EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Troubleshooting Help

Well if you want article to have profanity I have no issue doing it. :bleh:
But I can think about it for sure.

My kit hasn’t arrived and I am extremely pissed off as this forwarding service has moved from 3-7 days arrival to what seems like 7-10 days arrival times.
 
My sinks and pad is already here. Hybrid is out for delivery. Going to install today.


 
So finally got around to installing the hybrid kit and overall pretty disappointed as it does not achieve the objective of reducing key temperatures across the board. For mining my overall recommendation is to stay away as the stock cooler does a much better job in keeping the memory cool.

Here are some results.

Before



After



Prior to installing the hybrid cooler I had 2 M2 heatsinks installed on the backside of the card with an ML120 fan blowing over the backplate.



Now my final setup isn't quite cutting it due to small case size and because of the front mounted rad pulling in extremely hot air and blowing all over the card. I also forgot to install my anti-sag bracket which I will install tomorrow morning.



Here are more shots of the work. Overall it took me about 2 hours to install the thing. Reason is I took my time removing the goop from the power phases which had literally melted. Overall, installation was not complex but requires a lot of care because the card is quite sensitive and has very small MLCC all over the whole card. You never know when you could just chuck one off.

This whole experiment for mining was a fail. If I don't mine then the performance and temps are all fine. I will most likely remove the cooler tomorrow and install the stock HSF.

However, thanks to Sir Pauly for sponsoring this kit. It is definitely worth the investment if you are not mining with the card.

Some shots below.

Original HSF


Hybrid box


Open box


Unwrapped kit


Backside of stock HSF (notice the melted thermal pads)
 
Original cooler has way more surface area to keep the memory cool. This one doesn't have much at all and the power phases are not even having any contact with the pump/block. Also they skimped on the copper around the block so overall heat transfer seems poorer there. It is not the backside of the memory causing high temperatures, it is the front side. So I need to find a way to cool it or just replace it w/ stock heatsink that is massive and cools memory much better.

For gaming the hybrid kit is definitely worth it.
 
The hybrid isn't a full-cover block. I'm not sure what you were expecting if your objective was to lower memory temps. You also have to remember that the fan on the shroud is the only thing moving air over the memory, so if you have the rad blowing hot air right into it, you're just pushing hot air into the memory chips. Despite the setup being a little wonky, the memory temps are the same and the core dropped 20c. I would move the rad somewhere else if possible; otherwise you're just cycling hot air through the card. People are way too focused on this Junction temp; your card is capable of reading the temp of the memory chips themselves. I'd focus on that.

Very curious that your thermal pads melted over the phases. Mine did not look like that at all when I removed my cooler..
 
I'm with nunz here, maybe you want to rework the case rads before taking the hybrid off the card.
 
For the night I have reversed the fans on the rad so that they are pulling air out of the case. I am running an open case for mining for past 1+ months. Junction temperature rising to 110 C means that during mining the card throttles down (again defeating the purpose).

By reversing the fans on the rad I am getting about 106-108 C junction temps (rather than the 98 C). So tomorrow I will end up replacing with stock HSF. At least now it is not hitting 110-112 C. Even NH reports as temps causing mining degradation and throttling at those temps. 110 C is the absolute limit and post that it is quite likely that something on the card might give up.

Here are new temps after reversing the fans on the rad.



Again I want to reiterate that for gaming or other normal usage this kit is awesome! For mining, NOPE!

EDIT: Actually scratch that. Reversing the rad didn't do crap. :(. Stock HSF it is tomorrow.
 
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If you want to drop the memory temps then get a full-cover block. The hybrids aren't perfect and with the water only on the GPU die, it can cause issues. For me, I see lower temps on the memory compared to the stock cooler because there is much less heat in the area of the memory chips due to lower temps. I also have 3 Noctua's funneling cold air directly at the fan on the shroud which helps.
 
Reinstalled the stock HSF and still memory junction is running 110 C. Wtf? This is painful to re-do the card multiple times. :runaway:
 
So the new paste I applied and also new pads got memory now running under 70 C while gaming and core also running max 65 C (down from 72 C). But the junction is still higher. Not sure how to fix this as during mining fans are ramping up to 100% and card is noisy af. :nuts:
 
110C on memory! Wow! I don't think that is a good long term thing for your card. Those heat spreader fins aren't going to do much either on the back plate of that card if you are pushing 110C on the memory.

My memory temps are at most, 3~5 degrees C above my GPU temp. My GPU hovers around 55C with stress testing for more than 2 hours. I don't think that my memory has been above 60C since I put my water block on my card.

I agree with Nunz here. If you want cooler temps on your memory then you need to do a full cover block. You may want to look into a custom loop.

EDIT: On the plus side, they offer some with RGB.

kI2bYwyLvRnwF8Fo.jpg
 
Can you post memory junction temps while mining. Otherwise all comparisons are moot. I also figured out what the problem is. It is the VRAM. Somehow the card isn’t pressing good against the VRAM so I am disassembling again and going to add some pads.
 
KAC said:
Can you post memory junction temps while mining. Otherwise all comparisons are moot.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not going to install NiceHash and mine just to prove to you that a full water block that covers the memory and the GPU is cooler than a hybrid kit that just covers the GPU and has a blower fan that blows across the memory.

I think you'll just have to take my word on it that the memory is cooler with a full water block.

:)
 
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