EVGA releases a beta BIOS to raise the power limit for its RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra

(Image credit: EVGA)

EVGA has another treat for extreme overclockers who want to push the limits of their GPU. It is another BIOS update, this time for the GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra, and like the one it released for the RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra, it increases the maximum power target.

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The last time EVGA did this (last week), it raised the power limit on the RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra from 400W to 450W. In the forum post announcing the availability of the BIOS update for the RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra, there is no mention of where exactly the upper limit gets capped, but one of the users who tried it out reports it as being 500W. Others in the forum thread report it as being a little lower.

If it does hit 500W, that would represent another ~50W bump over the card's stock power ceiling. And like before, the BIOS update "is only intended for the extreme overclocking user and does not have any other changes." So in other words, unless you are planning to push your card as far as it will go, with ample cooling, this BIOS is not for you.

Also bear in mind that this is only for the FTW3 Ultra model and not the non-Ultra version. However, further down the thread, EVGA product manager Jacob Freeman says to stay tuned for a BIOS update for the regular FTW3 variant.

One of the benefits of the RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra is dual-BIOS support. As confirmed by Freeman, a user could leave the "normal" BIOS power target at the stock setting and only flash the "OC" BIOS to hit the higher power target, and switch back and forth as desired.

If you happen to own this card (all 12 of you who were able to beat the bots on launch day) and want to apply the new BIOS, head over to the forum thread to grab it.

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).

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