I have had the Hybrid kit for about 2 weeks now, but I have not installed it because of all of the negative feedback on here regarding fan speed problems, non-improvement over air performance problems, bios problems, etc. 
Bottom line: should I skip installing it and just return it for refund?

I would not install it. Poor performance all around. 

Does it fit the 3070 FTW Ultra?  I guess not since it only lists the 3080 and 3090, but they appear to be such similar cards.

bradsour

SprayingMango
I would not install it. Poor performance all around. 

I've had no BIOS issues. I'm running the 450 Watt BIOS. I did leave my second bios left at the AIR BIOS just in case I had to revert, but no issues at all since my intiial install.

So did you install the bios Jacob posted to make the gpu a "hybrid" recognized card?

bradsour

grirvan

bradsour

SprayingMango
I would not install it. Poor performance all around. 

I've had no BIOS issues. I'm running the 450 Watt BIOS. I did leave my second bios left at the AIR BIOS just in case I had to revert, but no issues at all since my intiial install.

So did you install the bios Jacob posted to make the gpu a "hybrid" recognized card?

Yes, I installed the EVGA supplied BIOS and my card now shows as a Hybrid Card and Fan 1 is the rad fans and Fan 2 is the card fan. Everything about it shows as a hybrid card now.
 
My Best Port Royal Result with Hybrid.
My Best Port Royal Result with same card on Air.
 
Take note of the Avg Temps

What are you doing to get 41C with that type of OC? 

Install the kit. Just make sure you clean everything properly and you won't have any issues. The only complaints are by people who install it incorrectly somehow. Mine idles 23-25*C and 100% load no higher than 65. If you have a 40*C idle you 100% did something wrong. Anyone who says "poor performance" are obviously salty they didn't get one or they installed it so bad they broke it.

I have ran it in length using the patched BIOS as well as the original FTW3 XOC BIOS. Both work fine. Who cares if precision doesn't have the fans reading correctly. Build a fan curve.

The only people that have used a kit & gotten bad performance to my knowledge either A: Had a faulty pump from the getgo & needed to RMA it or B: got a bad mount & it was fixed after remounting.
Vast majority of people I've seen numbers from have dropped at least 10C off their previous load temps if not more.  Keeping in mind the 3090 in particular is a heat-beast with all that GDDR6X also on a plate that connects directly to the coldplate of the AIO, that's a pretty noticeable decrease.  It also results in lower temps on the vRAM & VRMs, because there's less heat soaking in to the PCB from the everything running cooler as a result of the GPU die running cooler.
For me it was as much about getting the GPU heat OUT of my case as it was any possible decreasing of temperatures.  I went from an air-cooled 3080 FTW3 Ultra to a Hybrid 3090 FTW3, and I'm very happy with it.  Pump noise on my unit is completely unnoticeable, temps are pretty great, and I'm not longer having warm air spewed on my M.2s which with the 3080 was resulting in 8-15C increase in temps on those drives during gaming.  Keep in mind I had a 1080 Ti FTW3 Hybrid before the 3080, and going back to a Hybrid brought my RAM & VRM temps on my motherboard back down too, those were higher with the air-cooled card as well (RAM temps were up to 10C higher with the air-cooled card, not ideal when running OCed B-die as they tend to lose stability when they get warmer than a certain temp).
 
You also have to keep in mind the majority of people with perfectly working cards & AIO Kits aren't going to post on forums about it.  Whereas a good bit of the people WITH problems ARE going to post about it, either on forums, or somewhere else, and regardless of whether or not their issue is eventually resolved via RMA or remount, the first thing you're going to see is that they had a problem to begin with.
Not saying the issues are or aren't widespread, just saying we're always seeing the worst of it here most of the time.
 
Edit: And everyone needs to keep in mind average temp in Port Royal is the average, not the peak, and that peak is more than likely what you would see or around what you'd see as sustained load in games.

I think its more a quality of life issue rather than pure performance, It will make your card happier 

solved. Was a fan non working properly. My fault.

Yea good kit!, and of course lower temps equals long life. Win win

As someone who has had a hybrid kit on my 2080 ti to someone who bought a 3090 ftw ultra and installed it on my card from the get go pump made horrible sound constant buzzing from it even not under load the temps where a tiny bit better after taking the hybrid kit off because it just stopped working replacing the thermal putty and paste on my card before I put the air cooler on my thermals are not much different then having the hybrid mounted yea it put air outside your case but the pumps run at one speed full speed hence the noise also the pumps are garbage seen to be different to the previous hybrid kit . It's really not worth the risk of having your card damaged . Replace the stock pads and paste remount your air cooler as long as you have a good airflow case you don't need to worry about the hybrid . I certainly wouldn't recommend it after the bad experience iv had with it this time around . It's nothing to do with being salty it's to do with poor craftsmanship and an overall downgrade to the previous kit.

Hello the pump noise should calm down if it's more than 15 minutes after install you might have a problem if it doesn't settle down I'd suggest you try to rma it . My issue was it worked for a day or so but the AIO made a buzzing noise then the AIO just made a grinding noise and temps skyrocketed . I just decided to water cool my pc so just bought a water block instead really happy with the thermals compared to the hybrid kit .Hope you get it sorted .