Info Getting my RTX 3090 tomorrow!

thenewnumber2

Distinguished
Jan 14, 2009
275
2
18,815
But, I'm not here to gloat- I thought some of you might be interested to know how I managed to acquire one:

EVGA has been allowing members of their user forum to order any of their out of stock GPUs (only one item per customer, though). These orders are being queued and are processed in chronological order. I signed on to the queue on May 21st of last year, and two days ago I was informed by email that I was eligible to purchase the item within the next 24 hours. Failure to do so would result in the item being offered to the next person in line. Needless to say, EVGA had my money as fast as I could get it to them, and my RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra is due to be delivered to me tomorrow afternoon.

It will be a welcome upgrade to my current GTX Titan (yes, the original Kepler version!).
 
But, I'm not here to gloat- I thought some of you might be interested to know how I managed to acquire one:

EVGA has been allowing members of their user forum to order any of their out of stock GPUs (only one item per customer, though). These orders are being queued and are processed in chronological order. I signed on to the queue on May 21st of last year, and two days ago I was informed by email that I was eligible to purchase the item within the next 24 hours. Failure to do so would result in the item being offered to the next person in line. Needless to say, EVGA had my money as fast as I could get it to them, and my RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra is due to be delivered to me tomorrow afternoon.

It will be a welcome upgrade to my current GTX Titan (yes, the original Kepler version!).
Congrats!
I don't think it's news though. The EVGA queue was known from the beginning.
 

thenewnumber2

Distinguished
Jan 14, 2009
275
2
18,815
congrats dude. I will definitely be hopping on that. I'd be happy with a 3060, 3060 ti, or 3070 so can you sign up for multiple products and then buy whatever one comes first?
I also signed up for a HydroCopper at the same time, so yeah, multiple signups are allowed. I decided to put my own waterblock on the FTW instead of waiting for an unknown amount of time for the HydroCopper to get restocked.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jacob249358

jacob249358

Commendable
Sep 8, 2021
636
215
1,290
EVERY SINGLE CARD STATES ITS NOT AVAILABLE FOR QUEUE!!! Been this way for months. Must've stopped offering after you made your reservations.
yeah I'm not able to find it either. I guess what I heard was no more new reservations cause now that I think about it they weren't going to tell people who had been waiting 6months that they weren't getting one
 

thenewnumber2

Distinguished
Jan 14, 2009
275
2
18,815
Congrats!
I'm guessing this is the 'fixed' model.
I can't confirm that, but I think it's unlikely that there are any remaining unsold units with the fan controller flaw: they've been flying off the shelves since Day 1. The 3090's currently on the market are in all likelihood from the most recent production batches. In any case I'm going to remove the fan and replace it with a water block, so I am immune to the issue.
 
I can't confirm that, but I think it's unlikely that there are any remaining unsold units with the fan controller flaw: they've been flying off the shelves since Day 1. The 3090's currently on the market are in all likelihood from the most recent production batches. In any case I'm going to remove the fan and replace it with a water block, so I am immune to the issue.
It wasn't the fan controller. It was bad MOSFET soldering.

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/264873/20210901/evga-rtx-3090-amazon-new-world.htm

https://www.pcworld.com/article/395...amazons-mmo-bricked-24-geforce-rtx-3090s.html
 

thenewnumber2

Distinguished
Jan 14, 2009
275
2
18,815
This is interesting: I only heard the original (FC IC) explanation for the overheating issue. Kind of sad that even a solid company like EVGA can drop the ball like that. Oh well, s**t happens. I'm still running a pair of EVGA Kepler Titans from 2014: operating 24/7 for eight years, so I will still vouch for the quality of EVGA hardware in spite of the 3090 gaffe. I did take a look at your linked info: Tech Times reported that this issue was confined to "an early production batch made in 2020", and PC World stated that "further changes" to the manufacturing process and a BIOS update in August 2021 seem to have solved the problem. But, at the end of the day, I don't know if somebody at the warehouse found a dusty old 3090 from 2020 on the back of a shelf somewhere and decided to send it to me! Fingers crossed...;)
 
This is interesting: I only heard the original (FC IC) explanation for the overheating issue. Kind of sad that even a solid company like EVGA can drop the ball like that. Oh well, s**t happens. I'm still running a pair of EVGA Kepler Titans from 2014: operating 24/7 for eight years, so I will still vouch for the quality of EVGA hardware in spite of the 3090 gaffe. I did take a look at your linked info: Tech Times reported that this issue was confined to "an early production batch made in 2020", and PC World stated that "further changes" to the manufacturing process and a BIOS update in August 2021 seem to have solved the problem. But, at the end of the day, I don't know if somebody at the warehouse found a dusty old 3090 from 2020 on the back of a shelf somewhere and decided to send it to me! Fingers crossed...;)
It happens to good and bad manufacturers alike. I've had rock-solid EVGA cards in the past. They just dropped the QA ball with this one.

I don't like the 'BIOS update' part. You can't fix bad soldering with a GPU BIOS update. You CAN make slight voltage adjustments that knock off a percentage or two of performance to make the chance of a bad solder job completely fail, much less, which I believe is what they did. There was an article showing the performance difference between the old and new BIOS' but I can't find it now. If I was cynical enough, I'd say EVGA's PR team buried the Google results. I distinctly remember seeing the graph comparing the two. The new BIOS caused a 1-2% performance deficit across the board.
 

thenewnumber2

Distinguished
Jan 14, 2009
275
2
18,815
It happens to good and bad manufacturers alike. I've had rock-solid EVGA cards in the past. They just dropped the QA ball with this one.

I don't like the 'BIOS update' part. You can't fix bad soldering with a GPU BIOS update. You CAN make slight voltage adjustments that knock off a percentage or two of performance to make the chance of a bad solder job completely fail, much less, which I believe is what they did. There was an article showing the performance difference between the old and new BIOS' but I can't find it now. If I was cynical enough, I'd say EVGA's PR team buried the Google results. I distinctly remember seeing the graph comparing the two. The new BIOS caused a 1-2% performance deficit across the board.
I 100% agree about the BIOS update, and I think you have come up with the only sensible explanation. You can't repair defective hardware with a firmware update, but you can lessen the load on it (no pun intended!). I'm hopeful that the changes made to the manufacturing process have eliminated the problem in the newer units: after all, they've had a year to work it out. The BIOS tweak was likely aimed at mitigating the issue in the units that had the poorly applied solder and was unnecessary for unaffected hardware. If I discover that the BIOS version on my new GPU is from August of last year, I will be a liitle worried...
 
Look on the bright side - you got a card that is SUPER scarce that will (probably) give you 4+ years of solid 4K gaming performance. I'd say the chance of it being old stock is almost nill since they are still selling everything in this top-tier bracket the instant it's produced.

I initially second guessed my decision to pay a premium price for my reference RX 6900 XT last year. Looking at the market and the trend now though I'm soooo glad I did!

Remember to test out your card before doing any modding so you'll know how it performs beforehand. Keep an eye on the temps while testing and don't let it get too hot. If you could post a Time Spy run that'd be good. ;)
 

thenewnumber2

Distinguished
Jan 14, 2009
275
2
18,815
Look on the bright side - you got a card that is SUPER scarce that will (probably) give you 4+ years of solid 4K gaming performance. I'd say the chance of it being old stock is almost nill since they are still selling everything in this top-tier bracket the instant it's produced.

I initially second guessed my decision to pay a premium price for my reference RX 6900 XT last year. Looking at the market and the trend now though I'm soooo glad I did!

Remember to test out your card before doing any modding so you'll know how it performs beforehand. Keep an eye on the temps while testing and don't let it get too hot. If you could post a Time Spy run that'd be good. ;)
My upcoming system is going to be an AMD/ Nvidia hybrid: I've got a sweet Ryzen 9 5950X that's been collecting dust for months while I've been waiting for the GPU. I haven't built an AMD system since the early Athlon days, and I'm excited about returning to Team Green. It was kind of a no- brainer when you look at Intel's recent "performance". Although, I have been out of the loop for several months, and don't know if Intel has finally gotten their 10nm process under control. Last I heard, it required ridiculous overclocking for the cutting edge Intel chips to rival the new Ryzens running at stock voltage. My home office isn't air conditioned, so that wasn't going to work for me.

I still need another month or two to get a hold of all of the remaining components, but I'll post some benches when the time comes. I enjoyed the informative chat: have a good day.
 
  • Like
Reactions: alceryes