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*** NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3090 SERIES STOCK SITUATION - NO COMPETITOR DISCUSSION ***
- Thread starter Feek
- Start date
In an ideal world and leaving all options open is great.
however remember these points:
1. Its still a silicon lottery - People have been using the 480W strix bios and 500W EVGA bios and not getting any better overclocks than they did before. Their gpu chip was the limit, not the power. 30% of chips are poor, 60% are average and 10% are the best overclockers.
2. More power brings more heat, more heat drops the boost. Once you are above 50C then boost drops as heat rises. So obviously a higher power in the bios is more of a benefit to people watercooling. At 70C and above things start dropping quickly. Every 5C in temps drops the max boost by 15Mhz.
3. Some MSI boards with 3 pin and using the 500W are now in the top of the charts for benchmarks. Some FTW 3 Ultra owners arent even using anymore than 420W of their 450W bios (see point 1 about bad chips)
4. The more power then the more heat and your chip may well boost higher but all that extra heat in the board might mean your memory wont overclock as high and has to be dialed back to overall your performance gain is nothing (watercooling gets round this issue)
5. Real time results from somebody having only 375W and another person having 500W is that its good for getting a high position in benchmarks, in games you might in general see 1-2fps performance gain and you have to deal with all that extra heat.
SO no I wouldnt worry about a 2 pin connector if you are going to use the card as it comes with its cooler. The master has a much superior cooler than the vanilla gigabyte models so likely to run quieter and cooler and for the same identical chip in the silicon lottery would perhaps boost higher than the vanilla card because the temps were 5C lower.
If you want max performance/benchmark records/are water cooling then its worth buying a card with 3 power connectors. But 3 pin cards cost more money (in general) and the extra few fps you potentially get for the extra £50 or £100 isnt worth it for performance per cost - paying up to 10% more for the card to get you a chance of 2-3% more performance.
The anomaly to all of this was the cheapo 3 power connector MSI Gaming card. That was available for £1500 and with the strix 480W or EVGA 500W bios, the MSI cards with decent chips are now beating the top of the range Asus Strix OC and EVGA FTW3 ultra cards in the benchmark charts.
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Thanks for taking the time to write the comprehensive reply! I'm not too fussed about benchmark scores, and wasting all of that power for a couple of % higher FPS here and there isn't really appealing. As you rightly mentioned, more power = more heat which might then start adversely affecting other components, so I'm keen to limit both power and heat.
Ahh, interesting. I didn't realise that there was a 390W Gigabyte BIOS out. I think that'll do me! I feel more reassured about my Aorus Master purchase now.
Associate
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- 28 Sep 2020
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We wont get an update unless there is something to tell us, which there is not 
(currently)
(currently)
Associate
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- 25 Sep 2020
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Haven’t most of us spent a extra £800 or so for 3090’s That only give 20% or so performance over 3080’s?
I’m glad I ordered the Strix before I knew to much that some had 3 pin power some had 2.
I was lucky in ignorance.
Associate
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- 24 Sep 2018
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We wont get an update unless there is something to tell us, which there is not
Its worrying that one the main competitors are currently receiving and shipping orders from this weekend, across the range. I've used OCUK for over a decade, but I think this is a lesson to learn for the future. It just doesn't have the clout to get cards in at the same volume as the other retailer. I feel sorry for them. Maybe they annoyed someone.
£800 for 20% to 30% (£26 to £40 per percent gain) is better than spending another £200 for one with 2-3% (£66 to £100 per percent gain)plus not guaranteed as its all about the silicon lottery. Also although some people have preferred to have spent less, some needed that extra performance if running a 120hz 4k screen. The 3080 just didnt quite cut it. I am sure if there had been a £1000 option offering 95% of the 3090 performance then that would be the card everybody would be buying.
I think so far the best performing card from owners on here has been the guy who got lucky with a Pallit 3090 which has only two power connectors but runs all day long at 2100 boost.
There will be a lot of strix OC card owners who wont even match his card never mind beat it. But they will have a nicer looking card and more RGB
And yes you were lucky in ignorance if you plant to overclock and eek out every bit of performance or planning on watercooling it.
My shortlist was a card with three power pins and availability of waterblocks. Some custom cards last generations never got a waterblock made for them.
As soon as I see a MSI in stock I will be grabbing one of them and cancelling my strix oc order. Put the strix 480w or evga 500W bios on it and a waterblock. Then hope I got lucky with the silicon lottery.
Cost of MSI card plus waterblock is less than the strix oc card anyway.
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Associate
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I just wanted e peen£800 for 20% to 30% (£26 to £40 per percent gain) is better than spending another £200 for one with 2-3% (£66 to £100 per percent gain)plus not guaranteed as its all about the silicon lottery. Also although some people have preferred to have spent less, some needed that extra performance if running a 120hz 4k screen. The 3080 just didnt quite cut it. I am sure if there had been a £1000 option offering 95% of the 3090 performance then that would be the card everybody would be buying.
I think so far the best performing card from owners on here has been the guy who got lucky with a Pallit 3090 which has only two power connectors but runs all day long at 2100 boost.
There will be a lot of strix OC card owners who wont even match his card never mind beat it. But they will have a nicer looking card and more RGB
Although I do have the Acer 43 inch 120/144hz 4K monitor so I do need it lol
No idea but its certainly the best performing card so far from people who have got one here.
Shame that chip got put on a 2 power connector board. Its screaming out to be on a three power board with a 500W bios under water.
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It would be interesting to what overclock he has on the card and fan curve to achieve this.
I have a Zotac trinity 3090 and with an overclock my card can hold 2050 with 360w through the card.
And ocuk may be getting the same number and probably wouldnt clear 1/8th of just one model. Thats the problem when a) you took more ordered than the rest of the UK combined and b) you kept your order books open.
That other retailer (i think its the same one) said they closed taking orders once they got to December delivery for what people were ordering. They only have a month to clear 7/8th of their orders yet.
