I put this up on Reddit just now and copied it here, as I know some people here have the same GPU so you might be able to help me out. It’s a bit embarrassing but I always seem to get a lemon… and I hate lemonade.
"My ASUS TUF OC RTX4090 came with a damaged or faulty BIOS switch, in that the sliding button is missing on the switch housing. I can’t change the setting, even using a toothpick to gently try and move the inner plastic slider. So I’m stuck in the default setting the card came with, either quiet mode or performance. I’m not sure if I should return it, or just live with it, as I don’t intend to flash the BIOS or overclock it.
The card works fine, and I know that the performance mode just changes the fan curve, not the performance as such.
Here’s the fan curve I get on all options in GPU Tweak; Default, Silent and OC, they are all the same. Can anyone tell me if this is the performance or Quiet mode setting? And do you guys think I should return the card? I’ve scratched the switch housing a bit fooling around trying to move the inner part of the switch, as I didn’t realise it was supposed to have a protruding lever, as I’ve never had a card with switchable BIOS before."
That’s one of the biggest mistakes you can make for any new product as revision 1.0 bios never contain fixes for problems only discovered after release.
Also I don’t have a 4xxx but are you sure it’s actually a slider and not just a clickable switch similar to a reset button?
No, it’s definitely a slider, as I’ve peered intently at as many images of the card as I can Google. I can still flash the BIOS, but if anything goes wrong, I would brick the card, as other Asus TUF 4090 owners get a second life by flashing the second BIOS option.
Ah Ok, understood. My advice is to RMA explaining the scratches … even if that’s only to keep it’s resale value. You can be certain there are other cards out there with the same problem.
If I’d spent anywhere near what you are likely to have spent, for anything, I’d definitely be contacting the vendor and asking them for a replacement.
You might have to wait a while, but that will seem like the blink of an eye compared to living with the imperfect card and forever wishing you had got it replaced.
It’s your choice of course, but I’d be sending it back.
Thanks, but I’ve already copied it to Community Support/Hardware and Peripherals, just to get as wide a response as I can. But I’ll leave it to the mods to decide. Problems like this with such an expensive card need to reach a wide audience and I’m by no means a rich guy, being retired, this was a big purchase for me.
Yeah, I agree with you, it’s just such a bummer. But with so much money at stake, I guess I’ll just have to bite the bullet. Times like this you really need a fainting couch.
The fan curve I posted above looks to me as if it’s in quiet mode. If you have Asus GPU Tweak installed could you do me favour and check if it’s the same curve as mine? In the meantime I’ll ring my vendor this morning and see what he has to say. I may wait before returning the card until they have another one in stock to exchange it, if it’s OK with them.
if it’s all about fans it’s not a big deal, you can stay with silent till you see temp more than 80*. as soon as you see 80+ you open anything like msi afterburner. from asus or evga or whatever you like more. and set line curvature from 55 to 84* 55c= fans 0rpm 84=100… that’s it. give in case max airflow and you will ok with silent mode i guess long long time till you will really need to play with fans curvature graphic.
be sure you have some little positive pressure in the case for minimize dust collection and for be sure you have enough fresh air as coolant. minimize perpendicular airflow if you don’t have full tower for minimize turbulence hot air spots on electronic parts. for example if you have 3 front panel fans and you have side panel fans, set two fan panels between that 3 forward. and add them only if they really needed there. that’s mean you add them physically but in bios or in any other that fan control set them at 0 rpm till cpu or case or some other start grows more than you think enough to start them help to all other. as far perpendicular fan start rotation you know now efficient of airflow will go down, so all other fans will works at bigger rpm. but all that depend of the pc case. in any of any of any case, blocked switcher of game-silence mode not coast even nanoampere in your brain to thinking about. and btw update bios it’s not so scary thing as people think and not bad idea at all to refresh it when new one appear just watch detail why the new bios was appear, and do you really need it, what it will change. as i remember i updated my vcard all the time i found new bios, same i does with mobo. if do everything right all shall be o.k.
