Much better power delivery, cooler, better looks so long as you don't care for built in rgb lol
Edit- doesn't take much to do simple OC, set +150 +1400 with power target maxed and thats it for simple gaming OC, most KP cards can handle those settings with ease
Also make sure set bios switch to ln2, all the stock bios does is give higher power target, 120-121% at around 520w, which is nothing for the KP, it's capable of 700w plus

Krdonnel
Is the kingpin worth it (over a fe card) for someone just using it for gaming? No intention (or skill in) overclocking. Thanks

The founders is an excellent card, I have an afterburner preset for 0.975 @2100 and that runs most stuff, a few things I need 1.025.
and with a 60% fan speed it mostly stays in the upper 40's-lower 50's on temps. And although it's maxxed at 400W I see 420W all the time.
I think NVIDIA saves power efficient chips for the founders.

I dont know what my issue is with my Port royal scores, is it my temps hitting 50C the issue?
I see someone with a 2205 clock set with average 2172 according to 3dmark, 41c average temps mem clock 1422(1219) and gets 15786 score
I cant even break 15600 at similar clock -_-
Edit-I feel like having my GPU near end of loop is not helping me with temps

CptT95
I dont know what my issue is with my Port royal scores, is it my temps hitting 50C the issue?
I see someone with a 2205 clock set with average 2172 according to 3dmark, 41c average temps mem clock 1422(1219) and gets 15786 score
I cant even break 15600 at similar clock -_-
Edit-I feel like having my GPU near end of loop is not helping me with temps

What CPU and clock was that users score based on?

CptT95
I dont know what my issue is with my Port royal scores, is it my temps hitting 50C the issue?
I see someone with a 2205 clock set with average 2172 according to 3dmark, 41c average temps mem clock 1422(1219) and gets 15786 score
I cant even break 15600 at similar clock -_-
Edit-I feel like having my GPU near end of loop is not helping me with temps

Your problem is your clocks are not accurate..
Look at these screenshots..
 
First one is when I open Afterburner and lock my OC to 2205@1.1v with VF curve.
You can see AB and GPU Z see 2205Mhz, but HWinfo shows the Effective clock is wayyy off.. 

 
In the second screenshot, I used Classified tool.
Disabled "Auto" and added to the NVVDD and MSVDD.. and now you can see all the clocks match.

 
Temps are not your problem, check this run I did where I hit 55c. (In the case with panels on, 21c ambient room temp)
PR 16,017
 
I believe this is the guy you're referring to: PR 15,786
His clocks are lower than yours, but the effective clock is probably more accurate, and he has more thermal head room since only hitting 41c. 
- He can probably score higher with more voltage/better tuning.
 
TLDR: Check and make sure your CLOCKS MATCH, then run your benches.. 

@magillaman
 
Is the 16K score with 520W or 1K BIOS?

SoldierRBT
@magillaman
 Is the 16K score with 520W or 1K BIOS?

1k BIOS, peaked at 602w total board power.. Highest score with that BIOS is my 16,312
 
Here's one with the 520w BIOS: 15,876
- It was a month back, and I've learned how to better tune my card. I think I can get that score into the 16k range as I have more thermal headroom with the lower BIOS.
 

CptT95
I put the 1k bios on the middle OC position, since that bios stock is completely useless
What I want to know, is why I am hitting power limit at 110% with stock voltage on stock ln2 bios, aka 460-470w power 🤔

Yeah that's the BIOS position I use for any testing of any BIOS I'm messing with because the stock OC BIOS is le garbageo.
 

Krdonnel
Is the kingpin worth it (over a fe card) for someone just using it for gaming? No intention (or skill in) overclocking. Thanks

The main advantages the Kingpin has over a regular 3090 are pretty well detailed by Cpt above, but the better power target, and higher stock clocks, along with better cooling, do make it a much better card for high resolution gaming than a regular 3090 in my opinion, but for JUST gaming, with no intention of overclocking, you'd be better off with a regular Hybrid 3090 or 3080 Ti (or 3080, depending on your resolution).  Keep in mind, the 3090 isn't actually 'meant' for gaming in the first place.
 

magillaman

CptT95
I dont know what my issue is with my Port royal scores, is it my temps hitting 50C the issue?
I see someone with a 2205 clock set with average 2172 according to 3dmark, 41c average temps mem clock 1422(1219) and gets 15786 score
I cant even break 15600 at similar clock -_-
Edit-I feel like having my GPU near end of loop is not helping me with temps

Your problem is your clocks are not accurate..
Look at these screenshots..
 
First one is when I open Afterburner and lock my OC to 2205@1.1v with VF curve.
You can see AB and GPU Z see 2205Mhz, but HWinfo shows the Effective clock is wayyy off.. 

 
In the second screenshot, I used Classified tool.
Disabled "Auto" and added to the NVVDD and MSVDD.. and now you can see all the clocks match.

 
Temps are not your problem, check this run I did where I hit 55c. (In the case with panels on, 21c ambient room temp)
PR 16,017
 
I believe this is the guy you're referring to: PR 15,786
His clocks are lower than yours, but the effective clock is probably more accurate, and he has more thermal head room since only hitting 41c. 
- He can probably score higher with more voltage/better tuning.
 
TLDR: Check and make sure your CLOCKS MATCH, then run your benches.. 

This is something I'm still figuring out on mine I.E. what voltages are needed to get it to actually run the clocks it's set to.  I'm a lot closer at the last ones I ran compared to the previous LN2 BIOS settings (which run 30-60MHz slower effective than what they're set at a lot of the time).

15,134 kp hc, with a 9700k, is that decent? Havnt messed with classified tool yet, 140/1500 is the best I've gotten.

I get effective close to set clock and still either scores low or crashes on me 🤔