Thursday, January 9th 2025
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition Hands On, Taken Apart
At the 2025 International CES, we went hands on with the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition "Blackwell" graphics card. This thing is huge—longer and taller than the RTX 4090 FE, and yet just 2 slots thick. This is because NVIDIA's designers have figured out that the heat dissipation area of the heatsink lost to thinning the card can be recovered by stretching it in other directions. The card retains the essential aesthetic of Founders Edition cards from the past two generations going back to the RTX 30-series, but changes the concept of the dual-axial flow-through.
While past generations used an intake fan on one side, blowing onto the PCB, and another fan at the tail end of the backplate pull air through the heatsink and out the back, the RTX 5090 FE has two large fans, both of which blow cold air through the heatsink, and out the back of the card. The PCB is located in the center of the card, and relies on a set of breakout PCBs for host interface and display outputs.
The biggest component on the PCB, which takes up nearly 1/3 of its board area, is the "GB202" GPU on which the RTX 5090 is based. The GPU has a gigantic pin-count not just for its power needs, but its 512-bit GDDR7 memory interface. At one corner of the PCB, which sticks out from the top of the cooler, is the card's 12V2x6 power input, which is rated for 600 W (we don't know the TGP of the RTX 5090 yet).
The card uses a VRM solution with 19 phases for the VGPU, and 8 phases for the memory. Much like an AI GPU board, NVIDIA resorted to high-density PCB engineering, not wasting any space on either sides of the PCB. The chokes and DRMOS (made by MPS) are on the obverse side, surrounding the GPU on three sides; and the capacitors are on the reverse side.
The reverse side of the PCB has connectors that lead to its two breakout components. The first one connects to a PCB with the PCI-Express 5.0 x16 gold fingers. The other connector leads to the display I/O breakout. Both connections are made using thin ribbon cables like the ones you find in laptops, and routed along the edges of the cooler, so as not to impede airflow.
While past generations used an intake fan on one side, blowing onto the PCB, and another fan at the tail end of the backplate pull air through the heatsink and out the back, the RTX 5090 FE has two large fans, both of which blow cold air through the heatsink, and out the back of the card. The PCB is located in the center of the card, and relies on a set of breakout PCBs for host interface and display outputs.
The card uses a VRM solution with 19 phases for the VGPU, and 8 phases for the memory. Much like an AI GPU board, NVIDIA resorted to high-density PCB engineering, not wasting any space on either sides of the PCB. The chokes and DRMOS (made by MPS) are on the obverse side, surrounding the GPU on three sides; and the capacitors are on the reverse side.
The reverse side of the PCB has connectors that lead to its two breakout components. The first one connects to a PCB with the PCI-Express 5.0 x16 gold fingers. The other connector leads to the display I/O breakout. Both connections are made using thin ribbon cables like the ones you find in laptops, and routed along the edges of the cooler, so as not to impede airflow.
88 Comments on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition Hands On, Taken Apart
A waterblock can just be a huge square that mostly envelops the main board.
This is just the founders though, AIB partners will prob still have the usual suspect PCB.
Skip to thermal testing and notice the difference in comparison to 4090 FE. Then you'll probably understand why they designed 5090 they way they did.
I'll buy a 5090 too myself, just to dismantle it and take pics, count on me i'm on it.
EDIT: the SSD edition so that it can handle new MS Recall perfectly, yes.