jsarver101

pbmpharmacist
I just started looking into this but it LOOKS like anything other than Nvidia or Asus is garbage right now. And it's hardware so it's unfixable

ftw3 3090 at least uses the same spec as nvidia. photos from people with them in hand confirm this.

pbmpharmacist
I just started looking into this but it LOOKS like anything other than Nvidia or Asus is garbage right now. And it's hardware so it's unfixable

So, as an Electronics Engineer and PCB Designer i feel i have to react here.

The point that Igor makes about improper power desing causing instability is a very plausible one. Especially with first production runs where it indeed could be the case that they did not have the time/equipment/driver etc to do proper design verification.

However, concluding from this that a POSCAP = bad and MLCC = good is waaay to harsh and a conclusion you cannot make.

Both POSCAPS (or any other 'solid polymer caps' and MLCC's have there own characteristics and use cases.

Some (not all) are ('+' = pos, '-' = neg):

MLCC:

+ cheap

+ small

+ high voltage rating in small package

+ high current rating

+ high temperature rating

+ high capacitance in small package

+ good at high frequencies

- prone to cracking

- prone to piezo effect

- bad temperature characteristics

- DC bias (capacitance changes a lot under different voltages)

POSCAP:

- cheap more expensive

- bigger

- lower voltage rating

+ high current rating

+ high temperature rating

- less good at high frequencies

+ mechanically very strong (no MLCC cracking)

+ not prone to piezo effect

+ very stable over temperature

+ no DC bias (capacitance very stable at different voltages)

As you can see, both have there strengths and weaknesses and one is not particularly better or worse then the other. It all depends.

In this case, most of these 3080 and 3090 boards may use the same GPU (with its requirements) but they also have very different power circuits driving the chips on the cards.

Each power solution has its own characteristics and behavior and thus its own requirements in terms of capacitors used.

Thus, you cannot simply say: I want the card with only MLCC's because that is a good design.

It is far more likely they just could/would not have enough time and/or resources to properly verify their designs and thus where not able to do proper adjustments to their initial component choices.

This will very likely work itself out in time. For now, just buy the card that you like and if it fails, simply claim warranty. Let them fix the problem and down draw to many conclusions based on incomplete information and (educated) guess work.

Piknik
This is a huge disappointment considering my 3080 XC3 Ultra is in my case right now. I'm thinking about RMA.
 

daford22
I have a 3080 XC3 and I can confirm it was crashing games and 3DMark when I was trying to run it.
 
It seems to be fixed now after I disabled Hardware Scheduling, I was able to run several 3DMark benchmarks, Red Dead Redemption Benchmarks, and played a bit for about 45 minutes.  Before it would crash nearly instantaneously without downclocking, and would crash after a few minutes after downclocking -125.
 
I'll update this if I run into issues again.

jsarver101

pbmpharmacist
I just started looking into this but it LOOKS like anything other than Nvidia or Asus is garbage right now. And it's hardware so it's unfixable

ftw3 3090 at least uses the same spec as nvidia. photos from people with them in hand confirm this.

Piknik
This is a huge disappointment considering my 3080 XC3 Ultra is in my case right now. I'm thinking about RMA.