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Friday, May 24th 2024

NVIDIA RTX 5090 "Blackwell" Founders Edition to Implement the "RTX 4090 Ti" Cinderblock Design

by
btarunr
 Discuss (118 Comments)
NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card may implement a design closely resembling the cinder block product design the company readied for its RTX 4090 Ti graphics card that never materialized into a marketable product. This sees a 4-slot thick board design, with a slender main logic PCB arranged along the plane of the motherboard, on top of which the cooling solution is mounted perpendicular to the plane, as shown in the images below. This main logic board contains the GPU, memory, and VRM. There two additional PCBs—one has the display I/O, and the other has the PCIe interface. There is a fourth disaggregated component, the 12V-2x6 receptacle, located somewhere along the top of the cooling solution.

Confirmation of NVIDIA using the RTX 4090 Ti "cinder block" board design for the RTX 5090 comes from kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks. Kopite7kimi mentions a card that has a "Main Board, IO Rigid Board and a separate PCIE slot component (perhaps it should not be considered as the third PCB)," which perfectly describes with the RTX 4090 Ti. NVIDIA had completed the design phase of this card, which made it to its cooling solution OEM (which is likely where the images leaked out from). The company probably decided against launching this product because the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX fell significantly short of the performance proposition of the RTX 4090.
Source: kopite7kimi (Twitter)

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118 Comments on NVIDIA RTX 5090 "Blackwell" Founders Edition to Implement the "RTX 4090 Ti" Cinderblock Design

#26
Blueberries
Okay, now I REALLY want one. That cooler engineering is so fucking cool
Posted on Reply
#27
Daven
Beginner Macro DeviceI'm not a huge fan of it but this GPU definitely needs one.
I see what you did there…lol
Posted on Reply
#28
docnorth
At first I thought the fan in the middle was a retractable handle...:kookoo:

Posted on Reply
#29
Daven
BlueberriesOkay, now I REALLY want one. That cooler engineering is so fucking cool
You might be the only one.
Posted on Reply
#30
Blueberries
DavenYou might be the only one.
3 fans that are all setup as blow-through. This is going to be far more efficient than any AIB design currently on the market.
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#31
Vayra86
At this rate the biggest tech improvement for Nvidia generations of cards is how they managed to improve the cooling this time to keep pace with the elevated TDPs.

Interesting indeed, these self-imposed problems they fix.
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#33
Darmok N Jalad
"RTX 5090, All of your slots are belong to us." It just markets itself.
Posted on Reply
#34
Caring1
Why_MeLOL @ those people with those tiny little SFF builds.
eGPU cases will have to get bigger for them.

I can't wait to read a review and see how crazy the power consumption is.
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#35
Veseleil
Finally some innovation in this field.
Posted on Reply
#38
Raiden85
With the size of these things getting larger each generation, they'll have to go external at this rate :D
Posted on Reply
#39
C1ff0
WonkoTheSaneUKThe article mentions 3 separate PCBs - main PCB parallel with motherboard (goodbye to using any other slots!), output PCB with HDMI & DP sockets, Input PCB with PCIe slot. 12V Hpwr socket elsewhere on the heatsink.
Ya, that was the idea for the 4090Ti, i was perplexed because it's a clear deviation from the majority of PCIE addin cards in the market today. It's more complex to manufacture, pricier too. But we are speaking about nVidia..... so boh? Apparently the added cooling from having a complete passtrought airflow outweight the added complexity.
Posted on Reply
#40
Veseleil
Raiden85With the size of these things getting larger each generation, they'll have to go external at this rate :D
Since the introduction of a dual slot cards more than a decade ago, the standardized PCIe layout should've been changed, maybe the whole motherboard layout as well. But it didn't, so now we have this...
GPU was a lower power part blowing hot air to the higher power part, now it's vice versa.
Posted on Reply
#41
Raiden85
True, ATX was never designed for anything like what we have now with so many big, hot and massive power draw components. It's about time it was redesigned from the ground up, it would be a nightmare but it really needs to be done. It will have to be done eventually.
Posted on Reply
#42
Bobaganoosh
AusWolfA pass-through design with some X-shaped trim? Where have I seen this before? Oh yes! On every other Nvidia card in the last 5 years.

So where's the "leak"? :laugh:
See below:
WonkoTheSaneUKThe article mentions 3 separate PCBs - main PCB parallel with motherboard (goodbye to using any other slots!), output PCB with HDMI & DP sockets, Input PCB with PCIe slot. 12V Hpwr socket elsewhere on the heatsink.
C1ff0Ya, that was the idea for the 4090Ti, i was perplexed because it's a clear deviation from the majority of PCIE addin cards in the market today. It's more complex to manufacture, pricier too. But we are speaking about nVidia..... so boh? Apparently the added cooling from having a complete passtrought airflow outweight the added complexity.
Yes, that was the previous leak. I agree this is very complex to manufacture compared to previous designs. If they solder the boards together, that's a whole set of fixturing and operations that add labor and time. If they're connectorized, they need to make sure all the tolerances on every mechanical part are really good or misalignment can disconnect things on people's ($2.5-3k?) cards during shipping or install. They're also relying on some heat-shrink on stiff copper bus-bars to run from the connector down to the board. There are just so many failure points that are carrying a pretty hefty amount of current (not just the bus bars). I'm also curious if the reference design is the same as the FE. Is this modular approach what they're going to push AIBs into, or will they be able to put everything on one board like usual?

The only thing that looks super robust here is that the 4-slot bracket is bolted thoroughly to the heat-sink frame, which will secure it in place pretty well. That said, I've seen a fair few cases out there with some pretty flimsy I/O panels after all the Swiss cheese ventilation they've added, so the weight might still be enough to pull on the whole panel lol.
Posted on Reply
#43
Kohl Baas
DavenYou might be the only one.
He is not. ;)
Posted on Reply
#44
evernessince
TheDeeGeeThere havn't been any fires, and no more further melting reports since people stopped using CableMod Adapters.
I think it was GamersNexus or HWUB that just did a report on it recently. A single repair shop that contracts with the board partners is still doing 200/month.

Mind you typically issues don't get much exposure beyond the first initial coverage. That's just how the media works in general. Some issues don't get picked up at all, like the fact that the 3080 and 3090 both feed noise back into the 12V Sense pin which causes issues on PSUs with sensitive protections.
Posted on Reply
#45
TheDeeGee
neatfeatguywww.techradar.com/computing/gpu/faulty-rtx-4090-connectors-are-still-burning-out-and-one-smart-solution-has-created-even-more-problems

Just because it's not a widely reported issue anymore doesn't mean it still isn't a problem, but then again, if you ask Nvidia they initially said it was user error.
I wonder if some PSU's just arn't up to the task, i consantly see people reporting 11.7 volts and lower.

My Seasonic PSU always sits around 12.1 - 12.2 volts for the 12VHPWR connector.

It could also be a shitty powergrid ofcourse.

That said the 12VHPWR cable is pretty much maxed out spec wise when running a 4090, so two connectors would fix it.
Posted on Reply
#46
GhostRyder
A GPU with separate boards for components is very interesting. This GPU seems like Nvidia is purposely limiting after market setups for cooling at least in the DIY space or at least making it much more difficult (I am sure there will be water blocks for it). I would be more curious if its possible to even save much space doing a water block on the design or if its purely for cooling power.

I feel like this card is going to make the 3090ti's power consumption look like child's play if this is how they are going about cooling it.
Posted on Reply
#47
Darmok N Jalad
VeseleilSince the introduction of a dual slot cards more than a decade ago, the standardized PCIe layout should've been changed, maybe the whole motherboard layout as well. But it didn't, so now we have this...
GPU was a lower power part blowing hot air to the higher power part, now it's vice versa.
I really do think they need to revise the specs if this is the trend. Perhaps redesign the board so that one x16 slot is above the CPU area, which could free up vertical space above the motherboard. Then it would just be a matter of the case supporting the dimensions of the card. They could even compartmentalize the GPU and CPU areas, allowing for independent airflow and cooling, better GPU and CPU cooler support, and better routing of power cables. They might even be able to do this without having to increase the overall case dimensions if they get creative with PSU placement.
Posted on Reply
#48
Jism
Its just rated for 600W of (air)cooling. A big base with strong fans.
Posted on Reply
#49
neatfeatguy
SaltmakerDo you still have the strength of a 8yr old virgin boy? That's always a nice addition to blaming nvidia for no fault of their own.
:cry:
Seems I hurt your personal feelings....

Posted on Reply
#50
boomheadshot8
Nice more GPUs cracked !!!
And manufacturers don't take responsabilities...:wtf:

Edit : why don"t they sell these big cards "bulk" with no heatsink at all and ppl buy watercooled plate witch is a lot lighter and effective
Posted on Reply
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