grirvan
Any hope of a firmware upgrade that can fix transient power spikes?
I cannot imagine EVGA specifying wattage minimums for power supplies that are inadequate specifications (not including coverage for transient power spikes).
It make no sense at all that people who meet the specifications or exceed the specifications greatly would still need to replace their power supplies due to transient power spikes.

 
No firmware update can fix that.
 
GPUs have had them for awhile now due to the way GPUs work.
 
And other things like raid arrays etc.
 
When they need power they go from ZERO to 100 MPH in microseconds so the power draw is the same.
 
As the GPUs get more powerful it will just continue, it really started with the 1000X series like the 1080Ti and the VEGA 64.
 
MOST PSUs are fine and can handle them, it's just some are either too old and or out of date or of poor design or quality.

grirvan
Thank you for the reply. To solve this, I am not against replacing mine, but how would I know what to buy?
I saw a thread of people listing theirs that work, but would rather have a better source than that.
I am assuming EVGA (since it is their card) would provide good power supplies, but how high in wattage do we need to go versus the EVGA power meter calculator?

It doesn't work that way....
 
Transient power spikes have nothing to do with the wattage capacity of the PSU.
 
It could be a 1200W PSU and still shut down.
 
It's about PSU design, and that's internally on the secondary side of the unit.
 
If you get a high quality PSU and of the proper wattage, say 750W to 850W they are fine.
 
For the most part, some do have issues for the reason above.
 
The List is actually pretty accurate.
 
Especially the EVGA, Corsair and Seasonic units listed.
 
I know Corsair tested all of theirs and basically said this.
 
All of the current Units they make, GOLD rated or above are fine except for the SF Models.
 
With Corsair that means starting with the TXM and higher are good.
 
 
 
 

I have the 3090 FTW3 Ultra on a 1200w Coolermaster Platinum with 3 separate brand new cables (each tested with a PSU tester for voltage) and I still get this kind of issues.   It's almost like a driver instability issue mixed with bad internal voltage regulation maybe?  It looks similar to artifacting and then when I force a reboot I notice Nvidia RLA Utility crashed with an error report in the background.   

Specs:
i7 8700k with AIO liquid cooler getting decent temps
Gigabyte 370 motherboard
32gb DDR4
Xfi Titanium HD
Thunderbolt 3/USB C addon card
RTX 3090 EVGA FTW3
Coolermaster V1200 Platinum PSU
LG Nanocell 85 49" Gsync, 4k 120hz, ALLM
Z5500 Speakers (with my sub far away from computer)

grirvan
I have been experiencing repeated re-boots mid-game and still am, but here is what I have done, learned and still may do.
What I have done:
■unplugged all non-essential hardware to reduce wattage used (non-used ssd's, unnecessary sound card/went back to motherboard audio 
■re-connected my GPU to the power supply with 3 individual cables (leaving the 2nd connector on each hang free)
■installed newest NVIDIA driver
■installed newest version of Precision X
What I have learned:
■not all games crash, but some still did and as much as I hated it, I uninstalled and re-installed games and that solved it
What I still "may" do:
■upgrade the bios on my motherboard, but I hesitate to do that because of the risk of complications and the pain of having to reconfigure the settings again in the bios after an upgrade
■lastly upgrade my power supply (850W), but I really cannot believe that would be necessary when EVGA specifically specifies less wattage required and I certainly can't believe they would sell cards that "only work" with certain power supplies. That is crazy.
 

 
EVGA or Nvidia has no control over what the PSU manufactures do or don't do or how they design their units.
 
There are tiers of PSUs based on cost and quality just like everything else in the world today.
 
So just saying a X wattage PSU is recommended doesn't mean anything, it's the actual model of the PSU that matters. EVGA and all others sell total crap PSUs as well as good and then excellent ones as well.
 
There is a lot more to a PSU than just the wattage, efficiency rating or brand name. 

grirvan
I hear you and agree, but I am having a tough time believing my power supply purchased in 2019 is not good enough to run my new video card.

 
You hear me, but you don't really understand what I am saying. Doesn't matter if it's a year old or you got it today.
 
What matters is what I laid out in the last post.
 
It's the actual model of PSU that matters here, what it is and how good it is or isn't.
 
If it can handle the transient power spikes or not.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

grirvan
Sounds like their specs should have listed exact power supplies that are compatible then, otherwise for all of us that were fortunate enough to get one of these cards early on, it is a crap shoot whether our power supplies will work.

 
Not really.
 
MOST as in almost all top tier PSUs work fine with the 3000 series.
 
If you look at the list of known working PSUs you will notice they are all top tier units.
 
https://forums.evga.com/We-need-to-have-a-thread-of-what-PSU-people-have-and-RTX-3080-or-3090-and-is-WORKING-m3118557.aspx
 
 
And then there is the PSU tier list to look at on Linus's forum.
 
https://linustechtips.com/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/
 
But even that isn't perfect, it still does come down to what people will actually buy. It is a good place to start researching however.
 
Yes, I said research, and yes it is important, and I mean professional/teardown reviews.
 
A PSU isn't just an after thought or the last thing on the list to think about and cut cost on as so many people believe and actually do. 
 
With all of the notoriously bad information and recommendations out there it's really no surprise some are having problems.
 
I saw literally tons of bad recommendations and bad information seconds after the cards were announced. 
 
The same type people that always give bad information about PSUs in general.
 
 

Having restarts on my 3090 FTW3 ultra. Just received the card yesterday. Previously had a 3090 Vision OC and ran at 105 power limit with no issues. Granted this card runs at higher wattage than the Gigabyte. PSU is a year old seasonic 850w titanium. CPU 9900k on Asus z390-A. I even took the CPU to stock and it still happens. Did DDU before installing. Just uninstalled afterburner to see if that helps the situation. My watt meter shows the system only getting into the 615-620w range.

AWK16

Resident Guru
Having restarts on my 3090 FTW3 ultra. Just received the card yesterday. Previously had a 3090 Vision OC and ran at 105 power limit with no issues. Granted this card runs at higher wattage than the Gigabyte. PSU is a year old seasonic 850w titanium. CPU 9900k on Asus z390-A. I even took the CPU to stock and it still happens. Did DDU before installing. Just uninstalled afterburner to see if that helps the situation. My watt meter shows the system only getting into the 615-620w range.

A year old Titanium might have the issue handling the new cards. Email Seasonics, give them the exact model you have, they are fairly quick with responding and they will let you know if it needs to be replaced. Obviously it’s under warranty, so if that PSU doesn't suffices, they will ship you replacement that will comply with new cards, Seasonc have great support, they will help you out.
 

Thanks I will do that. I looked back and I bought it in February 2019 so it’s actually going on 2 years old.

Resident Guru
Having restarts on my 3090 FTW3 ultra. Just received the card yesterday. Previously had a 3090 Vision OC and ran at 105 power limit with no issues. Granted this card runs at higher wattage than the Gigabyte. PSU is a year old seasonic 850w titanium. CPU 9900k on Asus z390-A. I even took the CPU to stock and it still happens. Did DDU before installing. Just uninstalled afterburner to see if that helps the situation. My watt meter shows the system only getting into the 615-620w range.

i was having the same problem too a few days ago with 3090 ftw3 ultra also. usually after gaming but it also happened web browsing. stock settings on the ftw3. on a rog thor 1200w psu. the only changes to my pc was the gpu, updating windows, changing nvidia drivers and installing precision x. tried different nvidia drivers but it didnt solve anything. i uninstalled precision x and havent had the problems since. windows did update in the meantime so it could be that too.

jacoffey85

jankerson
 
 EVGA or Nvidia has no control over what the PSU manufactures do or don't do or how they design their units.
 
There are tiers of PSUs based on cost and quality just like everything else in the world today.
 
So just saying a X wattage PSU is recommended doesn't mean anything, it's the actual model of the PSU that matters. EVGA and all others sell total crap PSUs as well as good and then excellent ones as well.
 
There is a lot more to a PSU than just the wattage, efficiency rating or brand name. 

I have an EVGA 3090 FTW3 on the way. What else should I consider on PSU choice other than wattage and efficiency rating. I feel like I haven't been thorough enough with my research if there's a lot more to it than just those things.

 
Get a HIGH QUALITY PSU, 850W or 1000W or higher if you want more room.
 
A few examples:
 
Corsair RMX 850 or HX(i) 850
 
EVGA P2 or T2 850

jacoffey85

jankerson
 
Get a HIGH QUALITY PSU.
 
A few examples:
 
Corsair RMX 850 or HX(i) 850
 
EVGA P2 or T2 850

Is there an actual way to tell high quality PSU's other than just what people have tried if there's a lot more to them than just wattage and efficiency? I've seen the lists in the past, just trying to learn more about how to evaluate quality of components rather than just waiting for someone else to try it.

 
You can look at the tier lists like this one:
 
https://linustechtips.com/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/
 
THey also have a spread sheet in the 1st post to start the research.
 
Then also look up professional teardown reviews like what is on Toms Hardware, Aris is one of the best who really knows what he is talking about.
 
Customer reviews like on Amazon or Newegg etc are irrelevant. 

jankerson
You can look at the tier lists like this one:
 
https://linustechtips.com/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/
 
THey also have a spread sheet in the 1st post to start the research.
 
Then also look up professional teardown reviews like what is on Toms Hardware, Aris is one of the best who really knows what he is talking about.
 
Customer reviews like on Amazon or Newegg etc are irrelevant. 

Thanks for the recommendation of Aris. His "PSU 101" article was very informative and made a lot of sense, but in the end it seemed like the general message was the better the design, the better it is able to eliminate RFI and EMI which goes hand in hand with power factor and efficiency. It's been a while since I've had to do major load balancing with regenerative power supply units and rectifiers, but I do remember major unbalancing between line and load (hence the term LLC) can create a lot of problems with transient voltage spikes due to unwanted EMI and a big drop in efficiency and power factor. The list does seems to coincide with top tiers for the most part being Titanium & Platinum PSU's (with a few exceptions) and going lower from there. 

AWK16
I can vouch for 1300W Prime Platinum, not only you have good amount of headroom, but its approved by Seasonics to work flawlessly with 3000 series cards. Reason I'm pointing at that unit because it's price is compatible with other units  with lower wattage, but Seasonic is a superior product.

I decided to go with the EVGA SuperNova P2 1200W. I know from having to size power supplies in industry for electrical systems, the general rule of thumb is to go 1.5x whatever your calculated max sustained load is. This allows for the 1.25x OCP that the IEC standard sets and gives you a little more room for expansion down the road. I'm looking at around 800-850W sustained with the new card so 1200W should give me that 50% overhead to allow for power fluctuations and the Platinum rating is a good sign of the quality as well.
 
Thanks for all of your help!

jankerson

grirvan
Sounds like their specs should have listed exact power supplies that are compatible then, otherwise for all of us that were fortunate enough to get one of these cards early on, it is a crap shoot whether our power supplies will work.

 
Not really.
 
MOST as in almost all top tier PSUs work fine with the 3000 series.
 
If you look at the list of known working PSUs you will notice they are all top tier units.
 
https://forums.evga.com/We-need-to-have-a-thread-of-what-PSU-people-have-and-RTX-3080-or-3090-and-is-WORKING-m3118557.aspx
 
 
And then there is the PSU tier list to look at on Linus's forum.
 
https://linustechtips.com/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/
 
But even that isn't perfect, it still does come down to what people will actually buy. It is a good place to start researching however.
 
Yes, I said research, and yes it is important, and I mean professional/teardown reviews.
 
A PSU isn't just an after thought or the last thing on the list to think about and cut cost on as so many people believe and actually do. 
 
With all of the notoriously bad information and recommendations out there it's really no surprise some are having problems.
 
I saw literally tons of bad recommendations and bad information seconds after the cards were announced. 
 
The same type people that always give bad information about PSUs in general.
 
 

This has been extremely valuable information. I have gone back to this and been studying as well as still battling my issue.
The weird part is I have narrowed my problem down to one Steam game and have uninstalled, reinstalled, changed game settings, etc. and I still get computer re-boots mid game.
Can transient spikes be worse/unique to one particular game? 
Also, I see you are running a Corsair AXI 1600W.
Aside from the overwhelming list of power supplies ranging from multi/single-rail switchable, multi-rail and single-rail, if I am going to break down and install a new power supply, I want to buy one of the best.
Any advice on how to narrow that down and whether multi/single?

Thank you. I know we have bantered a bit back and forth, but you have been a big help.
BTW, how about my question of transient spikes relative to certain games?
Any thoughts on that?
I am not having any crashing issues other than on one Unity engine game.

jankerson
I can't see how transient spikes would be related to one or more game. 

It's pretty easy, some games demand more total power, depending on the voltage/load of the game. I can get consistent shut downs with Shadow of the Tomb Raider as I see a total system wattage (585 watts) in that game more than any other test I've done; Doom, 3DMark, etc.... 
 
Question for all: I can pickup a Corsair RM850x or an EVGA 1000 G+ at Best Buy, which one would you recommend? Edit: the EVGA is 180mm in length, that's a long boi. Going to try the Corsair I guess.