# At wits end - Help with Vram Temps Zotac 3090 required.



## PDribbles (May 13, 2021)

Good evening, I am hoping someone can help with me an issue I'm having that has me at my wits end on what I can possibly to do get the Vram temps of my Zotac Trinity 3090 under control. (As I'm at work I'm limited for info I can provide but here goes)

In the hopes of getting my Zotac temps down I have followed various write ups and completed the following mods: 
1) Deshrouding. 
2) Adding 2x120mm Noctua AF fans 
3) Changing thermal pads - Fujipoly 2mm 
4) New thermal paste - MX4 
5) Take side panel off

I first used NiceHash (simple to use) and my temps crept over 102 no matter what settings (light/medium/extreme). I was using via MSI Afterburner as well. Originally the fans were plugged into a 4pin motherboard header however I have since picked up a VGA to PWM cable so the two fans are linked together via a splitter and plugged into the graphics card.

Nicehash seemed to always override the fan curve of MSI Afterburner so I switched to T-Rex miner and was able to have the fans blow at 100% continuously. Through some MSI Afterburner tweaking I was able to get a 92-94 temp but only pushing out 80 megahash.

For MSI Afterburner settings I was using various ones located through reddit and youtube as I'm not too savy with overclocking/undervolting.

My setup is: 
Motherboard: Auros Z370 gaming 7 
CPU: Intel I7-8700K (not yet overclocked) 
CPU Cooler: BeQuiet DarkRock 4 
GPU: Zotac Trinity 3090 
Ram: 16GB G.Skill Tridentz 
PSU: Corsair HX1200W 
Case: BeQuiet case w/3 front fans, 3 top fans, 1 exhaust fan

In the near future I would like to get a dedicated mining rig rather than trying to use my gaming PC but first I'd like to get the card working as it should so I know I should invest in a small mining rig ( I have two other graphics cards for mining so a mining rig will be required down the line ).

I would appreciate any and all help/suggestions. Thank you for your time in advance.


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## Mussels (May 13, 2021)

The only thing that worked for me was underclocking the VRAM, and eventually going full water

you may have the wrong size thermal pads, or may just need more heatsink on the back of the card?


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## trog100 (May 13, 2021)

i have two 3080 cards different makes one runs fine one is a thermal disaster.. i have added pads between the backplate and boards and done pretty everything i can to keep the memory temps down below the throttle point of 110 C..

my dodgy card is in an open air rig with an extra fan blowing at the backplate and on a moderately warm day is showing 106 C.. the good unmodified card is in a normal desktop machine and shows 96 C..

i much prefer 3070 cards for mining.. they run cool with no problems.. i have even left an open slot in front of my 3080 card.. in retrospect i would not buy another 3080 or 3090 card for mining..

trog


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## Zach_01 (May 13, 2021)

Thats the thing with GDDR6X...
The power draw is humongous, more than double, compared to "plain" GDDR6 and on top of that, 3090s have more modules and on both sides of the PCB. Not an easy task (actually is a pain) to cool 3090s without water and/or a backside heatsink. In addition the GPU VRAM controller for GDDR6X is also complex and maybe contributes to overall heat negatively.
3060s/3070s have GDDR6(non X) modules like Navi1/2 does, so its pretty easy to cool them.


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## Durhamranger (May 13, 2021)

Zach_01 said:


> Thats the thing with GDDR6X...
> The power draw is humongous, more than double, compared to "plain" GDDR6 and on top of that, 3090s have more modules and on both sides of the PCB. Not an easy task (actually is a pain) to cool 3090s without water and/or a backside heatsink. In addition the GPU VRAM controller for GDDR6X is also complex and maybe contributes to overall heat negatively.
> 3060s/3070s have GDDR6(non X) modules like Navi1/2 does, so its pretty easy to cool them.


Yup I`m at my wits end too with my 3090 X Suprim, I have EK vector trio water block and the EK backplate on mine ,After 10 mins you cant touch the back plate,
Just wish they did a they did an active backplate for msi suprim 3090


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## PDribbles (May 14, 2021)

Thank you everyone for your quick replies. I'm finally on days off and am trying to tackle this issue once more.
I've decided to try to take the GPU out of my gaming rig and have it run off a powered riser. Thought pattern is maybe even with the side case the heat from the rear panel is just not going anywhere because it backs up onto my CPU cooler with very little room.

So now I have another issue. My 2080ti is installed in the #1 GPU slot on my motherboard and the riser is plugged into a pcie x1 slot. I have the riser powered by a 6 pin connector and when I turn my PC on the riser lights up with both LEDs which is meant to signify that everything is working. The first issue was the PC wouldn't load. I got an error saying no operating system found. I also noticed the fans weren't spinning on the 3090. This could be as the card didn't get up to temp that they'd turn on yet or simple the PC was having issues with it. Regardless my PC wouldn't boot up. A little research later says that the PCIE slot has to be forced through BIOS to gen 3 pcie vs auto/gen4. My bios didn't give me an option for gen 4 anyway so I forced gen 3. With the 3090 out of the system loop I was able to boot up however even with forced gen 3 pcie and the 3090 back in the loop my system won't load.

Anyone have any thoughts as to where my issue is? I'm getting really frustrated with this issue and am trying not to dump more money (buy standalone motherboard/hdd/ram/cpu/cooler) to get try to see if this card's temps can be tamed. I don't want to keep dumping money into a problem when I should have the tools on hand to get it working.

Again my thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully offer some suggestions. (water is out of the question).



Mussels said:


> The only thing that worked for me was underclocking the VRAM, and eventually going full water
> 
> you may have the wrong size thermal pads, or may just need more heatsink on the back of the card?



I will be looking into available heatsinks for sure, unfortunately a new problem has risen (see above) so for the moment I'm at a standstill.


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## Zach_01 (May 14, 2021)

Is your OS installed on NVMe SSD or SATA SSD?
I think the X1 slot you're using disables the OS drive. I believe is a SATA SSD?
Check the manual. Some PCI-E slots are not directly linked to CPU but going through the board's hub. The chipset. So under certain configurations (populated PCI-E slots) some SATA ports are disabled.

I didn't understand this part:
_"My 2080ti is installed in the #1 GPU slot on my motherboard and the riser is plugged into a pcie x1 slot."_

Didn't you plug the GPU on the riser card?
Take the GPU out, plug the riser in the first X1 PCI-E slot just under the CPU socket. You can plug the riser into the X16 GPU slot but it will still work as X1.

Take a note that using a riser card for the GPU it will render it useless for games. It will constantly work as X1 and not X16.

EDIT:
The same thing can happen with some m.2 slots. They are going through the chipset. So they can be disabled if some PCI-E slots are populated.


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## PDribbles (May 15, 2021)

Ahh, my apologies. I should clarify:
The 2080ti is plugged into the motherboard in the primary pcie x16 slot.
The 3090 is plugged into a powered riser and the riser is plugged into the pcie x1 slot below the 2080ti. 

My OS is on a Intel 540S 1TB SATA M.2 SSD

Thank you so much for the insight on this. I will check other pcie configurations and my manual right away!


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## Zach_01 (May 15, 2021)

Try the X1 above the 2080Ti

Is the drive on the first or second m.2 slot?


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## toilet pepper (May 15, 2021)

For your temp issues. Lower your core clock and vcore by using the curve editor in afterburner. I think it should be around 1100-1200 mhz at the lowest voltage then lock it there so thay it wont jump around.

The core and the memory shares the same heatsink. If the core is soaking the heatsink that wont leave room for the vram. Also make sure that the vram chip underneath the backplate has some decent thermal pads. Put a tiny heatsink to it and a fan if you can.


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## PDribbles (May 15, 2021)

Okay.. update. Apologies it took awhile. Had to find another 6pin cable. Rule #1 don't work on computers when tired. Issue #1 of fans not working on the 3090 is solved...I had to actually power the card not just the riser. *sheesh*.

2080ti plugged into first x16 spot. 3090 plugged into riser. Riser plugged into the first x1 slot above the 2080ti. I got the same error of no operating system found but when I pressed enter windows loaded anyway and device manager sees my 3090. Fans are spinning.


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## Zach_01 (May 15, 2021)

PDribbles said:


> I had to actually power the card not just the riser. *sheesh*.


  I did thought about it but forgot to mention it...

So does the manual refer to PCI-E/m.2/SATA configurations?
Is your drive on the second(bottom) m.2 slot?

EDIT:
sorry... third m.2? Or at first with thermal guard?


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## PDribbles (May 15, 2021)

The manual states:
Expansion Slots
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)*
     For optimum performance, if   only one PCI Express graphics card is    to be installed, 
     be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)*     
     The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is 
     populated, the PCIEX16 slot operates at up to x8 mode.
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)*    
     The PCIEX4 slot shares bandwidth with the M2P_32G connector.  The PCIEX4 slot operates at    up to    x2 mode when a   PCIe SSD is   installed in    the M2P_32G connector.
3 x PCI Express x1 slots*     
     The PCIEX1_3 slot shares bandwidth with the SATA3 1    connector.  The SATA3 1 connector becomes unavailable when the PCIEX1_3 is populated.(All of the PCI Express slots conform to PCI Express 3.0             standard.)

The m.2 is located in the first spot (with thermal guard)


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## Mussels (May 15, 2021)

That info tells you what you need to know (and can verify easier than us) - that some PCI-E ports disable other devices, or lower NVME bandwidth


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## Hardcore Games (May 15, 2021)

I am aware that mining is hard on VRAM which is why your cards are overheating like mad


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## PDribbles (May 15, 2021)

Howdy folks - Daily update. A huge shout out to everyone that helped me with this issued through this thread. Major points to Zach_01 who took the time to help me out through the various steps as well.
Got everything sorted out which is great and even managed to get my temps in check. For anyone that finds this thread this is what I did with my Zotac 3090 Trinity (recap)

De-shrouded
New thermal pads - Fujipoly2mm
2x Noctua 120 AF fans on the front side venting in
New thermal paste (MX4)
1x Noctua 120 Af fan on the back plate side aimed in a way that puts cold air onto the backplate but also pushes it away (ie: angled)

Using nicehash quickminer I have the 3090 set to "lite" as opposed to medium. This is netting me 105mh with my vram temp at 92.

I will be transitioning to T-Rex miner however so I can facilitate some msi afterburner settings. I've used these:
Core Voltage: 0
Power Limit: 79
Temp Limit 84
Core Clock: 0
Memory Clock: 1481
Fan Speed: 100%

Temps were 90-92 fluctuating. Hashrate was 106mh. Some tweaking still needs to be done but it was just a quick n dirty try.


In the near future (end of the month) I'll be putting the 3090 into its' own open air mining rig along with its' brother and will hopefully see great results going forward.

Thanks again everyone!


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