Choosing a 3090 to Watercool

[macintoshme]

First GPUs are hard to get. If I am going to get one, I am just going to concentrate on one model, but which one!?

 

I've been reading everywhere on different things the cards have going for them and currently have the list narrowed down to the Strix and the FTW Ultra, hoping that I can drop a 500w+ vbios on it.

However, after seeing some of the various videos about these cards with high wattage, it sounds like they don't overclock that much further than the rest of the pack. Is this mainly just a gimmick?

I currently have a XT 420, but when I redo the loop, I am going to connect my external MO-RA420, so I have a crazy amount of dissipation. 

Are these higher wattage vbios mainly just for exotic overclocking (ln2)?

Anyone care to make arguments or recommendations?

[Guest]

As someone with a 3090 FTW3 Ultra running the 500 watt BIOS on a MO-RA3, there's definitely a ceiling, even on water. I didn't expect much from the upgraded BIOS and didn't get much. EK does have blocks fr them in stock.

[macintoshme]

1 hour ago, Den-Fi said:

As someone with a 3090 FTW3 Ultra running the 500 watt BIOS on a MO-RA3, there's definitely a ceiling, even on water. I didn't expect much from the upgraded BIOS and didn't get much. EK does have blocks fr them in stock.

How much of a boost did you see from stock?

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, macintoshme said:

How much of a boost did you see from stock?

  

On 4/18/2021 at 6:21 PM, Den-Fi said:

In terms of performance, there was a nice jump in both peak and sustained frequencies. I used TimeSpy Extreme to help visualize this. On air, I was getting peak clocks of 2085 with average clocks being 1875. Average core temp was 59C @ 100% fans speed. On water, this improved to 2235 peak with average clocks at 2040. Average core temp was 35C. Fans on the MO-RA3 were kept at 700 RPMs which is not audible over anything else in the room. For memory, I installed NiceHash at the request of a friend, and let it run for an hour on air right before I broke the system down to install the water block. The junction temp went from at worst being peaking to 95C to never going over 54C once I had it installed.

To quote myself from my build log.

[AnonymousGuy]

On 4/21/2021 at 6:14 AM, macintoshme said:

First GPUs are hard to get. If I am going to get one, I am just going to concentrate on one model, but which one!?

 

I've been reading everywhere on different things the cards have going for them and currently have the list narrowed down to the Strix and the FTW Ultra, hoping that I can drop a 500w+ vbios on it.

However, after seeing some of the various videos about these cards with high wattage, it sounds like they don't overclock that much further than the rest of the pack. Is this mainly just a gimmick?

I currently have a XT 420, but when I redo the loop, I am going to connect my external MO-RA420, so I have a crazy amount of dissipation. 

Are these higher wattage vbios mainly just for exotic overclocking (ln2)?

Anyone care to make arguments or recommendations?

3090s are basically all over the place with overclock.  Some reference models hitting 2200, some high end ones like KPE not doing over 2100.  It seems this generation there isn't much/any binning going on by OEMs.

 

There isn't really any purpose in buying a Strix or similar.  Get whatever one has a Bykski block + backplate available because they're cheap and work well.  EK seems to be pretty bottom of the pack for delta T.   The big difference between these cards is how beefy the VRM is but it seems even the reference designs can handle 1000W, and the air cooler design which you don't care about if you're waterblocking anyways.

 

If you really want to use a 500W+ BIOS though you need to have a 3x 8 pin card.  2x 8 pins don't play nice with those bioses and you usually lose at least 1 display output.

[macintoshme]

Good to hear on Bykski is reputable, I hadn't heard much of them, but they are the only current block for my 5700XT which I might break down and just watercool till this all blows over if my efforts to snag a 3090 are fruitless.

If the game is fair, I am trying to snag a Strix OC or a FTW3 Ultra. 

Otherwise I am jumping on alerts when I get them and try to snag ANYTHING as between all the big names, someone will likely have a block for it.