cod cw with ray tracing minimal at 3840x1600.  the clock in game sits slightly above 2000mhz all the time - I find it strange you only got +800 on the ram for this card.  Anyway - I am not sure there is anything wrong with the bios as it is, the card pulls the Watts when it needs it, most of the time it doesn't though.  If you run a benchmark you can get it to consistantly pull more than 450 watts continuous.  In my opionion this card is badass.

As far as golden chips and such. One of my units can OC to +210 gpu (was +225 before the XOC bios, so I assume they can fix it at least a little bit...). The other appears to only go up to +180 gpu before crashing too much, so consequently, I'm stuck at +180 gpu for SLI benchmarks.
 
I think there might be something broken with the +180 gpu card, because I never had artifacting on +210 gpu one but I get artifacting intermittently on the one that only hits +180. Likewise, the one stuck at +180 also has memory that seems to crash if I try to go past +250 mem oc (like to +500 or +750) whereas the one that goes to +210 GPU can easily maintain +1000 or more. Perhaps I got one card with bad memory?
 
Likewise, the +210 gpu card runs stable at +150 to +175 gpu depending on the games, whereas the +180 gpu card seems to only get +120 to +135 gpu for those same games. So basically, to be safe, I just run them at +120 in SLI when not benchmarking.
 
The +210 card isn't a golden card though. At least not compared to a few people who really got golden cards on this forum. But, it does seem sort of golden compared to the +180 card and some of the cards people are having issues with on this forum.