Tuesday, September 1st 2020

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ampere Bare PCB Pictured
Here are some of the clearest pictures of an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 "Ampere" Founders Edition PCB, albeit bare (components not yet placed). The PCB goes in this form to another production line, where a PCB placer machine with reels of components places them along both sides. We can still make out quite a few things. To beign with, there are six high current traces near where the 12-pin Molex MicroFit power connector goes in.
NVIDIA seems to have utilized both sides of the PCB effectively. The card features traces for a mammoth 20-phase VRM. The obverse side has the chokes and DrMOS, the reverse side has the capacitors. Twelve memory pads for the 384-bit wide GDDR6X memory interface surround the GPU pad. There are pads for four display output connectors, which could be a mixture of DisplayPort, HDMI, or even USB-C VirtualLink. The PCB still has its spacers on, which will be cut out after component placement, after which the PCB heads for testing and product assembly. NVIDIA is expected to announce the GeForce RTX 3090 Ampere at an online event later today.
Sources:
ChipHell Forums, VideoCardz
NVIDIA seems to have utilized both sides of the PCB effectively. The card features traces for a mammoth 20-phase VRM. The obverse side has the chokes and DrMOS, the reverse side has the capacitors. Twelve memory pads for the 384-bit wide GDDR6X memory interface surround the GPU pad. There are pads for four display output connectors, which could be a mixture of DisplayPort, HDMI, or even USB-C VirtualLink. The PCB still has its spacers on, which will be cut out after component placement, after which the PCB heads for testing and product assembly. NVIDIA is expected to announce the GeForce RTX 3090 Ampere at an online event later today.
36 Comments on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ampere Bare PCB Pictured
Did you watch the Nvidia video from a few days ago?
www.techpowerup.com/271410/nvidia-shares-details-about-ampere-founders-edition-cooling-power-design-12-pin-confirmed
But it's still going to be very expensive, and availability will be abysmal in the beginning.
I wouldn't count on AMD launching the top of the cream products, but if they launch something on the lines of 3080 and 3090 and lands on a good price (as in just slightly higher than 3080) with great technology (DirectML, raytracing) I will buy AMD. I hope Nvidia don't push me away
I have to admit I'm surprised that the 12th memory channel (channel 6 IIRC from the previous pics) is actually located down by the PCIe slot, even if the spacing is a bit less tight than what it looked like from those leaks. That would mean that a) Nvidia has memory controllers on all four sides of the die, b) there are GDDR6X traces in between the PCIe 4.0 traces (that is going to need some serious crosstalk mitigation!), and c) Nvidia knew they had to make it this way quite early on, given that placing a new memory controller would be anything but trivial once the design was taped out. I would guess that there simply wasn't room for a fourth channel up top, though one has to wonder if that is due to space constraints or signalling issues with the top channels being squeezed in between the side ones already.
Nonetheless, this looks like a beast of a GPU, but with that VRM and cooling solution it's also sounding like a power hog. Looking forward to later today to see how this plays out on paper. I'm guessing the bottom one could be either DP or HDMI with the top one DP or VirtualLink, if my guess that those pads are for a USB-C controller is correct. It lacks the Turing-era mounting holes from the USB-C port, but that wouldn't work anyway with the controller beneath the port housing, they'd need some sort of bracket or a custom port. Both of which are feasible, if not cheap. For a card like this I doubt they care about another $1 on the BOM though. Did you somehow overlook the 12 GDDR6X pads on both sides of the PCB?
The two larger round holes near the edge of the PCB correspond to two clamps that are part of the plastic molding.