3090 Here I Come?
MelissaGT
Posts: 2,610
My system gave me a scare last night (GPU failure on startup that really could have just been a brainfart but it still made my heart skip a few beats)...so I finally reached out to a local builder. I've been waiting...and waiting...and waiting...and hoping...and waiting...and...you guys get it. GPU prices have come down a bit. I found the specific model I want, a coveted EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Gaming, for $2,714USD. It's on Amazon, backed by Prime shipping, and shipped from Amazon, so I know if there's an issue I can return it. It's supposed to be new and the seller has a 97% positivity rating. Fingers crossed. The local builder said in the realm of things, that price isn't all that bad. I mean, it's sad considering the MSRP is $1,899US, but still...that same card was going for $4,000 just a few months ago. I'm going to start ordering the rest of the components once the GPU comes in and I have a chance to look at it. Here's what I'm aiming for -
AMD Ryzen 9 5800X
Corsair H150i ELITE CAPELLIX Cooler
Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro (negotiable)
Corsair Vengeance 3200MHz 64GB (32GB x 2)(not sure if I can do 16GB x 4 to save money given that the chip is dual-channel)
EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Gaming GPU
Corsair HX Platinum 1200 PSU
Corsair 5000X case
I'm hoping it will be like night and day difference going from a 1080TI with 32GB of RAM!
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Comments
...the MSRP for the 3090 was 1,499$ before everything spiked. .
Congrats! I am planning a new build soon, but I can't justify that price for that card when I can get a complate gaming PC with an RTX 3080 - 10GB for the same price of just that card, LOL
The MSRP may have never been $1500 for that particular card, though.
Yeah, but she doesn't want a 3080 with only 10GB - she wants that particular 3090 with 24GB, so . . . congrats!
- Greg
To my knowledge, that specific model, the FTW3 Ultra Gaming, has always been MSRP $1,899.
Given that I already have 11GB with the 1080TI and it still struggles with some games at 4k (like The Witcher 3), I really really want more VRAM...not less.
I bought a 2060 Super as a stop-gap while saving up for a Titan RTX....then they announced the RTX 3090....then both those and the Titan RTX became completely unavailable...now they're becoming available again, but I can't afford one...so, congratulations.
Well, I really shouldn't be spending thousands on a new computer either, but I don't know what I'd do if my system just went crap and then I'd be s.o.l. with nothing. I could have waited to see if the cards come down more, but I honestly don't think they will any time soon. Thankfully my employer has an option to borrow against your 401K, so you're not dinged with taxes, and you pay the money back via paycheck deductions...and the money all goes back to you, with interest. I love that ability...it has saved my bootay numerous times.
The price of that card made me gasp. LOL
I was in a similar position near the end of last year when a fault on my PC triggered a spending spree that I could ill-afford. I had been saving for a new GPU to replace my GTX 1070 but my PC just started shutting down randomly. I am pretty sure it was a PSU fault but when I went to get a new one I lost control and spent all of my savings on a new PSU (850w), Motherboard (Gigabyte Aorus B550 Elite AX), CPU (Ryzen 5 5600X) and 64GB RAM. Then, in February of this year, my family generously gifted me the funds for RTX 3090 I had been craving and I luckily got it before the prices went crazy (only a little above the MSRP in fact). I really can't say I regret spending the money. Hell, I'm old, retired and with few hobbies so why not?
...I was going on the FE version.
...timing is everything
...and congratualtions..
Hope you make it to the club of fast GPUs! :)
Still use my older computer now when things are stupidly hawt. Less power and heat. Higer end AMD CPU and 3090 means way more power and sadly more heat. Mine is like 8 degC more or so on idle, old PC vs New. That's a big deal.
Thanks to DAZ 3D I will be adding a 2TB NVMe M.2 SSD and a 2TB Sata III SSD before I upgrade my video card and my CPU. When I get my expanded storage 2 x 2TB with 2 x 2TB for backup, I will clean install Windows 10 (or maybe Windows 11 as I'm not made out of money).
That the price is better than it was during 2020 doesn't mean it is a fair price, but it is your choice. I have tried to grab a EVGA 3090 numerous times with Hotstock's app and have yet to succeed.
BTW, for piece of mind I highly recommend adding one of the extended warranties they offer on the card. Compared to the price, the extra warranties are nothing. Last time I checked, it was $30 for an extra 2 years (so 5 full years) or $60 for an extra 7 (for a full 10, yes 10 years). The warranty covers pretty much everything, and you can even sell your card and transfer the warranty to the buyer. This means you can ask a whole lot more for your card compared to others because not many 2nd hand cards are going to offer a warranty. They also cover the the length of the warranty, too. If they replace the GPU, the replacement is also under warranty, no matter how many times you may need a replacement for the duration of your warranty period. EVGA also offers a higher tier warranty package that will express ship a replacement to you before they even receive your defective one, which is really good for people who have jobs that depend on their PCs and cannot afford to be down for long. If that describes you, then you should look into this extra warranty, too.
I don't want to sound like some shill for EVGA, but it really doesn't get better than that. As someone in the repair business this is one of the most generous warranties around, especially for the asking price. I also personally dealt with EVGA myself, when my 1080ti died thanks to a storm surge. I bought that 1080ti used off ebay, and had no issue whatsoever getting the RMA setup, so I can prove from my own experience that yes they absolutely do honor 2nd hand purchases or 3rd or 4th for that matter. The tech I spoke to was awesome, and I was pretty impressed with how everything was done. After dealing with all these other tech companies for over a decade this was just...refreshing, and the experience fully converted me to EVGA. I had heard good things about their customer service, but actually experiencing it was eye opening.
When I got the 1080TI FTW3 back in August 2017 (before the price explosion), everyone was going on about how power hungry and hot the card was. It was definitely hotter and more power hungry than my previous card (980TI FTW...detecting a theme for me with FTW models? haha). The 1080TI runs at about 45 degrees at idle (in the summer). I do keep the room air conditioned as needed throughout the summer months, as I have three computers in it (mine, work, and my husbands gaming rig that is still rocking a GTX 970 like a boss...that card is like The Little Engine that Could). My electric bill is already high as it is, running three computers, a fish tank with two filters, a snake's whateverwattage heating mat, and my iguana's heat lamp. It's a miracle the fuzz hasn't suspected me of running a grow operation at this point, though soon enough that would be legal here anyways! LOL. Anyways, what I'm trying to get at is that each card has been progressively hotter than the last, so I don't think it will be so much a surprise for me.
I already ordered it and I didn't see an option for a separate warranty, unless that's something I buy directly from EVGA before registering. If not, I guess I'll just have to live with their standard warranty...it's not like I really use cards longer than a few years anyway. The 1080TI I have now is the oldest card I've ever kept.
I just don't think the price is going to come down this year. Or even next year. Or like. Ever. So I figured it was time to just do it. My system has been running for 4 years next month and it's time for something new given that scenes I could render a year ago in Daz, I can't anymore because of how each time a new version comes out, the performance gets worse. I'd also like to be able to game at 4k again, and CyberPunk 2077 told me that was a pipe dream unless I got a big daddy card. I just got tired of waiting. I can't sit and watch notifications 24/7 to jump on fresh inventory and I refuse to sit there and listen to some YouTube channel when I'd rather be listening to Spotify. So I paid a premium...thankfully not as much of a premium as I would have paid only a couple months ago.
It is not just the GPU temp reading. The 3090 uses a full 100 Watts more than the 1080ti, if overclocked it can go even beyond that. While the 1080ti used a little more than the 980ti, it was only a few Watts. The 3090 is one of the most power hungry GPUs ever released, with only a few old dual GPUs (anybody remember those) using more. This extra power has to be dissipated somehow. Regardless of what cooling solution you have, this heat will end up in your room.
This will be noticeable, especially in a smaller room. Ever since I moved my PC into a room instead of my living room, I can totally feel the heat when I crank this thing for Iray or gaming. I have 2 1080tis, but only one is used when I game. So for me, a 3090 would actually use a bit less power than 2 1080tis. Unless I keep a 1080ti with my 3090, LOL. As fat as these 3090s are I doubt I can fit them though.
Oh, by the way, in addition to the upgrade parts I listed above, I also bought a very fast NVME drive (the Aorus MB has two M.2 slots). Have you thought about drives? I put my DAZ Library on that NVME drive.
Wow on 45degrees. Looked.
That can't be fahrenheit with you being US based as that is 7.2degC.
My old PC i5-6600k + Aorus 2080Ti runs at 28-29deg C on idle (still win7 that i luv).
New rig idles at 36-38, and with Win10 doing it's thing checking it can often run at 41deg C.
Room diff for me at 8degC or roughly 14degF makes a big comfort diff.
Is awesome you can manage the heat! Am envious.
Am not looking forward to this month's electric bill and many AC to keep big house cool.
PS. Grow ops legal up here already ;) Even had a pretty conservative guy as a neighbor who railed against the stuff and legalization now use it cos it helps him sleeep lol.
...yeah my upgrade would be a Threadripper 2920X 12C/24T, 64 GB DDR4 2666 memory (4 x 16 GB leaving 4 DIMMs open for expansion to 128 GB to fully support a 24 GB GPU) on a ASUS Prime X-399 MB. Already have the drives (2 x SATA III SSDs & 2x SATA III HDDs), PSU (850W), and GPU (12GB).
Unfortunately that alone is about an 1,800$ update (sans an RTX 3090 or A5000 [smaller form factor and more kinder on the PSU but more expensive] which would need to come back down to earth in price) that would put a pretty severe dent my account, but would also be W11 ready.
Only thing I don't like about NVME is that they are part of mobo and just add more heat. Or seems like? When back to DS, will see how load time is reduced. Got super fast m2. May move my PC's thermistor to hang there and another by older separate HDs and see temp diff. Course it's not a fair comparison b/c NVEM.m2s are on mobo. May install separate m2.nvme kit included with my mobo that I believe was SATA. Too lazy to check rite now.
Yes. 3090s seem to be a new territory for power consumption. Mine needs 3 power connectors: arous 3090 ultra. Good thing is it AC Valhalla at max at 1440p is awesome.
But have to say my AMD CPU is also stupidly warm Reading seems to be a thing for last 2 versions of AMD CPUs. If I had read that part, I may actually have gone back to intel CPU. That said, short on time so I didn't look to see if Intel CPUS are also on the steep temp climb.
Yes, as I use 2 M.2 drives in my current build, I will do the same with the new one. The OS will go on a 500GB and I'll get a 1 or 2TB drive for games. (I'm not sure what I'll do with my current M.2 drives as I'm not going to break down my system while I wait for the builder to assemble the new one, so they're just going to end up doing nothing. I'd also rather get brand new M.2 drives as the two I have have been up for 4 years now and once they're in and the GPU is in, the last thing I want to do is have to dig them out, lol. That's the one giant glaring drawback of M.2 drives.) Daz is currently installed on a dedicated 2TB 2.5" drive and I'm almost out of room there, but that'll move over. The new case I'm looking at allows for 2 3.5" drives and 3 2.5" drives, so I'll probably give Daz a 2nd 2TB 2.5" drive at some point. I already have 2 solid 3.5" storage drives (3TB WD Black and 4TB WD Black) that I'll just move over. I have a small 500GB 2.5" that has been running for (gods) at least 6 years now that I'll move over...it's dedicated to my Skyrim install, lol.
Yes, you go to EVGA and buy the extended warranty direct from them. I believe you get the option when you register the card. The 3090 is a huge upgrade, so you may not need another for a while. Who knows how the market will be after another 2-4 years. Will we ever be able to buy GPUs again? I really don't know, I am feeling pretty negative about the market like you, as crypto is not ever going away. The warranty hedges the bets so in case you are stuck with the card for longer than you wish to be, you will not have to sweat out that extra time worried about if your $2700 card will make it.
Also, because the 3090 uses 100 more Watts, I have great concerns about its longevity. Heat is a serious enemy, and even with the best cooling solutions they will generate a lot of it over the years. GDDR6X is new and unproven itself, with 24 1gb chips all around the thing. Any one of these could have a failure, giving you all these extra points of failure compared to other GPUs that only have a few chips of memory.
The faster RMA option also works for the general warranty period as well, so this option may be of interest even if you don't get an extended warranty.
Yeah, 45C and the fans are off pretty much all the time when it's just sitting. While rendering or gaming it might sometimes hit 75C. I don't have any custom fan curves as every fan curve program I use seems to not get along with the NZXT CAM software I have to use for the cooler. That's one thing I will be so glad to not need anymore. All I can say is NEVER BUY A NZXT PRODUCT THAT REQUIRES SOFTWARE. EVER.
Your price is high. But so what.
Being able to DS and 4k game now is worth it. If divide the # of years one has left, nevermind life's nasty surprises for some, one will quickly find that each year can add up to quite few % of your life.
Afford it now? then enjoy. :)
My Libray hasn't reached one TB yet (just over 500 GB, in fact) so it easily fits on a single M.2 drive. Unfortunately, the lag in loading figures into DAZ Studio is not because of slow drives but, as I understand it, the number of morphs. Still, being able to access all those morphs quickly must make a difference.
Oh yes, that 500GB library is just what's been installed with DIM. I also have a little-used legacy library from when DAZ Studio had the Poser style library format. Mostly V4/M4 stuff in there which doesn't see the light much these days. A few props are useful though. That all lives on my old-world spinning disk drive.
My current system has a Ryzen 7 1800X (no overclock) and it idles at about 28 - 35C depending on ambient temperature...BUT...I do have it cooled with a giant AIO.
Good point. I'll definitely be buying the extended warranty when I register it. EVGA's RMA process is why I stick with them. My 980TI bricked a couple months out of warranty when we tried installing it in my husband's system after I got the 1080TI setup and they were nice enough to RMA it. Sadly, the replacement card failed in my husband's system, which leads me to believe that there is something up with his system overall...which is why he's still using a 970 (it's a micro-atx which I HATE because it's too goddam small to do anything with, but it has more than enough power so I have no clue but I have a hard time believing they'd send a replacement brick. Never again will I let him install a computer into a $%@# shoebox, lol.)
I have few vices...computers and muscle cars. I don't spend on shoes or jewelry or going to the movies or expensive trips, so hey...we all have our thing.