Will upgrading resolve my issue, or will I have to upgrade the power supply as well? I recently added an A320 FCU/EFIS combo as well as a 737 MCP/EFIS unit for my simming pleasure. These are both USB plug-and-play modules running their APIs. I have also been running ASFS, Couatl, Steam's Lossless Scaling, Navigraph, and two iPads that emulate CDU and EFB. Couatl and various other apps run in the background. All ran exceptionally well together until I added the two pieces of hardware; I started experiencing VRAM issues and power-ups and downs of the hardware. After some investigation, I found that the GPU was overwhelmed, and the RTX 3080 Ti only had 12 GB of VRAM. I added a powered USB dock where I plugged the hardware into a USB 3.1 port into the motherboard. I have purchased an RTX 3090 FTW3 GPU, hoping it will resolve the lock-up issues. I was going to wait until the price of a 4090 came down but that is not part of the gameplan right now, I have to get the computer to run smoothly.

https://www.wingflexsim.com/product/show-11.html

https://www.cockpit-simulator.com/shop/cs-737x-mcp/

Adding those USB devices would not affect your VRAM usage.

First--big picture, it sounds like maybe you have power delivery issues with multiple problems like these erupting concurrently.  A weak/failing PSU could explain most of your trouble.  I'd check that out first.

If the devices are still power cycling after putting them on an externally-powered USB hub, try plugging them in using a different USB port--if your motherboard has multiple USB controllers, use a port connected to a different controller chip (e.g. if a third-party USB controller is on the mobo, usually the front-panel USB ports are connected to it).  USB 2 ports also use a different controller IC than USB 3 ports.  You can also try uninstalling the USB controllers in device manager and then selecting "scan for hardware changes" to get the OS to reinstall the USB device and its drivers.  Also, make sure that "allow Windows to turn off this device to save power" is not selected (in device manager under the "power management" tab in the USB controller/hub properties).

Make sure the power cables connected to the GPU's card-edge power connectors are *not* daisy-chained connectors coming off the same cable.  IIRC, the FTW3 used three VGA power connectors--there should be a separate, discrete cable from the PSU to each one of those connectors.  You didn't specify your system specs, so I have no idea if your PSU is up to the task...I would use a 1000W supply with that overclocked FTW3 GPU.

Beware that those EVGA 3090 FTW3 cards were infamous for failure issues (associated with the "red LED of death") when running at the high power settings enabled by the manufacturer's factory overclock.  Several folks I knew that owned them used EVGA's Precison X1 utility to dial back the overclock closer to stock 3090 specs in order to reduce stress on the GPU's internal power regulation circuitry.  Given that EVGA has been out of the GPU business entirely for several years now, I would not push a used EVGA card to the limit.  And keeping your 3080Ti as a hot spare wouldn't be the worst idea, either.

Hi Bob,

Thanks very much for the detailed reply, I will look into everything, looks like upgrading my power supply should help as well. I mentioned the GPU because of the warnings I was getting. I will definitely keep the 3080 Ti for now. Here are my specs below:

Operating System: Windows 11 Professional Edition 64-Bit
Chassis: Corsair 465x RGB Mid Tower, Black
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra
Processor: Intel 9h Gen Core i9 990OK (5.0 GHz Turbo Boost) Eight Core
CPU Cooling: NZXT Kraken X52 240mm Liquid Cooler
System Memory: 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO DDR4 SDRAM 3200MHZ
Graphics Processor: 12GB EVGA GeForce RTX 3080Tİ, GDDR6
System Power: 850 Watt Seasonic Focus GX Power Supply

Robert