Monday, June 12th 2023

GIGABYTE RTX 4090 WindForce V2 Unveiled, with Unique Tail-ended Power Connector

by
btarunr
 Discuss (53 Comments)
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4090 WindForce V2 may not be the company's most premium RTX 4090 custom-design graphics card, but it has arguably the best power connector design. Almost every custom RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 comes with a design where in the PCB is half or two-thirds the length of the card, and the remainder of the length is dedicated to the cooling solution, where the heatsink can extend along the thickness of the card. In case of the RTX 4090 WindForce V2, this extended portion of the cooler is recessed by half, exposing the tail end of the PCB. The 16-pin 12VHPWR power input is pointed toward the tail-end, rather than toward the top of the card.

This makes cabling very convenient, as it no longer needs to bend nearly 180° as it emerges from the back of your motherboard tray. The power cable goes straight into the connector with no bending up to a roughly 8 cm length, before making a 90° turn to the back of your motherboard tray, reducing mechanical strain on the connector. Even the NVIDIA-designed adapter included with the card (the one that converts 4x 8-pin to a 12VHPWR), should look neater. It's likely that as a WindForce-series product, this card offers the lowest tier of factory overclocks by GIGABYTE. You still get dual-BIOS, which lets you toggle between this factory-OC, and a Silent BIOS that runs the card at reference speeds, with tighter fan tuning. The selling point, however, is its unique power connector design.
Sources: harukaze5719 (Twitter), VideoCardz

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53 Comments on GIGABYTE RTX 4090 WindForce V2 Unveiled, with Unique Tail-ended Power Connector

#1
katzi
YIKES...

That's Awful...
Posted on Reply
#2
oxrufiioxo
m2geekYIKES...

That's Awful...
Not really a fan either, maybe this is for narrow cases that barely fit the 4090 to begin with. I guess it would also be fine verticle mounted like I do with mine.
Posted on Reply
#3
Count von Schwalbe
Nocturnus Moderatus
Much better if the cutout was at the bottom of the card. Although it would make it necessary to take the card out to insert or remove the connector.

Why not put the connector on an extension to make it end-mounted?
Posted on Reply
#4
Object55
OK THEN! We are getting there, finally someone who thinks that protruding cable right from the middle of the card is the stupidest idea in all of the PC building.
Posted on Reply
#5
Dimitriman
I think Gigabyte can get some praise for trying here. This will look not bad in a vertical mounted orientation as the cable should be well hidden behind the card rather than sticking up right in the center of the build.
Posted on Reply
#6
Ravenmaster
Complete with cracking PCB latch and a void warranty :roll:
Posted on Reply
#7
Count von Schwalbe
Nocturnus Moderatus
DimitrimanI think Gigabyte can get some praise for trying here. This will look not bad in a vertical mounted orientation as the cable should be well hidden behind the card rather than sticking up right in the center of the build.
Yes, vertical mounting would be ok. Not sure about standard mounting though.

Props for trying, at least.
Posted on Reply
#8
BorisDG
But can it run Crysis? But does it breaks again?
Posted on Reply
#9
AusWolf
So they cut half of the fin stack under the third fan, so it's blowing through nothing. How pointless!
Posted on Reply
#10
dj-electric
I wish that the tail end could be a dual 8PIN setup instead.
Posted on Reply
#11
bonehead123
Seems like it would be REALLY hard to get the cable inserted correctly/fully, especially for people with big hands/fingers....some better pics of that area might alleviate that concern. But I'll give 'em credit for trying anywayz :D
Posted on Reply
#12
Vya Domus
Wish there was some solution where all the power could be carried through the PCIe slot itself and you'd just need to plug in the extra power cables in the motherboard instead of the card, that way we'd be done with all of these cables/adapter nonsense hanging off the card once and for all.
Posted on Reply
#13
Bomby569
the fan will cool those self immolating connectors, Gigabyte is a bloody genius
Posted on Reply
#14
KrazyT
Ok, am I alone to find this is a great idea ?
I don't think it will be more hideous than normal cabling :/
Posted on Reply
#15
AusWolf
Vya DomusWish there was some solution where all the power could be carried through the PCIe slot itself and you'd just need to plug in the extra power cables in the motherboard instead of the card, that way we'd be done with all of these cables/adapter nonsense hanging off the card once and for all.
Like this?
www.techpowerup.com/309313/asus-shows-concept-geforce-rtx-4070-without-power-connector
It would be nice if it was standardised.
KrazyTOk, am I alone to find this is a great idea ?
Probably. The problem in my opinion, is not where the cables are, or how they look. The problem is that the third fan cools basically nothing. It's just there for the noise.

Edit: If they had cut the third fan completely, and put the power connector at the rear end of the card, it would have been a much better design, methinks.
Posted on Reply
#16
sephiroth117
AusWolfSo they cut half of the fin stack under the third fan, so it's blowing through nothing. How pointless!
it's exhausting from 3/4 of the initial heatsink section then, not nothing.
Posted on Reply
#17
john_
Unique tail, common PCB crack?
Posted on Reply
#18
AusWolf
sephiroth117it's exhausting from 3/4 of the initial heatsink section then, not nothing.
It's more like half, but I don't see the point of cutting the rest of the fins just to cram the connector a little bit deeper into the card. It shows what's wrong with modern day gaming in general: form over function.

IMO, leave the fin stack alone, or make the card shorter. This intermediate solution is the worst of both worlds.
Posted on Reply
#19
Unregistered
Hopefully, all those metal plates can prevent the PCB from cracking: since Gigabyte is currently infamous - for using/having some of the weakest PCB on the GPU market - which makes their cards more prone to cracking (most cases seems to involve the RTX 3xxx series but hey - you never know). To make things worst - their warranty doesn't cover this issue (as can be seen in above video - the blame was shifted on the users - even wasting more money on the RMA transportation). Again, hopefully... for a 4090 of this caliber (High End but they also charge a kidney for it) - they'll used high quality PCBs. Would be nice - if in a review for this card (randomly bought - not hand picked/delivered for reviews - while checked more thoroughly for quality control) - they would strip the plates and check the PCBs - just to see if there's a clear improvement (all those metal plates might be able to hold together even a feeble PCB).
#21
Bomby569
XSAlliNHopefully, all those metal plates can prevent the PCB from cracking: since Gigabyte is currently infamous - for using/having some of the weakest PCB on the GPU market - which makes their cards more prone to cracking (most cases seems to involve the RTX 3xxx series but hey - you never know). To make things worst - their warranty doesn't cover this issue (as can be seen in above video - the blame was shifted on the users - even wasting more money on the RMA transportation). Again, hopefully... for a 4090 of this caliber (High End but they also charge a kidney for it) - they'll used high quality PCBs. Would be nice - if in a review for this card (randomly bought - not hand picked/delivered for reviews - while checked more thoroughly for quality control) - they would strip the plates and check the PCBs - just to see if there's a clear improvement (all those metal plates might be able to hold together even a feeble PCB).
i have one and had friends with Gigabyte cards (even thicc boys 3090's) and never seen a cracked PCB. That came from a another Youtuber, Rossman, that created another drama. He said himself most of those complaints are from prebuilds, and we know how those are handled, who builds them, how they are shipped, and who buys them. All it takes if for some prebuild company to be shipping the cards mounted without taking the necessary precautions for that to happen.

Connectors not fully inserted, cards shipped with no support or not inserted properly, it's almost a given with prebuilds.
Posted on Reply
#22
Space Lynx
Astronaut
john_Unique tail, common PCB crack?
enjoy your broken PCB indeed!!!

Posted on Reply
#23
john_
Space Lynxenjoy your broken PCB indeed!!!

Looking at the pictures of the RTX 4090, they didn't changed the PCB design in that area. One of the theories is that Gigabyte's PCB there, that cut out creates a thin area between the cut out and a screw hole. They seem to repeat that design with the RTX 4090.
Posted on Reply
#25
Bomby569
Space Lynxenjoy your broken PCB indeed!!!

this dude is just a resonance box for whatever is the latest drama. The real drama queen.
Unsurprising, his content is so bad, it's the way to get views.
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