I managed to get a 3090 FE at MSRP the other day, I just clicked buy when it came up; I’ve been battling for weeks to get a single graphics card. After hooking it up I noticed how insanely hot the card was getting and have subsequently read a few scary stories about crazy high VRAM temps on these cards.
GIven memory temps aren’t available for NVidia cards at the moment, it occured to me we shouldn’t be using AutoFan since the GPU temp is very low, whilst the VRAM temp is unknown, but expected to be high and therefore GPU temp can’t be used as something deterministic to set fan speed.
If I leave my 3090FE to its own devices, it maintains a cool GPU temp of about 43 to 45 degrees but the fans are spinning at 73 to 75%, suggesting the VRAM temp is indeed very high and the card is doing its best to rid itself of the heat.
So it seems it would be better to let the card manage its own fans given we can’t reliably configure auto fan using the GPU temp as an indicator of VRAM temp - i.e. there is a risk you may run the fans at too low a % based off the GPU temp.
On that note, is anyone else running a 3090 FE? Have you replaced the thermal pads? Have you reliably run it without issues?