F5F Stay Refreshed Hardware Desktop The EVGA 3080XC3 and HP G4 Z4 are really getting me excited.

The EVGA 3080XC3 and HP G4 Z4 are really getting me excited.

The EVGA 3080XC3 and HP G4 Z4 are really getting me excited.

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Floobyboo
Junior Member
9
03-05-2021, 06:17 AM
#1
I was testing an EVGA 3080XC3 Ultra on my personal machine and noticed some problems (artifacting). I sent it back to EVGA, who replaced it with a month remaining on warranty. Everything seemed fine at first. I managed to acquire a 4090FE from NVIDIA and shipped the 3080XC3 to my younger sibling’s setup—a fairly old HP G4 Z4 workstation running an older Intel 7800X, with 32GB RAM and an EVGA 1070 swapped for the 3080. It worked for a while, but occasionally the HP workstation would display a graphics card error (3 long/3 short) during boot, which would clear after a reboot. I suspected the issue might be linked to the HP power supply, though I had no idea how powerful it actually was. After exploring options, I decided to upgrade my sibling’s system with a Ryzen setup (TUF X570-Plus Gaming Wi-Fi, Ryzen 3800X, 16GB RAM) for her. I transferred the 3080XC3 into it, but it wouldn’t boot at all (the VGA LED stayed on) and the system froze before any OS loaded. Returning it to the HP workstation made matters worse—it would keep showing the same error and completely crashed. Eventually, I replaced the 1070 in her machine so it could function, and reached out to EVGA to see if they’d accept a return of the RMA’d card (they declined after warranty expired). I was left with the 3080XC3, trying to fix it further. I tried a GTX960 into the HP Z4 G4 for testing after a BIOS reset, and reached this troubleshooting stage. The process was: power down, clear CMOS, remove the 3080XC3, install the GTX960 in PCI-e slot 1, reboot with HP G4 Z4 Safestart repeated, enter BIOS, disable Fastboot and Intel AMT, adjust settings, and finally boot successfully. Benchmarks passed without trouble. I then rebooted, enabled the resizable bar in BIOS for the first PCI slot, and after several attempts, got an Intel AMT error. I followed the steps to install the card in the first PCI-E x16 slot, and it booted normally. I ran benchmarks again—everything was fine. Then I shut down, waited a few minutes, removed the power cable, and reinserted it. After a couple hours, I restarted and followed the same procedure. The system booted, recognized the 3080XC3, and passed all tests. I tested with benchmarks once more—perfect results. Finally, I powered off and waited 1 minute, then 10 minutes, then 30 minutes, and again after a power loss. After that, I plugged in the GTX960, connected the 3080XC3 to the first PCI-E x16 slot, and plugged in two 8-pin power adapters. It booted up without issues. I ran Precision X1, checked the resizable bar, and confirmed it was enabled. All tests came back normal. I updated the card’s firmware using nvflash64 and ran benchmarks again—no problems detected. No physical damage was found, temperatures were stable, and performance remained solid once running. Windows 11 was installed, BIOS version 2.94 for the HP G4 Z4 (the latest available). Any advice? There’s no visible damage, and the card hasn’t been dropped or mishandled. Temperatures are normal, and it performs well when operational.
F
Floobyboo
03-05-2021, 06:17 AM #1

I was testing an EVGA 3080XC3 Ultra on my personal machine and noticed some problems (artifacting). I sent it back to EVGA, who replaced it with a month remaining on warranty. Everything seemed fine at first. I managed to acquire a 4090FE from NVIDIA and shipped the 3080XC3 to my younger sibling’s setup—a fairly old HP G4 Z4 workstation running an older Intel 7800X, with 32GB RAM and an EVGA 1070 swapped for the 3080. It worked for a while, but occasionally the HP workstation would display a graphics card error (3 long/3 short) during boot, which would clear after a reboot. I suspected the issue might be linked to the HP power supply, though I had no idea how powerful it actually was. After exploring options, I decided to upgrade my sibling’s system with a Ryzen setup (TUF X570-Plus Gaming Wi-Fi, Ryzen 3800X, 16GB RAM) for her. I transferred the 3080XC3 into it, but it wouldn’t boot at all (the VGA LED stayed on) and the system froze before any OS loaded. Returning it to the HP workstation made matters worse—it would keep showing the same error and completely crashed. Eventually, I replaced the 1070 in her machine so it could function, and reached out to EVGA to see if they’d accept a return of the RMA’d card (they declined after warranty expired). I was left with the 3080XC3, trying to fix it further. I tried a GTX960 into the HP Z4 G4 for testing after a BIOS reset, and reached this troubleshooting stage. The process was: power down, clear CMOS, remove the 3080XC3, install the GTX960 in PCI-e slot 1, reboot with HP G4 Z4 Safestart repeated, enter BIOS, disable Fastboot and Intel AMT, adjust settings, and finally boot successfully. Benchmarks passed without trouble. I then rebooted, enabled the resizable bar in BIOS for the first PCI slot, and after several attempts, got an Intel AMT error. I followed the steps to install the card in the first PCI-E x16 slot, and it booted normally. I ran benchmarks again—everything was fine. Then I shut down, waited a few minutes, removed the power cable, and reinserted it. After a couple hours, I restarted and followed the same procedure. The system booted, recognized the 3080XC3, and passed all tests. I tested with benchmarks once more—perfect results. Finally, I powered off and waited 1 minute, then 10 minutes, then 30 minutes, and again after a power loss. After that, I plugged in the GTX960, connected the 3080XC3 to the first PCI-E x16 slot, and plugged in two 8-pin power adapters. It booted up without issues. I ran Precision X1, checked the resizable bar, and confirmed it was enabled. All tests came back normal. I updated the card’s firmware using nvflash64 and ran benchmarks again—no problems detected. No physical damage was found, temperatures were stable, and performance remained solid once running. Windows 11 was installed, BIOS version 2.94 for the HP G4 Z4 (the latest available). Any advice? There’s no visible damage, and the card hasn’t been dropped or mishandled. Temperatures are normal, and it performs well when operational.