I'm having flashbacks to my early FTW3 3090, where the GPU wont get near its maximum power limit. Overclocked to 2175mhz, memory at +850 (not doing the math right now), GPU utilization peaked, and this thing only sips about 440w peak. It normally sits around just 400w. 

I do feel this is different than the 3090 as I was constantly being power limited, but here I am not. HWInfo is only reporting utilization capped, not power. Anyone else experiencing this? I was expecting greater power consumption than my 3090 (which would do 500w after a bios fix), but at the same time, I'm getting more performance out of the 3090ti with less power. 

Doesn't that video card have a triple BIOs switch? What is it set to? If there a power difference between the setting?

CraptacularOne
The BIOS switch just adjusts fan profiles, there is no difference in peak power between them. 
 
As for the OP, this sounds normal. It doesn't "need" to be drawing 500w all the time. It will draw what it needs for the given rendering task. Just because your card peak at 500+w doesn't mean it has to all the time. It's just that a "peak". Do your drive your car around at it's redline RPM all day just because it can? 

This isn't normal. Both my 3090 and 3080ti would consume more power. The 3090 had this problem, and the fix for it was swapping the bios with the XC model and making it think there was only 2 8pins. The power consumption then went up. If the GPU didn't need the power, the card wouldn't be power perf capping. 

My god man, the GPU is throwing Power perf cap... So the GPU is limiting itself because it doesn't have enough power. If the GPU was at 480w and throwing that, it would be 'normal'. The GPU peaked at 441w, well below the peak power limit of the GPU. So no, not normal. This again, is the same behavior that was exhibited with my 3090 which was flawed (and EVGA was willing to replace). I know exactly what I'm looking at. 

tresnugget
In gpuz are you staying at a power limit or is it just here and there. What's your pcie slot power max and average?

I don't use GPU-Z, I'm using HWInfo, and in the picture above its peaking at 11w. Its pretty regularly hitting it. It comes off a bit, but anytime its around 440w its perf capping.

compguru910

tresnugget
In gpuz are you staying at a power limit or is it just here and there. What's your pcie slot power max and average?

I don't use GPU-Z, I'm using HWInfo, and in the picture above its peaking at 11w. Its pretty regularly hitting it. It comes off a bit, but anytime its around 440w its perf capping.

I like gpuz because it graphs so you can see when it's hitting what perfcap. But yeah, I see the pcie slot power now. It's almost like the opposite of the 3090 issue. You're pulling almost 150w on the 3 virtual 8 pins, probably where you're hitting the power limit, but you still have plenty of pcie headroom.

tresnugget

compguru910

tresnugget
In gpuz are you staying at a power limit or is it just here and there. What's your pcie slot power max and average?

I don't use GPU-Z, I'm using HWInfo, and in the picture above its peaking at 11w. Its pretty regularly hitting it. It comes off a bit, but anytime its around 440w its perf capping.

I like gpuz because it graphs so you can see when it's hitting what perfcap. But yeah, I see the pcie slot power now. It's almost like the opposite of the 3090 issue. You're pulling almost 150w on the 3 virtual 8 pins, probably where you're hitting the power limit, but you still have plenty of pcie headroom.

I don't think its doing it at the same time though (the 3x PCI-E power) as that would put me to 450w, which I'm not hitting. Most of the time while gaming I'm sitting at just over 400w. Just ran Port Royal which is the highest GPU load I can think of (and was used to verify 3090 problems) and I peaked at 450w. 

Resident Guru
Mine peaks around 455w when gaming. This is the 3090 Ti Black edition. It will self boost to 2025 mhz. Haven’t really done much overclocking yet.

Thats interesting. I might try flashing that bios to see if it fixes my problem. I'm hovering at around 400w while the GPU is at 2160mhz (thats normalized, peak is 2190)

tresnugget

compguru910

tresnugget

compguru910

tresnugget
In gpuz are you staying at a power limit or is it just here and there. What's your pcie slot power max and average?

I don't use GPU-Z, I'm using HWInfo, and in the picture above its peaking at 11w. Its pretty regularly hitting it. It comes off a bit, but anytime its around 440w its perf capping.

I like gpuz because it graphs so you can see when it's hitting what perfcap. But yeah, I see the pcie slot power now. It's almost like the opposite of the 3090 issue. You're pulling almost 150w on the 3 virtual 8 pins, probably where you're hitting the power limit, but you still have plenty of pcie headroom.

I don't think its doing it at the same time though (the 3x PCI-E power) as that would put me to 450w, which I'm not hitting. Most of the time while gaming I'm sitting at just over 400w. Just ran Port Royal which is the highest GPU load I can think of (and was used to verify 3090 problems) and I peaked at 450w. 

Resident Guru
Mine peaks around 455w when gaming. This is the 3090 Ti Black edition. It will self boost to 2025 mhz. Haven’t really done much overclocking yet.

Thats interesting. I might try flashing that bios to see if it fixes my problem. I'm hovering at around 400w while the GPU is at 2160mhz (thats normalized, peak is 2190)

Right, but I'd imagine if it hits 150w on even one it's going to perfcap. I really don't like how that's done. Wish it was seen as one power source.

Yeah, I'm not a fan either so far. Got around this with the 3090 by flashing a 2x8Pin cards bios. Now I don't have that option.

Odd that pcie slot power is so low. RMA I guess? That doesn't seem like it would be normal, but somebody else with the 3090Ti would have to compare.

It makes sense the way it's reporting on three cables, you have three cables connected after all and it has to be fused in a meaningful way. Fussing for 60A on one connector and then having 3 separate power supply connections is asking for trouble.

Jomama22
Isn't the bios limited to 450w unless you manual increase the power slider in afterburner/x1? Would try adjusting this first and check again.

Also, use hwinfo and decrease the polling rate to something 200ms-500ms.

I did manually increase the power limit. It should be 480w. 

compguru910
I did manually increase the power limit. It should be 480w. 

In PX1 or Afterburner?

There was a point in time where Afterburner didn't seem to adjust the power limiter correctly in my 3080Ti and I had to use PX1 to set it. Wonder if the same is happening here.

Sajin
3090 Ti FTW3's don't have power issues... well mine doesn't. 
 

 
A capture of running cyberpunk 2077 benchmark @ 4k. 76F room temp. Ran the test 3 times before taking a capture on the 4th one. Runs strong. 
 
 

can you pass port royal to see the consumption?

a greeting.

Mine also doesnt reach the 480 watts, i see the 450 in god of war, and max 470 in Timespy but never seen 480, Games are most of the Time between 400 and 450

3090ti ftw3 ultra ,after passing timespy.

the maximum I have seen in another test has been 472w, I have not yet seen it reach 480w, is there any xoc bios planned?

Sajin
May be able to use the vbios for the KPE on the FTW3 cards. Just gotta wait and see.

thanks, I'm very happy with performance and temperatures, not so much with price xD