m6monster
However, on the desktop under little to no-load, or in non-demanding games, I would get black screen crashes, sometimes the card would recover, and sometimes it would totally lock up the pc.

Its the change of power states - under little load there will be times the GPU will try to boost up requiring more power as well.  When you're running at high clocks the voltage is locked in and doesn't have to move a lot.  Voltage overshoots and bad voltage regulation is the cause of all the problems with these cards...  your other alternative would be to undervolt enough so that when it tries to boost, the voltage doesn't spike up high enough to crash things.
 
Either way isn't ideal - the real fix is for EVGA to revise the PCB and add better components for voltage regulation and power delivery.

Heyo,

I thought people might want a final update to this thread.

I ended up doing a 3rd RMA and have finally secured a card that runs with no issues.  Nothing else about my computer has changed.
 
Serial number 2114, Black lips, manufactured in Taiwan.  No issues, overclocks great, no crashing ever experienced in any games.  Had the card for 3 weeks now.

Cheers all.

Rewire92
Heyo,

I thought people might want a final update to this thread.

I ended up doing a 3rd RMA and have finally secured a card that runs with no issues.  Nothing else about my computer has changed.
 
Serial number 2114, Black lips, manufactured in Taiwan.  No issues, overclocks great, no crashing ever experienced in any games.  Had the card for 3 weeks now.

Cheers all.

I hope it keeps working for you!  My card (evga 3090 ftw3 ultra) gave me around 3 months of perfect operation and then just suddenly died one morning. 
 
I never overclocked it, never mined on it, I did increase the fan speeds a bit from stock so it would run cooler (I don't mind a little fan noise, I wear headphones all the time).  Just a couple days ago the card suddenly stopped working while I was playing Dungeons 3 (a strategy game released in 2017)  The rest of the system works fine (5950x, dark hero mb, 1300w evga gold power supply, etc.). 
 
Luckily I still had my old 1080 still around so I could just swap it in and keep my pc going till evga can ship me out a replacement 3090 ftw3 ultra.  Froom what i'm hearing there may be some sort of issue with the power delivery for these cards, even with a very highly regulated, robust, and filtered power source - mine still died.  It just took a few months.  

So, what's the best advice for now? Do I need to undervolt? If so, at what voltage? 

I'll never understand why people don't make a signature with system specs.
 
And I also will never understand why people think "it's the ONLY the video card"...You're fixated...
 
It could be something else.
 
But yah, focus on that.
 

Because it's a common point of consistency across a wide swath of hardware configurations.

It doesn't matter if people are using 850w gold units with 95w CPUs or 1600w Platinum units running OCed 10900ks and individual 8 pins on each. The FTW3s are failing more frequently than the other SKUs are and they're doing so in games where GPU utilization is so low the cards don't even boost fully.

We also know the FTW3s are hitting voltages they shouldn't be at relatively low clocks and we know they ping-pong from low to high voltage in low load games. In GTA V or MCC, we shouldn't be seeing cycling from .725mv to 1.08v at a clock that should only ever use .725mv.

My 3080 FTW3 does this. My cheaper Gigabyte 3080 OC plugged into the same system doesn't.

EVGA went with a suboptimal voltage controller that isn't found outside of budget oriented boards and it was never intended to be used in a 3x8 pin configuration. They also went with a whack load of fuses for easy repairability. If the problem is reproducable on a wide range of hardware, that points to a design flaw. If undervolting and locking it "fixes" the problem, it again points to a design flaw.

Rewire92, So the final RMA card you got you didn't have to tweak at all? Just plug and play and everything worked correctly? I was also wondering if Flyingjay99 got his RMA and if it worked correctly?

Sorry to barge into this thread, But I have a quick question. 
 
I'm probably worrying for nothing, but I'm also trying to be as vigilant as I can about my investment in this 3080 so I keep an eye on the forums, and to me this is interesting about these things happening in older games, games which should not even be any sort of issue.
 
I decided to run the Precision X1 HWM to see what my voltages are, keep in mind I don't overclock past the factory settings of my FTW3 Ultra, I really haven't had the need to at all as this card is BLAZING fast for me.
 
 This is what I got running P3D v5 (dx12) for about 2 hours, NOTE that my voltage while running the game was low, but while the game was paused is when the voltage spiked up to 1.081 along with the memory clock mhz? Then when I un-paused the game the voltage and memory mhz went back down again.
 
 Is THIS unusual behavior or just normal operating procedure? You would think it would be just the opposite but I am no expert? OR am I not even looking at this correctly?
 
Anyways, should I worry or just go about my business? So far while gaming for hours in Cyberpunk 2077 I haven't broke 76C, and no black screens or high running fans, but I'm almost afraid to pause or alt/tab out of any of my games.
 

 thanks

Re shipping by UPS from Canada. 
 
I ended up spending $236 to ship a dead 3090 from Toronto area. UPS would not take it by ground with insurance for $2400. Had to be air if I wanted full value insurance. If you want insurance, UPS has to pack the item themselves (not a big deal but adds to the cost). Also you can't insure for "full money spent" on an item. If the package got lost, if insurance finally paid up, you're still at a loss because sales tax isn't covered.  Not happy that EVGA does nothing to help with high RMA shipping cost from Canada.  It's even more aggravating to read posts of other users who "received pre-paid shipping labels from EVGA" for their returns.  HOW?
 
If your purchase dies and you can't afford to risk losing thousands of dollars, you're stuck with high shipping cost. Even then you're betting few hundred dollars hoping it arrives in Brea (sales tax). This RMA process ended up costing me just shy of $300. I need the computer for other things so ended up spending additional $57 on a GT710. Pic of shipping receipt attached to prove what I'm saying.
 

 
(did receive a replacement 3090 FTW3 Ultra, 2114 serial number, works for now but so did my initial card for the first three months) 

Anyone in Europe, check this. By EU law you aren’t required to pay anything for warranty repair/replacement.

Articla 3:
”2. In the case of a lack of conformity, the consumer shall be entitled to have the goods brought into conformity free of charge by repair or replacement, in accordance with paragraph 3, or to have an appropriate reduction made in the price or the contract rescinded with regard to those goods, in accordance with paragraphs 5 and 6”

https: //eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:31999L0044&from=FI

Take out the spaces in the URL as I’m not sure who are allowed to post links here.

Edit: And here is the main site. You can choose your own language for the law text.

https: //eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FI/TXT/?uri=celex%3A31999L0044