Question Nvidia 3080 FE new card smell?

MrGrim999

Member
Jan 12, 2015
172
10
81
Hey guys! I realize this is hard to diagnose online but I was hoping I'd find some helpful suggestions here. I was lucky enough to recently acquire an Nvidia 3080 FE which replaced my 1080. I noticed a slight smell only when gaming under heavy load. My temps seem to be fine (GPU idle 29 gaming 72max, CPU idle 30 gaming 55).I thought the power supply cables and fan cables were heat resistant but maybe not. Neatness was never my specialty and all the wires are kinda bunched up at the bottom of the case where the PSU is . I'm going to do a thorough job of inspecting the cables and dusting today., I have a total of 6 case fans including one mounted on the side panel facing the video card so cooling should not be an issue. I read online its possible the 3080 can give off a funky smell using it for the first time and goes away after awhile but not sure how accurate that is.

Here's what I got :

Corsair Vengeance C70
Asus ROG STRIX Z390-E mobo
Intel i7 9700K
Nvidia 3080 FE
EVGA G2 750W Gold Fully Modular
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 16GB (2x8)
be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 cpu cooler
Samsung EVO 970 Plus 1TB M.2
Samsung EVO 970 1TB M.2
Seagate Barracuda 2TB

I should have enough power to handle the 3080. Total wattage should be around 575W which should leave me with enough headroom unless I'm wrong. Any 3080 FE owners out there experience the same thing? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Leeea

Mopetar

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2011
7,797
5,899
136
There were some issues with the earliest Ampere cards having very bursty power draw that could spike high and cause problems with PSUs that couldn't keep up with the sudden demand, but this was fixed pretty early on with driver updates so unless you have a card with the original drivers and haven't updated, I don't think there's a problem with your setup.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Leeea

MrGrim999

Member
Jan 12, 2015
172
10
81
Yeah, are you sure this isn't just some off gassing of the plastic components of the card?

Like brand new coffee makers, need a few cycles to get the plastic smell out...

Haha! Believe me that's what I was praying for. My 1080 prob did the same thing and didn't even realize. But this was a time that seems so long ago when we were able to walk into a store and purchase a video card no problem :)
 

MrGrim999

Member
Jan 12, 2015
172
10
81
It's amazing what a little spring cleaning can do! This time, I spent a couple of hours doing some real dusting and a little cable management rather than just plucking out the visible wads of dust. Not only are my temperatures better all around but I think the smell is gone too! There was a case fan cable slightly touching the top of the 3080 but I couldn't find any signs of burning on any of the cables. I'm hoping it was just some dust burning but I'll continue to monitor.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Leeea