@kevinc313 - you may not like how Lokator said it, and Lokator may or may not know all about capacitors, but he paraphrased the article well and those are the same terms Igor used in the article. Also, there are many different kinds of ceramic and tantalum capacitors. Using the terms he used, Lokator was more specific about the caps than you were. Professionals do call them by their “formal” names when those differences are important to the conversation - such as here with these.
 
And there is a cost difference. I don’t know what prices they are paying but there are 10 MLCCs or one poly in each of the six locations on the back of the board. If there was no cost difference, all boards might be using all MLCC caps like the ROG Strix. Why do you think the cheap boards are using polys? It’s because there is a price difference somehow and the polys are cheaper especially in a 10:1 situation. That’s 10 parts placements instead of one in each location using MLCCs. Maybe not a big difference price wise (you’d need to run all the numbers to know) but the lines will be faster when you use fewer parts. That has a cost and benefit.
 
Also, just to be clear, different capacitors have different filtering characteristics but you probably already know that. I do not mean to say that all MLCC is necessarily better than all or some poly. It could be in practice you want both there for each to knock out some frequency of noise, provide some stability to the power, etc. Asus, for whatever reason, decided to go all MLCC on their high end cards.
 
@mrjeffos - I would bet the system power supply does play a role in this but very hard to say how much in this particular case. Weak/cheap supplies will have more ripple, more switch noise, etc. That just makes margins less for anything that runs off it and could be a factor. But hard to really say without more information.

Jay2Cents just posted a video about it. 
 
https://youtu.be/x6bUUEEe-X8 

EVGANewMember2719
Jay2Cents just posted a video about it. 
 
https://youtu.be/x6bUUEEe-X8 

Thanks, will check it out.

robertdinh
Seems like AIBs weren't given enough time by nvidia to properly test everything.

Yeah, which makes the artificial stock problems even worse. It was orchestrated by Nvidia to start with, and then with their usual secrecy all of the AIBs had to deal with this nonsense.

It all makes sense now.

Welp, looks like I'm going Asus this gen.

You would think if you charge $1800 for 3090 FTW ultra you would get 6 MLCC. If in fact, this is the problem causing crashing.
 
Hmm, I need to rethink and consider FE and TUF cards if this is true. I am definitely going to watch this story closely.

Crismac1
You would think if you charge $1800 for 3090 FTW ultra you would get 6 MLCC. If in fact, this is the problem causing crashing.
 
Hmm, I need to rethink and consider FE and TUF cards if this is true. I am definitely going to watch this story closely.

I backordered a Strix 3080 now from CDW. Just in case I need to return the FTW card that is in route to me. 

gaubry
EVGA RTX 3080 XC3 Ultra, no crashes for my card yet. 

This is good to hear as an XC3 Gaming owner with LOTS of crashing. You should also list what you've been playing. I'm still confident, power caps aside, that the issue is also in large due to only having 1.0 driver. Nothing to roll back to or beta test really limits the breadth of speculation imo. 1 MLCC 5 POS BTW.

Crismac1
You would think if you charge $1800 for 3090 FTW ultra you would get 6 MLCC. If in fact, this is the problem causing crashing.
 
Hmm, I need to rethink and consider FE and TUF cards if this is true. I am definitely going to watch this story closely.

same, would be nice to get official confirmation on this that 3080 and 3090 ftw3 cards have 2 mlcc's.
so far 2 different posts on reddit confirmed users 3080 cards have 2x mlcc though so i feel a bit more relieved but its a bit conflicting with GN getting a 6x polys board

Yeah, EVGA disappointed me this gen with their FTW3 approach to be honest. 1800Mhz against the main competitor's 1935Mhz and now this MLCC/POSCAP issue. Also GN's FTW3 has 6 POSCAP and users reporting 2+4... So now we have different productions as well or is this corrected and GN's was a sample?
 
Need more info on this but certainly off putting.

This seems way overblown. There's nothing "cheap" about a tantalum capacitor, they're usually considered a premium part. Placement of ceramic cap arrays in lieu of 1-2 tants may or may not change end GPU behavior depending on the PCB layout and supporting circuitry.

I'll enjoy my 3080 regardless of what caps EVGA placed behind the GPU. If I have issues I'll RMA for a card with an updated BOM. That's why I'm buying EVGA- they take care of their customers.
 
The only verifiable fact I see here is that Gamers Nexus broke a Port Royal record on a "bad" FTW3. I don't think we're seeing the whole picture.

EVGANewMember2719

Crismac1
You would think if you charge $1800 for 3090 FTW ultra you would get 6 MLCC. If in fact, this is the problem causing crashing.
 
Hmm, I need to rethink and consider FE and TUF cards if this is true. I am definitely going to watch this story closely.

I backordered a Strix 2080 now from CDW. Just in case I need to return the FTW card that is in route to me. 

You are the man thanks been waiting for someone to backorder got an October 6 date est on delivery.


Oh and I know you meant 3080 :)

amd20x6
This seems way overblown.

Pun intended? Haha

2x MLCC is Nvidia spec. So I'd be happy with that. Probably wont get a stable overclock as high as a GPU with 6x MLCC though. 

yeah, seems the stock photo is old/inaccurate for the ftw3, I'm guessing the kingpin will have MLCC x6 however. (or is there an option above MLCC that exists? hmm)