So, as an Electronics Engineer and PCB Designer I feel I have to react here. The point that Igor makes about improper power design causing instability is a very plausible one. Especially with first production runs where it indeed could be the case that they did not have the time/equipment/driver etc to do proper design verification. However, concluding from this that a POSCAP = bad and MLCC = good is waaay to harsh and a conclusion you cannot make. Both POSCAPS (or any other 'solid polymer caps' and MLCC's have there own characteristics and use cases. Some (not all) are ('+' = pos, '-' = neg): MLCC: + cheap + small + high voltage rating in small package + high current rating + high temperature rating + high capacitance in small package + good at high frequencies - prone to cracking - prone to piezo effect - bad temperature characteristics - DC bias (capacitance changes a lot under different voltages) POSCAP: - more expensive - bigger - lower voltage rating + high current rating + high temperature rating - less good at high frequencies + mechanically very strong (no MLCC cracking) + not prone to piezo effect + very stable over temperature + no DC bias (capacitance very stable at different voltages) As you can see, both have there strengths and weaknesses and one is not particularly better or worse then the other. It all depends. In this case, most of these 3080 and 3090 boards may use the same GPU (with its requirements) but they also have very different power circuits driving the chips on the cards. Each power solution has its own characteristics and behavior and thus its own requirements in terms of capacitors used. Thus, you cannot simply say: I want the card with only MLCC's because that is a good design. It is far more likely they just could/would not have enough time and/or resources to properly verify their designs and thus where not able to do proper adjustments to their initial component choices. This will very likely work itself out in time. For now, just buy the card that you like and if it fails, simply claim warranty. Let them fix the problem and down draw to many conclusions based on incomplete information and (educated) guess work. Edit: it seems EVGA basically confirmed this by saying: " But, due to the time crunch, some of the reviewers were sent a pre-production version with 6 POSCAP’s, we are working with those reviewers directly to replace their boards with production versions.EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 XC3 series with 5 POSCAPs + 10 MLCC solution is matched with the XC3 spec without issues. " Edit 2: Also, this could be the reason Asus is 'late' whith there cards Edit 3: it seems Gigabyte uses non-MLCC parts but does not have problems, confirming the point you cant simply judge based on capacitor type and count.

HybOj:

Thats a giant eff up. Makes me wonder... why is nVidia in such a rush? There has to be a reason behind this strange release. Its either the consoles, or they have some info about AMD.

Undying:

Nvidia could know something we dont. Every rumor so far saying amd clearly have something big, something refreshing. Redtech is saying how they sre extremely satisfied what they have and its overcome to goal they've set up.

Undying:

Nvidia could know something we dont. Every rumor so far saying amd clearly have something big, something refreshing. Redtech is saying how they sre extremely satisfied what they have and its overcome to goal they've set up.

TheDeeGee:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1309617232201175040 https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/izmi1k/ampere_poscapmlcc_counts/

Undying:

So even if the asus did the best here its still crashing on the tuf and strix cards. Something else could be the culprit here. Power delivery, vrms are also top notch on those.

kill007:

Where did you see that? From what eVGA has officially stated, they detected it early, samples sent to reviews had the old setup where as all production to consumers were with the new setup.

Caesar:

This time they focussed only on HEAT DISSIPATION SYSTEM. Poor nvidia....

cryohellinc:

But it's the same nearly always - 1st gen of what-ever is always full of issues. I can recall very few successful launches. Ampere - do I want to buy it at some points? Yes. Will I buy it now? No, because AMD's response isn't out yet, and in addition to that - early adopter = high risk. Let it sit for several months and mature. On top of that prices will settle down. The same goes with PS5 - I plan to get one for myself, but I won't go for the first iteration, and instead will get a second revision.

cryohellinc:

Yourself - for jumping the early adopter bandwagon. 😉

XenthorX:

All Asus model are actually using 6 higher tier MLCC, all the shots and sometimes Early youtubers had pre-production cards. ASUS GeForce TUF RTX 3080 O10G GAMING img removed ASUS GeForce RTX 3080 ROG STRIX img removed ASUS and EVGA also started updating their product pictures accordingly: https://www.asus.com/Graphics-Cards/TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING/gallery/ https://www.asus.com/ROG-Republic-Of-Gamers/ROG-STRIX-RTX3080-10G-GAMING/gallery/

panogr:

people should get their money back as it is defective product.

CPC_RedDawn:

Thats good to know then, looks like Asus found the issue before they could release their cards into the wild. Also this means ASUS 3080's are actually using OVER Nvidia's spec as the FE uses a 4pos+2mlcc. Looks like ASUS is the one to go with here until the other AIB's can sort something out. It's not actually defective. You are only guaranteed base and boost clocks (3080 base is 1440MHz and boost is 1710MHz) anything over this is classed as GPU Boost which you are not guaranteed as each chip has different levels of quality within the silicon. Not to mention other factors like case, cooling, ambient temps of someones room, etc. If two people had the exact same 3080 card there is a good chance that one "gpu boosts" higher than the other due to certain factors. This issue with the caps only occurs when either manually overclocking or when GPU boost hits above 2GHz. So technically you are still getting what was advertised whereby the highest clock speed is 1710MHz (or slightly above for AIB OC models). GPU boost is not a guarantee. Not trying to defend this as it is BS but there is an easy out for Nvidia and the AIB's.

clopezi:

In Reddit, many people with TUF cards have the same CTD problems...

Undying:

How do you know? Bryan from tech yes said asus tuf also crashes if overclocked but stock is fine.

Astyanax:

lol, noobzoid wants us all to stop calling them poscaps