Arriving in a monster sized box, inside you will find the last hurrah for Nvidia's top of the line Ampere architecture, the 3090ti.After much research, the EVGA FTW3 versions (All three tiers are physically identical) of the 3090ti have the best air cooler on the market and it will need it because this card is rated to run at stock well over 400w and when pushed can easily break 500w. Much has been said about the "massive" heatsink but when compared to my Asus Strix 3080 10gb, the Strix is just as tall and actually longer. The FTW3 is thicker but only by 0.5 inch but that does make it a full triple slot card.Inside the box you will receive the monster card itself covered in copious amounts of protective plastic which isn't really needed because EVGA does such a bang up job of packaging with firm foam everywhere securely holding this $2200USD behemoth. Also included is a stock little manual EVGA seems to include with all their cards, a support bracket, the "eLeash" for suspension support a case badge and of course the 3 PCIe power connector to 1x 12-pin connector that is the future of GPU connectors with the next wave of PSUs.Installation is straight forward and easy and the card is so incredibly well built if you have a strong and well built case you will get zero flex or sag as the card is tank like in nature solid everywhere. If your case has weak bracket support you can use the supporting bracket, eLeash or both. I use a Phanteks case so it has great support and the card required nothing to stay centered and solid. I love that EVGA put the power connector on the end of the card. It makes for nicer and tidier cable management.I tested it on both Windows 10 and Windows 11 and it works no problem but you will need to download the newest drivers.As for performance, it is there but compared to my 3080 10gb the uplift is ho hum at best. Timespy was ~22k vs ~18k for my 3080 10gb. I play WoW 4k Ultra 10 RT on and outside of a few spots where my FPS dip the 3090ti provided a solid uplift (54fps vs 68fps) but nothing that is going to be a major game changer. In areas where I was getting 100-110fps I would then get 130-140fps.Temperatures were fantastic for a card of this power output. Playing WoW for a few hours or even running Timespy temps didn't break 65c. This is a testament to EVGA and their absolutely lights out air cooler and design. Clocks when gaming boosted to ~2070mhz at stock since the card was able to keep temps so nice.Zero coil whine. Even when running Timespy or using EVGA's software to up the clocks the card had no coil whine or the fans were loud enough to drown out any minor whine. Using Precision, clocks held steady at 2160mhz stress testing and 2175mhz gaming. Definitely not worth it for the noise and heat that it generated for that extra ~105mhz.If you have a 3080 / 6800xt or greater the price:performance of the 3090ti is pretty terrible. With next gen cards arriving within the year, it is better to wait.My main issues are three fold and why I returned it:Heat:I have never had a card heat up my modest sized (12' x 10') computer room so fast. Within 1hr of playing my room was noticeably warmer. I took the glass window off my desktop PC just to feel and the 3090ti was sitting in there like a mini furnace spewing heat everywhere with a passion while pulling ~435w+. My 3080 pulls around 317w and that 118w difference is a game changer. Within 2hrs of playing even with the door open I had to call it quits and physically fan my door to get it cooler in there. I would need a small AC unit in my computer room to combat that heat output over time. I usually play with my door closed but had to leave it open to reduce the sauna like atmosphere. This was with my central AC ON. I loathe to think what it would be like in the summer. If you plan on using EVGA's Precision software to push this card to the max be prepared to have a bag of marshmallows to roast over the figurative open flame that will be your GPU under load.Noise:I was hoping along with a modest performance bump that by locking my frame rate to ~60fps I would get a slight noise reduction with that monster heatsink. Nope. Instead, I received the exact opposite. As soon as I stepped foot into the new content areas of WoW Shadowlands that are graphically demanding the fans immediately kicked up and were quite audible. They were much louder than my Strix fans which are close to inaudible at the same settings with the frame rate capped at 60fps which I was not expecting as they weren't even on high but we are talking an increase of over 25% in wattage so it makes sense. I've included a video of the fans in action. Yes, that noise you hear are the GPU fans in action.Price:performance:$2200USD (Currently $2000USD) is just not worth the uptick in performance along with the noise and heat over even a 3080 10gb. On paper and reading reviews it looks like something major but in practical use it just isn't there especially if you lock your frames and just want consistency. Of course if you do high refresh gaming and want the absolute highest max frames at all times then this card might make sense to you.Summary:In summary, if you are looking for the BEST 3090ti air cooled model on the market this is it. This is easily the best built, air cooled GPU I've ever held. It is built like a tank and manages to keep temps in the 65c range even under load. Because of the excellent air cooler, the card was able to boost to 2070mhz no problem gaming at stock. The only problem was the heat output and noise which there isn't much EVGA can do about that because that is the price of taming this expensive beast. Kudos to EVGA for taking everything they could improve upon the original 3090 FTW3 and doing exactly that in every aspect. If you are in the market for a 3090ti and can handle the size, heat, power and price....this is the one for you.5/5 for EVGA maximizing the 3090ti to its full potential....warts and all.