RTX 3090 Founders Edition vs 3rd party AIB version?

[captain420 3,099]

I have pretty much decided that I will be upgrading to the 3090 but not sure if I should go with the FE or the ASUS ROG STRIX 3090?

Besides the aesthetics the FE hands down looks the best but asides from the 12pin connector are there any other differences between the 2? The ASUS has 3x8pin connectors. The 3090 is massive, and I hope the AIB models won't be bigger. I'm already concerned about fitting this in my case.

With previous 2080ti, the FE was smaller and more compact when compared to the other AIB models.

[TonyD 132]

nVidia keeps the best silicon for their own products - the AIBs get a range of qualities for their various SKUs
nVidia's own designs don't really overclock that well, if at all.

The AIB boards tend to have (not always) better cooling and can overclock more as they also bump the power draw.

However, look at the prices and compare - can you justify a $250 premium for a possible 3-5% boost.
 

[captain420 3,099]

Even if the AIB boards do offer high specs, I doubt the performance will be even noticeable. Don't the FE cards usually come with some sort of boost already? I'm not really interested in OC my GPU. I already have a CPU that I will OC, plus that will benefit me more than OC a GPU for hardly any gains.

The FE RTX 3090 is $1500, so are you saying the AIB cards will be more expensive?

[AbjectMaelstrom 7]

7 hours ago, captain420 said:

Even if the AIB boards do offer high specs, I doubt the performance will be even noticeable. Don't the FE cards usually come with some sort of boost already? I'm not really interested in OC my GPU. I already have a CPU that I will OC, plus that will benefit me more than OC a GPU for hardly any gains.

The FE RTX 3090 is $1500, so are you saying the AIB cards will be more expensive?

Actually, unless you have a CPU bottleneck, gains from a GPU OC can be fairly significant and is much more straight forward (easier as boost does 90% of the wor ) than a CPU overclock. Most of what you have to do is bump the power limit and keep the card cool, then just keep bumping the core clocks until it becomes unstable; rinse repeat for memory. 

Besides, just because you're OCing your CPU doesn't mean you can't OC the GPU as well. 

As for pricing, I would expect the Asus Strix to be around 200 (give or take) more than FE models with stock. cooler. Not a ton of pricing info available another than here: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pc-components/graphics-cards/nvidia/geforce-rtx-3090

Which shows the Strix to be more expensive than other AIB/Nvidia. 

[captain420 3,099]

I thought the FE model were always more expensive than the AIB?