I'm glad you were here to get me back on track as to what my intentions were.  Thank you.
 
Yet mine and others work as intended.  All the while, you continue to be a naysayer, comment off of hearsay and speculation.  Ok...got it. 

Turbo-12R
Yet mine and others work as intended.

Others and others don't work as intended.  There is a 147-page thread at the top of this forum section rampant with people reporting power balancing issues.  I am glad that you are happy with your purchase, but please don't belittle or devalue people who are having these problems.  This thread wouldn't exist if the user wasn't having an issue.

Because I am not jumping on the "EVGA 3090's are a bunch of junk" bandwagon, somehow I am belittling people?  Heh...quite the stretch there buddy.  I think it's more inversely that you are getting irritated with me because I do not have any issues.  I'm just here saying that not "ALL" of us are having these issues.  Get it?

3060 ti here, also just noticed this. I thought about trying the single cable/splitter that came with my PSU but it seems that won't change anything? My 3060 ti FTW3 Ultra is already very limited on OCing, and from what I read it's basically a 5% increase over the FE versions. Kind of crappy. I came from a 1070 ftw3 and it was night at day compared to the 1070 SC I upgraded from. Would be nice to see this issue fixed, but I highly doubt it will be anytime soon, and I suspect nothing short of RMA's will fix it. I am seriously regretting going with EVGA this time. I know the internet is full of people coming on just to report problems, but this is insane. I RMA's my 1070sc and upgraded to the ftw3 icx whatever it was called due to the thermal throttling issues that EVGA addressed almost immediately after release. I sold it to get this card and I guess I should have just kept it and waited for an ASUS or something? Not very fond of ASUS or MSI though. Anyways, sorry for the complaints, but two 8 pin cables and only an 8% power increase for a minimal 5% gain just is NOT the EVGA FTW3 I knew from previous releases. Very disappointing, and now this power draw issue... O well, at least if I decide to sell I know I can make more money that I bought it for...

*eats popcorn whilst enjoying a 3090 that knows how to power balance properly* 
 
By the way, this is not an issue that effects "everyone" - but a lot of 3090s do have this problem in the FTW3 variety of the card.  As indicated in reviews of the card, the FTW3 of this generation (both the 3080 and the 3090) is the closest it has every been to a "Reference" model - in fact most would say in a lot of ways the FE is actually a better card (which it is, sort of) - and it is definitely not worth the price paid.  I am saying this as someone who had a 3090 FTW3 Hybrid that had the power limit issue of not being able to hit anywhere near "500W" on the supposed "500W" XOC Beta BIOS - which maybe, someday, they'll fix, maybe they won't... one would assume so, but by the time it's "fixed" the 3090 FTW3's reputation is already so FUBARed, I doubt it will matter.
 
For anyone looking at getting a 3090, I'd highly recommend if you're willing to spend the $1799+ on the FTW3, that you give serious consideration to queuing for a Kingpin instead.  If you can fit the AIO in your system, it is well worth the extra bit of money required to get one of those instead.   I would say as far as 3090s go, the FTW3 (Hybrid or regular air cooled Ultra) is not worth the asking price, not that any 3090 is, let's be real, they're overpriced period, but the FTW3 especially is not worth the mark up.  The Kingpin however, is an upgraded PCB, VRMs, all of that good stuff - and it's cooling is just plain better, both stock with the AIO, and if you're willing to invest another $60 or so in some heatsinks & thermal pads, it runs so much cooler than regular 3090s, it's kind of ridiculous.
That is one of the major drawbacks on the FE, from what I hear, the stock memory cooling is not great.

Turbo-12R
Because I am not jumping on the "EVGA 3090's are a bunch of junk" bandwagon, somehow I am belittling people?  Heh...quite the stretch there buddy.  I think it's more inversely that you are getting irritated with me because I do not have any issues.  I'm just here saying that not "ALL" of us are having these issues.  Get it?

I am still enjoying my 3090FTW3 Ultra with a 100+ days and 600+ hours of gaming plus 75+ 3dMark benchmarks to boot. Just don't mind him as I just ignore myself as keeps on auguring with you to drive up his post count.

Turbo-12R
I think it's more inversely that you are getting irritated with me because I do not have any issues.

No, I got irritated with you (and others like you) for:
1) feeling like you have to come here and tell people that you aren't having these same problems -- as if somehow that helps the person who is having problems -- when you could have instead posted nothing at all and been equally helpful
2) implying that the person is somehow doing something wrong, has an inferior system, or is unable to effectively perform troubleshooting; when there is an overwhelming amount of evidence to show that this is not a rare problem and there is no officially-supported method to fix this problem
and 3) arguing about how common -- or not common -- this problem is, as if there is data to back up either argument; and as if it really is helpful -- either way -- to the person who is having a problem, to argue about how common or uncommon the problem is.
 
 
And just like that Badboy64 is here, like usual, to provide the same unhelpful comment.
 
Edit:
It is in poor taste.  It is unhelpful.  It lacks empathy.  And it is often condescending.  It comes off as 'I am not seeing this problem with my card, so you must be doing something wrong'.
There are threads in this forum where users have posted about how much they like their video cards and how they haven't had any issues.  Why don't you focus your efforts empathizing with them about your shared positive experiences?  Let others empathize with these people's negative experiences and talk facts about those experiences, instead of throwing the thread off-subject into an argument about how common or uncommon the issue is; an argument which does nothing to help the user with their issue and which can never be won, by either side, because EVGA is a privately-owned company with no published sales data and no shareholders to address.

Dabadger84
*eats popcorn whilst enjoying a 3090 that knows how to power balance properly* 
 

Its very likely the uP9511 - the controller is as dumb as bricks and relies on an analog feedback loop from the GPU to tell it what to do.  Everything is set once it leaves the factory and there's no way to change the behavior via firmware.  This is very likely why we've not seen any fixes to the FTW3's dying out there, since they can't reprogram the power delivery logic on the fly.
 
Every card using the uP9511 seems to have imperfect power balance - my 3080 XC3 Ultra draws 25-30W less on #1 while #2 PCIe reaches 150W easily...  very much like the picture posted here for the FTW3, but at least it doesn't have a 3rd input that's super weak.  And it makes sense for the FTW3 given what the decoded MCU code showed in programming for the FTW3, the 3rd PCIe power rail was initially meant to be 6-pin ie. 75W capability.  Seems like EVGA changed the connector last minute, but forgot to rebalance the power delivery.  And now they have this big problem with FTW3 cards with no easy answers.
 
EVGA can release all the BIOS updates they want but the card can't magically realign itself physically to rebalance power.  Would agree that if someone was already spending all that money for a 3090 they'd want a Kingpin type card.

Are you guys using 3 separate pcie plugs or one daisy chained?
Mine seem to be drawing hair more out of the third PCIE connector compared to #1 and #2
At 481w max draw
PCIE#1: 131.4
PCIE#2: 133.8
PCIE#3: 144.1
Based on the GPU-Z graph, it looks like #1 and #2 were rock solid in terms consistent power draw. #3 was the one that was moving up and down but not as dramatic as what folks are reporting above

The vast majority are using three separate cables, and no, it's not something that they are doing wrong. The cards which have this problem, have this problem, and there is no official way to fix it. See page 1 where we just got done discussing this line of thinking.