Friday, May 24th 2024

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

May 24th, 2024 00:19 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)

Add your own comment

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

#76

ypsylon

IMHO such cards should never leave the factory without waterblock installed or with minimum 360 AIO included.

Sure I understand guys without the loop, but 600W is not easy task to tame with two fans no matter how quickly you will spin them in such tight space. Even if you put two 120x60mm thick Delta fans - physics still applies, and those Delta fans will use like 120W alone...

Anyway, leaving the cooling aside. Why nVidia still persist with this stupid placement of power connector? Couldn't they simply put it on short edge (like in servers) and then use short extension cable between PCB plug and short edge of radiator. It's not that hard - just need to cut few square centimeters of fins in the radiator. That connector is literally in the worst, hottest place possible. Why burn-ins of infinitely more powerful GPUs (1kW+) never happen in servers - exactly because GPU power connector is on the short edge (or on the riser) and power cable comes always straight from the front without unnecessary pressure put on the plug or connector.

#77

Godrilla

Didn't the 4090ti concept leak 2 of those 12v connectors? With one connector the current 4090 designs should suffice in terms of cooling. The throttle monster is missing a libm. Maximum Facepalm!

#78

TechLurker

Meh, I'll wait until we get another 5-slotter like the China-only Colorful KUDANs, or even their hilariously experimental 6 slot all-passive cooler variant, but as standard.

They better be able to also fit some NVMe drives onto the GPUs too, the way AMD does with their Radeon Pro SSD GPUs.

#79

pumero

The industry should start moving "consumer" GPUs to the same socketed system they are using for all those HPC stuff, much like a CPU.
BTX had the right ideas regarding cooling, it was just too early and badly received in the consumer space, since motherboards were lacking and the need to purchase a new chassis was not very appealing either.

#80

chrcoluk

Ridiculous, we need back down to 1-2 slots not a GPU that takes over the case, so given Nvidia seem incapable of dropping their power heat requirements probably need to make water block as standard now for any card that cant be cooled by dual slot air cooler.

I also think they likely overkill and not even needed, my RTX 3080 is dual slot, and I have never seen it over 50C in any game. Loads of head room there.

#81

freeagent

I do not want a 2 slot card though :D

Those FE cards must be magic :cool:

#82

HOkay

Kohl BaasHe is not. ;)

Right there with you guys! Assuming the price to performance is the same or better than the 4090 then I'll be eyeing one up just for the funsies! I do have a custom loop, though I could never be bothered to get a block for my 4090. I would probably need to for this, but then I wouldn't have the show piece crazy air cooler...ah we'll just have to see!

#83

wheresmycar

I'm not sure why some are less than intrigued. Its a nice SFF case. Question now is will it fit a GPU?

#84

Zareek

FoulOnWhite:laugh:

These are for riche rich types, not sure they will care about cost or power use, only will it fit in their case.

While I agree with you, one of my buddies sons was entertaining a $2800 Alienware with a 4090. He's a college kid with a credit card who works part-time. I guess he'd rather drive a POS car and have a fast gaming rig. He's primarily a console gamer who's had access to his dad's rig and got hooked. He wants to play games like Elden Ring (no RT) at 1080p high quality, I explained to him how much the 4090 was overkill unless he wanted to play at 4K or with RT on. For him, 30-60 FPS console gaming is smooth. My point is some of these are going to kids who can't afford it, but the sales person talks them into it.

#85

lexluthermiester

btarunrThis 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.

Um. No.

btarunrThere is a fourth disaggregated component, the 12V-2x6 receptacle, located somewhere along the top of the cooling solution.

And at nearly 750W to possibly 900W of power draw?!? HELL no.

I'm beginning to think microsoft aren't the only ones to have lost their minds...

No Thanks Jensen. Not in my home.

#86

SOAREVERSOR

pumeroThe industry should start moving "consumer" GPUs to the same socketed system they are using for all those HPC stuff, much like a CPU.
BTX had the right ideas regarding cooling, it was just too early and badly received in the consumer space, since motherboards were lacking and the need to purchase a new chassis was not very appealing either.

Consumers are already upset about costs now. Moving to a higher cost system will cause more crying.

The only solution for consumers is going to be renting from a cloud service. PC gaming will go first.

#87

Godrilla

SOAREVERSORConsumers are already upset about costs now. Moving to a higher cost system will cause more crying.

The only solution for consumers is going to be renting from a cloud service. PC gaming will go first.

The whales that are willing to buy a enthusiast level card are definitely shrinking and limited in scope. I forsee some enthusiasts waiting for rdna5 for a market correction.

#88

AusWolf

It's funny that no one had any problem with a quad-SLI setup that occupied all space on an e-ATX board back in the days, but a 4-slot 5090, which is essentially the same thing without the horrible software adaptations, is suddenly a bad thing. No one has to spend 2 grand on a GPU that takes all space in your case while it heats your house. x60-class GPUs still exist for people with a reality check.

#89

HOkay

You know, years ago I used to long for high wattage cards as to me it was obvious they could make so much more performant cards if they just stopped limiting themselves by having such conservative power limits. Well, careful what you wish for :D even I have to admit that 600W might be getting a bit close to going too far!

#90

64K

This will not be the first time we've seen a card with outrageous power draw. Remember the dual GPU R9 295X2? That card drew 500 watts average in gaming and a whopping 646 watts running Furmark on a test here. It only had two 8pin power connectors too. That rated it for only 375 watts including the PCIe slot.

#91

neatfeatguy

AusWolfIt's funny that no one had any problem with a quad-SLI setup that occupied all space on an e-ATX board back in the days, but a 4-slot 5090, which is essentially the same thing without the horrible software adaptations, is suddenly a bad thing. No one has to spend 2 grand on a GPU that takes all space in your case while it heats your house. x60-class GPUs still exist for people with a reality check.

Quad-SLI was bragging rights. Quad-SLI was extreme enthusiasts to benchmarking bragging rights. Quad-SLI had very poor scaling, making it almost pointless over tri-SLI which wasn't much better at times over two cards in SLI. I don't see a 4 slot 5090 being much different other than the fact you'd probably spend less on a single card over 4 top end cards (from the SLI era), it's more of a high-end enthusiast purchase.

Let us not forget that those folks that did go for quad-sli they went that route and built their system to house that many cards. Now if someone wants a 5090 they may have to rethink their build just to fit it if it is indeed 4 slots wide.

#92

rrussell263

I think they're basically using the SXM2 style of PCB, that way they can shift manufacturing to cut costs. Its not coincidence that the size is similar if not the same. They'll probably use a breakout board for the PCIe connection.

#93

Prima.Vera

I see so much hate here. The card is small. Is actually very small. For a car radiator.

#94

ratirt

AusWolfIt's funny that no one had any problem with a quad-SLI setup that occupied all space on an e-ATX board back in the days, but a 4-slot 5090, which is essentially the same thing without the horrible software adaptations, is suddenly a bad thing. No one has to spend 2 grand on a GPU that takes all space in your case while it heats your house. x60-class GPUs still exist for people with a reality check.

Now you know why SLI is no longer a thing, when you can get a card that sucks 600Watts alone and is 4 slot design. :)

#95

jonny2772

I see this is the new way Jensen found to keep AI lab hobbyists from using consumer cards. Make them so ridiculously humongous that they block all other pci-e slots and stop them from stacking more cards together.

#96

Kohl Baas

ratirtNow you know why SLI is no longer a thing, when you can get a card that sucks 600Watts alone and is 4 slot design. :)

Actually it's the other way around: these 600W 4 slot single card solutions exist because SLI is no longer a thing.

I might remember wrong but AFAIK the SLI/CF died because newer post-process solutions were incompatible with the way multi-card systems worked.

#97

ratirt

Kohl BaasActually it's the other way around: these 600W 4 slot single card solutions exist because SLI is no longer a thing.

I might remember wrong but AFAIK the SLI/CF died because newer post-process solutions were incompatible with the way multi-card systems worked.

I think they exist because manufacturers are sloppy and it is easier and cheaper to stuff a card with more power and get better results in general. Plus, the hunger for more performance nowadays is sky-rocketing so even if innovated and better, power will go up because the performance is not enough. Or, it is simply for, who is going to have the fastest card in the market and companies squeeze as much as possible from the architecture which is boosting power consumption. I really don't think absence of SLI has a lot to do with 4 slots cards sucking 600Watts.

#98

starystarego

Will it fit, waterblocked, in meshroom S double rad 280? Do we have true believers here? (or they all playing tarkov)

#99

boomheadshot8

Did nvvidia make these for the card ?

#100

Shtb

Complicated design - a good thing*.
* increased likelihood of breaking, and then there's your next trip to the shop, because, you know, "The more you buy..."

Add your own comment

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

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

Latest GPU Drivers

New Forum Posts

Popular Reviews

Controversial News Posts

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

Related News

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

Latest GPU Drivers

New Forum Posts

Popular Reviews

Controversial News Posts