zaileron
 
Really seems to depend on the card. OC toggle (no XOC bios) mine averages 445W with max 475W, PCIE max 70W. Red lipped 2014x model (IIRC).
That being said, I have a brand new Corsair HX1200 and get power-related insufficiency shutdowns on OCCT's power test. I haven't been able to capture the spike that shuts down the system but it's there.

Agree.  I also have a red-lipped 2014x model, but have the opposite experience.  On the stock OC bios I don't think I even broke 400W.  Manage to get above on the XOC bios, but not by much, and certainly not sustained.   Sounds like your card would perform well with the XOC bios.  
 
Under Stock OC VBIOS - ~75W on the PCIe slot, ~115W 8-pin #1, ~105W 8-pin #2, ~95W 8-pin #3
Under XOC VBIOS similar - ~78W on the PCIe slot, ~115W 8-pin #1, ~105W 8-pin #2, ~95W 8-pin #3

Kylearan
The problem is the power balancing on the cards.  It's very highly likely it's something onboard in hardware and not vbios related, since otherwise eVGA could just make PCIE slot a lower % of the 8 pin #1 value (example 60W-->150W instead of 75W-->150W) which would solve that issue.  What some people have overlooked, is it could also be a hardware issue related to 8 pin #3 not having the proper power balancing (and not PCIE slot as previously thought), since everyone said that their 8 pin #3 always reports very low.  Maybe it has something to do with the XC3 and FTW3 PCB's being so similar, which is why flashing the XC3 Vbios works so well for FTW owners.  But I can pretty much say 100% certainly it's either PCIE slot reporting its max draw too soon, or 8 pin #3 NOT drawing enough relative to #1/#2.
 
I didn't check the XC3 thread, but do XC3 owners have the same problem?  I'm assuming not because there aren't 3 eight-pins on that card.
 
Here is what proper balancing should look like.
This is from an unmodded 3090 FE and a 114% TDP (400W) Superposition run.
 
https://i.imgur.com/sg1ckgD.jpg
 
You can see PCIE#1 is at its max cap of 175W (PCIE pin limit), PCIE#2 is a bit below that (170W) and PCIE slot tapped out at 69.7W.
They didn't reach those limits at the exact same time (that would be 414W) but you get the point.
 
Note that 79W is the absolute slot limit on FE and 300W for chip (GPU Core NVVDD Input Power) power limit (both are well below those limits).
 
So the FTW3 problems can be either because of 8 pin #3 not drawing enough (drawing more would put it at TDP without PCIE slot triggering a power limit) or PCIE slot drawing too much.
I think the 8 pin #3 should be looked at a bit more.  Did anyone check the PCIE Slot Limit on the 2 pin cards vs their TDP slider limits?
 
On all of the screenshots I saw earlier, where people pulled 500W Sustained on the XOC Bios, they all had 8 pin #1, 2 and 3 pulling more than 140W each, very close to each other, with PCIE slot at 75W.

my 8 pin #3 always reports very high, over 150w when the card is pushed.  8 pin #1 and #2 are at like 115-120w and the PCI-e is around 80w.  EVGA support told me 100w is safe for PCIe and 200w for the 8 pins, but that doesn't change the fact the power balancing isn't allowing me to draw sufficient power.  I'm on the XC3 BIOS.  It works very well for gaming.  Once my water block arrives I think the situation will be significantly improved since thermal throttling will no longer be an issue.  I ordered one from Optimus and one from EK.  I'm keeping whichever arrives first.  According to Optimus they've started shipping batch 1 blocks.  Of course if batch one blocks were a full month late, that means at least two more weeks for batch two, and EK ships on Jan 6.  The XC3 BIOS for me holds boost and voltage VERY well.  I figure the power draw is at minimum of 500 watts, probably more like 525w.
On a side note, troubleshooting this has corrupted my mother board BIOS TWICE!  I'm down to one BIOS.  I have a z390 Dark, an EVGA board, and there's clearly something very wrong here.  And I have an EVGA power supply, 1600 P2.  All I did to the 2nd BIOS was leave one of the power cables to the graphics card unplugged now it won't post under any circumstances.  I requested a new BIOS chip from EVGA, let's see if they cooperate since to me, this has entirely to do with some problem with their hardware.  The swappable BIOS chip is an awesome feature though, I actually needed to swap one on my x58 Classified because the board shipped with an older BIOS that didn't support the 980x so I couldn't get it to boot.  They sent me a new chip with an updated BIOS and everything was fine after that.

Where is the XC3 bios to try on the FTW3, and will it work for the FTW3 hybrid version? This XC3 bios is not the bios in this thread, correct? (XOC).
 
And what is the difference between VBIOS and BIOS.. Sorry a bit new to this bios switching stuff.

cerealkeller

Kylearan
The problem is the power balancing on the cards.  It's very highly likely it's something onboard in hardware and not vbios related, since otherwise eVGA could just make PCIE slot a lower % of the 8 pin #1 value (example 60W-->150W instead of 75W-->150W) which would solve that issue.  What some people have overlooked, is it could also be a hardware issue related to 8 pin #3 not having the proper power balancing (and not PCIE slot as previously thought), since everyone said that their 8 pin #3 always reports very low.  Maybe it has something to do with the XC3 and FTW3 PCB's being so similar, which is why flashing the XC3 Vbios works so well for FTW owners.  But I can pretty much say 100% certainly it's either PCIE slot reporting its max draw too soon, or 8 pin #3 NOT drawing enough relative to #1/#2.
 
I didn't check the XC3 thread, but do XC3 owners have the same problem?  I'm assuming not because there aren't 3 eight-pins on that card.
 
Here is what proper balancing should look like.
This is from an unmodded 3090 FE and a 114% TDP (400W) Superposition run.
 
https://i.imgur.com/sg1ckgD.jpg
 
You can see PCIE#1 is at its max cap of 175W (PCIE pin limit), PCIE#2 is a bit below that (170W) and PCIE slot tapped out at 69.7W.
They didn't reach those limits at the exact same time (that would be 414W) but you get the point.
 
Note that 79W is the absolute slot limit on FE and 300W for chip (GPU Core NVVDD Input Power) power limit (both are well below those limits).
 
So the FTW3 problems can be either because of 8 pin #3 not drawing enough (drawing more would put it at TDP without PCIE slot triggering a power limit) or PCIE slot drawing too much.
I think the 8 pin #3 should be looked at a bit more.  Did anyone check the PCIE Slot Limit on the 2 pin cards vs their TDP slider limits?
 
On all of the screenshots I saw earlier, where people pulled 500W Sustained on the XOC Bios, they all had 8 pin #1, 2 and 3 pulling more than 140W each, very close to each other, with PCIE slot at 75W.

my 8 pin #3 always reports very high, over 150w when the card is pushed.  8 pin #1 and #2 are at like 115-120w and the PCI-e is around 80w.  EVGA support told me 100w is safe for PCIe and 200w for the 8 pins, but that doesn't change the fact the power balancing isn't allowing me to draw sufficient power.  I'm on the XC3 BIOS.  It works very well for gaming.  Once my water block arrives I think the situation will be significantly improved since thermal throttling will no longer be an issue.  I ordered one from Optimus and one from EK.  I'm keeping whichever arrives first.  According to Optimus they've started shipping batch 1 blocks.  Of course if batch one blocks were a full month late, that means at least two more weeks for batch two, and EK ships on Jan 6.  The XC3 BIOS for me holds boost and voltage VERY well.  I figure the power draw is at minimum of 500 watts, probably more like 525w.
On a side note, troubleshooting this has corrupted my mother board BIOS TWICE!  I'm down to one BIOS.  I have a z390 Dark, an EVGA board, and there's clearly something very wrong here.  And I have an EVGA power supply, 1600 P2.  All I did to the 2nd BIOS was leave one of the power cables to the graphics card unplugged now it won't post under any circumstances.  I requested a new BIOS chip from EVGA, let's see if they cooperate since to me, this has entirely to do with some problem with their hardware.  The swappable BIOS chip is an awesome feature though, I actually needed to swap one on my x58 Classified because the board shipped with an older BIOS that didn't support the 980x so I couldn't get it to boot.  They sent me a new chip with an updated BIOS and everything was fine after that.

One very useful thing to invest in is a hardware programmer, so you can flash your own bioses without having to buy new chips (unless the chip itself is fried).
While I destroyed the LCD screen on my Skypro II, both the Skypro I and II I have work perfectly, along with a Pomona 5250 SOIC8 clip (this is an EXCELLENT clip, for inline flashing of soldered vbios SOIC8 chips), male to female cables, and the required 1.8v adapter for 1.8v bios chips.  While my Skypro didn't come with any adapters, I have a bunch from my RT809F adapter I bought years ago.

Good information. Thanks

nice!

Yes I'm sure it is the PSU as I have another 1200w and tested that with no issues plus spoke with corsair and they also said that it appears the 12v is having issues.... so I bought the 1600w and he 1200w is getting replaced by corsair with no problems or arguments from that!

For those who wonder on the XC3 BIOS and the PSU for ALL BIOS I'm using a SilverStone ST-1500 TITANIUM and I'm ASRock X299 OC Formula mobo with the auxiliary PCIe Power connected, still when temps on Air reach 60C for an X period of time it jumps from 2055 to 2085 depending on the game. If i turn on the AC I can do much better clocks. Also remember that you have to cool the backplate no matter if you are on water or air, they guy at Framechasers said it doesn't help but I did prove that IT DOES HELP a lot.
 
Cheers, Sergio.

Kylearan
The problem is the power balancing on the cards.  It's very highly likely it's something onboard in hardware and not vbios related, since otherwise eVGA could just make PCIE slot a lower % of the 8 pin #1 value (example 60W-->150W instead of 75W-->150W) which would solve that issue.  What some people have overlooked, is it could also be a hardware issue related to 8 pin #3 not having the proper power balancing (and not PCIE slot as previously thought), since everyone said that their 8 pin #3 always reports very low.  Maybe it has something to do with the XC3 and FTW3 PCB's being so similar, which is why flashing the XC3 Vbios works so well for FTW owners.  But I can pretty much say 100% certainly it's either PCIE slot reporting its max draw too soon, or 8 pin #3 NOT drawing enough relative to #1/#2.
 
I didn't check the XC3 thread, but do XC3 owners have the same problem?  I'm assuming not because there aren't 3 eight-pins on that card.
 
Here is what proper balancing should look like.
This is from an unmodded 3090 FE and a 114% TDP (400W) Superposition run.
 
https://i.imgur.com/sg1ckgD.jpg
 
You can see PCIE#1 is at its max cap of 175W (PCIE pin limit), PCIE#2 is a bit below that (170W) and PCIE slot tapped out at 69.7W.
They didn't reach those limits at the exact same time (that would be 414W) but you get the point.
 
Note that 79W is the absolute slot limit on FE and 300W for chip (GPU Core NVVDD Input Power) power limit (both are well below those limits).
 
So the FTW3 problems can be either because of 8 pin #3 not drawing enough (drawing more would put it at TDP without PCIE slot triggering a power limit) or PCIE slot drawing too much.
I think the 8 pin #3 should be looked at a bit more.  Did anyone check the PCIE Slot Limit on the 2 pin cards vs their TDP slider limits?
 
On all of the screenshots I saw earlier, where people pulled 500W Sustained on the XOC Bios, they all had 8 pin #1, 2 and 3 pulling more than 140W each, very close to each other, with PCIE slot at 75W.

Nice info something that EVGA Eng. Dept. should have noticed but they didn't...

I received my 3090ftw ultra two days ago, so far the card working smooth. Now my question should I update the oc bios, or wait more. Please if you updated the bios let me know how is your card performing.