NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition Hands On, Taken Apart

[ZoneDymo]

Hint: where are the display ports?

I mean connected via a cable? same way they are on the founders edition?

 

[Gigaherz]

Quite the contrary, a small PCB is desirable and an engineering feat that took many many years to achieve.

Thats your interpretation/philosophy perhaps. I Prefer user modifieable designs way more over this. How am I supposed to voltmod that thing? Let alone put a better cooler ontop.

If Nvidia aims for something truly "remarkable" that actually benefits people, it should be affordability. We can use small pcbs for mobile devices. No need in Desktop space to make cards artificially harder to repair. Signal integrity is the only argument of yours I can agree on.

 

[Vya Domus]

Are they trying to make macs now?

That's exactly what they're doing, there's was a clear shift in their designs from around ~2016-2018, they're trying to copy Apple ranging from the aesthetics to the way this stuff is assembled/manufactured and various weird non standard layouts Apple loves to implement.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

This is a fantastic feat of engineering, I wish I could buy FE editions in South-Africa. Damn, this is just... awesome.

That explains the claim that the FE is the only card that works in "SFF" builds.

As far as I know AIB's will have different version for SFF, ASUS Prime being one example.

 

[Hereticbar]

There are in total 3 separate PCBs. One for the output ports and one for the PCI-E connector. And of course, the main PCB that we see in the pictures which has two connectors on the back to connect to the other PCBs by cable.

I think this interview done by PCWorld really helps to explain and understand why Nvidia designed the 50 series Founders Edition this way.

Nvidia Talks RTX 5090 Founders Edition Design

 

[Dr. Dro]

Thats your interpretation/philosophy perhaps. I Prefer user modifieable designs way more over this. How am I supposed to voltmod that thing? Let alone put a better cooler ontop.

If Nvidia aims for something truly "remarkable" that actually benefits people, it should be affordability. We can use small pcbs for mobile devices. No need in Desktop space to make cards artificially harder to repair. Signal integrity is the only argument of yours I can agree on.

It's not a matter of philosophy, just physics. And well... you're not supposed to. AIB cards should be easier to modify with their own PCB designs, though.

 

[Onasi]

Thats your interpretation/philosophy perhaps. I Prefer user modifieable designs way more over this. How am I supposed to voltmod that thing? Let alone put a better cooler ontop.

Do you actually, unironically think that NV should base their PCB design on the wants of 3.5 enthusiasts who would voltmod the card? Really? The FE has always been positioned as an, yes, Apple-esque plug and play solution. I am sure that a couple of AIBs will come up with over-designed cards specifically for extreme OC that would be more palatable to you, like what happened with the Matrix/Supreme, whatever. Hell, MSI is bringing Lightning back.

 

[Gigaherz]

Do you actually, unironically think that NV should base their PCB design on the wants of 3.5 enthusiasts who would voltmod the card? Really? The FE has always been positioned as an, yes, Apple-esque plug and play solution.

Well I wouldnt complain at least. And be honest, it wouldnt be a bad card. To me the founders edition was always the "reference" design with the cheapest pcb that everyone uses for waterblocks because it has the highest compatibility.

But go on, celebrate this developement further. F the enthousiasts!
The 7090 is just going to be a Geforce now Streaming device then. But I guess people will love it because it looks sleek. You will own nothing and be happy.

 

[Battler624]

But it has the same dimensions? 304mm in length and 137mm width; only the height is different, 48mm (RTX 5090 FE) vs 61mm (RTX 4090 FE). I assume it looks and feels bigger due to it being thinner?

its 40mm according to nvidia sff-ready page

NVIDIA

GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition

137 x 304 x 40

90 & 80 are the same, the 3070 is even smaller at 112 x 242 x 40.
The 4090 is like you said at 61mm

 

[Onasi]

To me the founders edition was always the "reference" design with the cheapest pcb that everyone uses for waterblocks because it has the highest compatibility.

You might’ve just not paid attention - the FE has been getting more and more elaborate with NV experimenting with PCB layouts and cooling since Ampere. It was not really a “reference” design for a while now - how many AIB cards have you seen based on those PCBs, at least in the higher end SKUs?

But go on, celebrate this developement further. F the enthousiasts!

Honestly, this is childish. An actual enthusiast will look at the 5090 FE design and be impressed by just how space efficient it is. Going “but muh shunt mods!” is something that almost nobody actually gives a fuck about. And, frankly, never did. None of the big HW vendors actually ever cared one whit about “enthusiasts”.

 

[Hecate91]

Well I wouldnt complain at least. And be honest, it wouldnt be a bad card. To me the founders edition was always the "reference" design with the cheapest pcb that everyone uses for waterblocks because it has the highest compatibility.

But go on, celebrate this developement further. F the enthousiasts!
The 7090 is just going to be a Geforce now Streaming device then. But I guess people will love it because it looks sleek. You will own nothing and be happy.

The FE cards haven't been for enthusiasts since the GTX 10 series which you could easily put a water block on. But yes I agree they are very much trying to copy Apple, especially with the way it is designed with the screws hidden, IMO no product designed for desktop pc's should have hidden screws.

 

[Blueberries]

These are going to be in high demand for SFF enthusiasts. I'm curious to see what kind of aftermarket solutions people come up with to cool these.

 

[Gigaherz]

The FE cards haven't been for enthusiasts since the GTX 10 series which you could easily put a water block on.

*Sigh* yes my latest FE is in fact a Titan XP. Shunt modded and with a Waterblock Thing draws 600W+ hehe.
Even if people think its childish I doubt anyone gets as much joy from an Apple like experience compared to that.

 

[windwhirl]

wow looks like its impossible to make a waterblock for it

Use immersion cooling, there's your liquid cooling

 

[londiste]

Well I wouldnt complain at least. And be honest, it wouldnt be a bad card. To me the founders edition was always the "reference" design with the cheapest pcb that everyone uses for waterblocks because it has the highest compatibility.

But Nvidia has been pretty clear on the fact that Founder's Edition deviates from the whole idea of reference design card from their own name. They still do have a reference design and AIBs will have cards based on that - especially on less expensive end - but FE is not a reference.

 

[bug]

Thats your interpretation/philosophy perhaps. I Prefer user modifieable designs way more over this. How am I supposed to voltmod that thing? Let alone put a better cooler ontop.

Gotta leave something for the AIB partners. RIght?

 

[Outback Bronze]

An actual enthusiast will look at the 5090 FE design and be impressed

Shit, I must be an enthusiast then. I was quite gob smacked by how small that design actually is for the punch it's going to output with all 32GB attached!

 

[ishank1995]

To me the founders edition was always the "reference" design with the cheapest pcb that everyone uses for waterblocks because it has the highest compatibility.

Good sir, you are still living in the pre-1080ti days it seems

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

This is ridicioulous. Chip needs a proper card. Are they trying to make macs now?

I was actually thinking it looked like an Apple product as well, a bit like the trash can Mac Pro with its custom GPUs and a CPU riser. Honestly it doesn't bother me though, and I'm actually impressed that they've been able to shrink the PCB of these modern massive GPUs as much as they have. I don't just mean the 5090, but most cards aren't much longer than the PCIe slot anymore. The crazy part is how massive the coolers are getting.

 

[LittleBro]

Because they did not do the complete tear down?

There was a pic of PCB, my question was why there was not pic of that what was left. No complete teardown required. Nevermind.

Still looks a bit thin to me. Especially when you compare it with 4090 FE cooler and 5090 has +125W on top of 4090.
RTX 4090 has much more beefier cooler. Let's see how this RTX 5090 FE fares in terms of fan noise and temps.

 

[londiste]

RTX 4090 has much more beefier cooler. Let's see how this RTX 5090 FE fares in terms of fan noise and temps.

I think you are underestimating the efficiency boost from the flowthrough setup. We saw some of that in previous generation. Even discounting the genuinely strange deal with FE fans flowing in different directions AIB cards often have the cooler overhanging the end of the card and one fan flowing through it. It does seem to help a lot when compared to fan blowing through radiator onto the card.

 

[freeagent]

Not understanding the hate, this PCB is amazing. This layout is how you can tell they have their shit together.

 

[Asni]

If the cooler works properly, both temperature and noise wise, this is a great idea.
If it doesn't, you just added 2 variables (pci-ex and i/o cables) to the mix.

To me its finned heatsink looks undersized for 575w.
Also, cpu air cooling could be seriously affected by this design.

 

[rv8000]

I think you are underestimating the efficiency boost from the flowthrough setup. We saw some of that in previous generation. Even discounting the genuinely strange deal with FE fans flowing in different directions AIB cards often have the cooler overhanging the end of the card and one fan flowing through it. It does seem to help a lot when compared to fan blowing through radiator onto the card.

The flow through design doesn’t help THAT much, it’s in the realm of 5c. Just the overall mass loss of heatsink is questionable. I have a feeling FE will either run well below 575w in stock/normal conditions, or AIB cards will really be able to stretch their legs under water.

 

[bug]

If the cooler works properly, both temperature and noise wise, this is a great idea.
If it doesn't, you just added 2 variables (pci-ex and i/o cables) to the mix.

To me its finned heatsink looks undersized for 575w.

A sign that the design works, maybe?

Also, cpu air cooling could be seriously affected by this design.

Ada cards had through airflow, too. The additional hole will blow hot air behind the CPU.