EK Launches EK-Pro GPU Water Block for NVIDIA RTX 4090 WindForce V2

[btarunr]

EK, the leading computer cooling solutions provider, is introducing the EK-Pro GPU WB RTX 4090 WindForce V2 - Nickel + Inox, an enterprise-grade full-cover water block designed specifically for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 WindForce V2 24G graphics card. The water block features a CNC-machined nickel-plated copper base paired with a precision laser-cut stainless-steel top, ensuring both durability and superior liquid cooling efficiency. It fully covers and cools the GPU, VRAM, and VRM components by directing the cooling liquid over these essential areas to efficiently dissipate heat.

Utilizing the Open Split-Flow cooling engine design, this water block delivers exceptional cooling performance. It boasts minimal hydraulic flow restriction, making it compatible with lower-powered water pumps or those running at reduced speeds without compromising efficiency. The jet plate and fin structure geometry are meticulously optimized to ensure uniform flow distribution with minimal loss, achieving optimal cooling efficiency. Remarkably, this water block maintains outstanding cooling performance even when the water flow is reversed, consistently surpassing expectations. It also features a single-slot I/O bracket.



Machining Composition of EK-Pro Water Blocks
The EK-Pro GPU WB RTX 4090 WindForce V2 water block is specifically engineered to enhance integration and stability. It spans the entire length of the PCB and includes a black anodized aluminium retention backplate that improves structural rigidity while providing passive cooling for the backside of the PCB, effectively cooling both the VRAM and the VRM.

The connection terminal for G ¼" fittings is located on the front side of the water block, enabling optimal loop installation in restricted spaces. This feature makes it an excellent choice for high compute-density applications.

Compatibility
Compatibility-wise, the EK-Pro GPU WB RTX 4090 WindForce V2 - Nickel + Inox is compatible with the following GPU:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 WindForce V2 24G
For accurate compatibility information, it is recommended to use the EK Cooling Configurator, which is regularly updated to verify and add compatible graphics cards.

Availability and Pricing
The EK-Pro GPU WB RTX 4090 WindForce V2 - Nickel + Inox water block is available for order through the EK Webshop and partner resellers.

MSRP: 293.90€. For more information, and to order, visit this page.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Vayra86]

300 euro for a slab of metal. Mhm. Oh no wait, its 293,90, so 300 incl shipping.

 

[LabRat 891]

Issues w/ EK aside...

I find the use of the "Inox" marketing, intriguing.
I haven't seen that precise term used on internationally-sold products much outside of Beretta/firearms manufacturers.
[can't help but wonder if that's on-purpose? At least in the past, casually alluding to another 'cool' product, has been a marketing strategy]

300 euro for a slab of metal. Mhm. Oh no wait, its 293,90, so 300 incl shipping.

To be fair, it's meant to mount a top a well north of $1k Video Card. I think they have an idea of their 'market'.

 

[overclockedamd]

To be fair, it's meant to mount a top a well north of $1k Video Card.

For the low low price of 2200 euro you to can own a water cooled 4090. Or build an entire PC with peripherals for less. I know which I would choose.

 

[LabRat 891]

For the low low price of 2200 euro you to can own a water cooled 4090. Or build an entire PC with peripherals for less. I know which I would chose.

Oh, 9001% agreed.

However, if I were a 'media professional' that made money based on how fast I can complete a project, I'd not be so 'concerned' with the price. Esp. if I know in 1-3 years I'll have to be shelling out big $$$ again, for 'competent' performance in my field.

Ex: IIRC, both 'studios' and 'contractors' use top-end nV cards for Unreal Engine media productions.
Depending on the pay, a $2k+ 'GPU setup' might be cost-effective (and headache-saving).

 

[MDWiley]

Seems lately like they’re trying to drown out their bad publicity with social media promos and acting like it never happened. As usual, the price is way out of line.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

Issues w/ EK aside...

I find the use of the "Inox" marketing, intriguing.
I haven't seen that precise term used on internationally-sold products much outside of Beretta/firearms manufacturers.
[can't help but wonder if that's on-purpose? At least in the past, casually alluding to another 'cool' product, has been a marketing strategy]


To be fair, it's meant to mount a top a well north of $1k Video Card. I think they have an idea of their 'market'.

"InOx" is just what they call stainless steel in Europe. I used to finish stainless steel and my tools from Fein and Pferd always referred to stainless as "inox" (it's from the French "inoxydable")

Funny thing is that they charge more for these cards when for all intents and purposes they should be cheaper without the acrylic, right?

 

[Vya Domus]

To be fair, it's meant to mount a top a well north of $1k Video Card. I think they have an idea of their 'market'.

Nah, it's still inexcusable. At the end of the day they're all made out of the same copper/plastic/acrylic and perform within margin of error, absolutely nothing extra or special.

 

[HBSound]

Besides the cost, the EK Pro GPU coolers stand out for their exceptional quality. I currently use one and have never encountered any issues with the product. or quality of the product. It would be fantastic if they extended their product line to include models like the A2 ADA!

 

[Ruru]

For the low low price of 2200 euro you to can own a water cooled 4090. Or build an entire PC with peripherals for less. I know which I would choose.

For those who have the cash to buy a 2KEUR+ card, paying premium for a model with a preinstalled block shouldn't be a problem at all.

 

[kapone32]

Besides the cost, the EK Pro GPU coolers stand out for their exceptional quality. I currently use one and have never encountered any issues with the product. or quality of the product. It would be fantastic if they extended their product line to include models like the A2 ADA!

I hear you but unfortunately my EK block is the only one that blew a gasket and looked like Niagara Falls at night. I have blocks from Alphacool and Byiski that have never done that. I also noticed that my EK block had some particulate matter inside as well. It was noticed on TPU when I posted the picture. At least this one is not $400 US like the last one they released for the 4090.

For those who have the cash to buy a 2KEUR+ card, paying premium for a model with a preinstalled block shouldn't be a problem at all.

Just buy the card with the block applied if that is the case. At least you won't void your warranty.

 

[Ruru]

Just buy the card with the block applied if that is the case. At least you won't void your warranty.

That's what I meant, maybe I just said it weirdly.

 

[Flyordie]

And here I am still sitting with a $525 Vega64 XTX. Liquid cooler still works like a charm. lol

I understand prices have gone up but omg.. GPUs these days are ridiculously overpriced for what they have tech wise.

 

[L'Eliminateur]

Issues w/ EK aside...

I find the use of the "Inox" marketing, intriguing.
I haven't seen that precise term used on internationally-sold products much outside of Beretta/firearms manufacturers.
[can't help but wonder if that's on-purpose? At least in the past, casually alluding to another 'cool' product, has been a marketing strategy]


To be fair, it's meant to mount a top a well north of $1k Video Card. I think they have an idea of their 'market'.

INOX is "inoxidable" in spanish, which is stainless steel

 

[zo0lykas]

And here I am still sitting with a $525 Vega64 XTX. Liquid cooler still works like a charm. lol

I understand prices have gone up but omg.. GPUs these days are ridiculously overpriced for what they have tech wise.

There is no such thing as vega64 XTX

I remember back in days when I was build water cooling PC - r9 290 water block was 70 quid, and back plate 19 quid, yes I talk about EK blocks, and after upgrading to vega64 water block was around 90-95, that was last time I when for water block.. i really don't pay 300 quid for water block! even if I have sh*t load of money, that doesn't make any sense..

 

[Vayra86]

Issues w/ EK aside...

I find the use of the "Inox" marketing, intriguing.
I haven't seen that precise term used on internationally-sold products much outside of Beretta/firearms manufacturers.
[can't help but wonder if that's on-purpose? At least in the past, casually alluding to another 'cool' product, has been a marketing strategy]


To be fair, it's meant to mount a top a well north of $1k Video Card. I think they have an idea of their 'market'.

I'm sure they do.

EK Issues Official Statement Acknowledging Past Issues, Plans Corrective Actions - ekwb.com

In light of recent video content by different media outlets and overall public sentiment concerning the company's operations, EK takes the situation very seriously. EK's founder and CEO, Edvard König, issued the following statement.

www.ekwb.com

'There is still a long way to go'

I think the overall sentiment wrt EK is that they've been misfiring for quite a while now, and the price of their products is certainly in that category. Let's hope it was a crisis/covid related thing that they're turning around. But part of that turnaround must be in price.

There is no such thing as vega64 XTX

I remember back in days when I was build water cooling PC - r9 290 water block was 70 quid, and back plate 19 quid, yes I talk about EK blocks, and after upgrading to vega64 water block was around 90-95, that was last time I when for water block.. i really don't pay 300 quid for water block! even if I have sh*t load of money, that doesn't make any sense..

Exactly. Its a slab of metal, no matter how pretty you do the marketing around it. At some point you've just crossed the line towards being for the upper segment only, and you'll lose the mass market. Nobody can explain why EKWB is the optimal choice for its price today. They're not better, but they are more expensive.

 

[Ruru]

Exactly. Its a slab of metal, no matter how pretty you do the marketing around it. At some point you've just crossed the line towards being for the upper segment only, and you'll lose the mass market. Nobody can explain why EKWB is the optimal choice for its price today. They're not better, but they are more expensive.

I somewhat understand high prices of fullcover blocks if they're made separately for a separate model (not reference cards) but I totally agree that their pricing is just beyond insane these days.

 

[Flyordie]

There is no such thing as vega64 XTX

Yea, there is. I'm looking at it right now... Note the name in the bootup section?

 

[Dr. Dro]

For the low low price of 2200 euro you to can own a water cooled 4090. Or build an entire PC with peripherals for less. I know which I would choose.

An entire PC is of no use to someone who already has a great system and needs a high-end video card, so apples to oranges.

Yea, there is. I'm looking at it right now... Note the name in the bootup section?

This is simply the denomination of a fully enabled Vega 10 core. The Frontier uses the same chip of my WX9100 and they're crossflashable for example.

 

[Vayra86]

I somewhat understand high prices of fullcover blocks if they're made separately for a separate model (not reference cards) but I totally agree that their pricing is just beyond insane these days.

Sure! I too see that this is low volume stuff. But at the same time EK is a business that can design those rather quickly.

 

[Remeca]

"EK, the leading computer cooling solutions provider"

I don't know who made this assertion, but I dispute it.

 

[b1k3rdude]

May I ask WTF are TPU reviewing anything made by EK? when other outlets have stopped working with them in light of the employee abuse and finanacial illigalities...

 

[Solaris17]

May I ask WTF are TPU reviewing anything made by EK? when other outlets have stopped working with them in light of the employee abuse and finanacial illigalities...

t-this...isnt a review?

 

[Flyordie]

This is simply the denomination of a fully enabled Vega 10 core. The Frontier uses the same chip of my WX9100 and they're crossflashable for example.

Then why does Vega64 Air BIOS have Vega64 XT while the LC versions have XTX? The cores on the XTX cards are binned better as they have to be able to hit 1,750Mhz on their core minimum. (Mine does 1,820Mhz albeit at over 400W)

WX9100 only uses the Vega10 nameplate. Doesn't use the XTX nameplate in its BIOS.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Then why does Vega64 Air BIOS have Vega64 XT while the LC versions have XTX? The cores on the XTX cards are binned better as they have to be able to hit 1,750Mhz on their core minimum. (Mine does 1,820Mhz albeit at over 400W)

WX9100 only uses the Vega10 nameplate. Doesn't use the XTX nameplate in its BIOS.

I believe this has something to do with whether they are limited edition or standard Vega 64's instead of whether they're air or liquid cooling. Air-cooled XTXs will have "Vega10 A1 XTX AIR" in the BIOS and the liquid cooled ones will be identified as "Vega10 A1 XTX LCS" in the same string. In any case, my old blue air-cooled Frontier had a Vega 10 XTX core, I remember it well.

The air-cooled and liquid-cooled variants only had differences in their TDP and temperature limits, with the Air cards having a lower TDP and higher temp limit, and Liquid cards having a higher TDP and lower temp limit. To the best of my knowledge, AIB Vega 64 GPUs usually had the Vega 10 XT core installed.

There's a curiosity you might want to play with sometime, a peculiar BIOS was made for Vega 64 cards that converts them into an 8 GB Frontier Edition, I believe this was created for AMD's driver quality assurance department because the company did not provide their own developers and driver engineers with any real Vega FE samples to develop the drivers against. No wonder they were so bloody awful. I helped them fix sooooo many bugs on the Frontier back in the day, and past a point they just stopped caring - and that was also around the time I started to lose interest and faith in Radeon. If you're interested in trying it, someone leaked it on TPU years ago:

AMD Vega Frontier Edition VBIOS

8 GB HBM2, 1500 MHz GPU, 945 MHz Memory

www.techpowerup.com

Vega10 A1 XT AIR D05011 8GB 852e/945m 1.0V SWQA