3D Vapour chamber in new NVidia RTX 5000 cards - what is it?

[BoggledBeagle]

Huang mentioned a 3D vapour chamber for their FE edition of RTX 5000 cards in the keynote yesterday, is there any info anywhere how does the chamber look like and how it works?

If must perform well when they can afford to make a 600W card so small.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Not sure where the 3D comes into it but the link below gives an explanation of what it is and how it works, a decade plus ago Sapphire were using them in their top end VapourX and Toxic graphics card models, although I am guessing these will be modified/improved upon for 2025, you will need to scroll down a bit as this piece discusses different types of graphic card coolers ...............

Vapor Chamber, Downdraft and Blower Style Graphics Card Cooling – Explained

 

[Dristun]

Simply put it's like a standard vapor chamber that's been around for ages but now it's bigger and could be bent into various different shapes to suit the cooling needs. You can also think of it as vapor chamber/heat pipe hybrid that's going through the entire finstack, as opposed to it being a smallish chamber sitting on top of the chip that's touching traditional heat pipes that then go through the finstack.

 

[nomdeplume]

although I am guessing these will be modified/improved upon for 2025

FWIW the comment about how they made a 600w card so small was equally hard to look past.

 

[eidairaman1]

Marketing name

 

[Hankieroseman]

Huang mentioned a 3D vapour chamber for their FE edition of RTX 5000 cards in the keynote yesterday, is there any info anywhere how does the chamber look like and how it works?

If must perform well when they can afford to make a 600W card so small.

Paul's Hardware on youtube showed a diagram of what it looks like. Mighta been Gamer's Nexus

 

[BoggledBeagle]

Marketing name

I think it may be more interesting than that. I remember the GN video with Nvidia cooling designer and I believe that the vapour chamber they developed for 5090 could be interesting in some aspect.

 

[N/A]

the fans are not obstructed by the PCB, anymore

 

[Hankieroseman]

IF you can make them out from the photo, a ROG Strix RTX4090 Vapor Chamber

 

[BoggledBeagle]

the fans are not obstructed by the PCB, anymore

View attachment 378801

Thanks, that is what I have been looking for!




So the design is really interesting:

Beside the optimised structure of support and support/fluid transport pillars they also integrated the heatpipes into the chamber. It is no longer a vapour chamber with some heatpipes slapped on top of it, as it is common novadays. It also seems that they put some extra wick material to the transition of the tubes in the chamber to help the fluid flow.

This seems like a good bit of engineering, I am starting to feel sorry for myself that these FE cards probably will not be sold on our market and that at the moment I should not spend so much money on a thing that I do not really need.

 

[Vya Domus]

So the design is really interesting:

Beside the optimised structure of support and support/fluid transport pillars they also integrated the heatpipes into the chamber. It is no longer a vapour chamber with some heatpipes slapped on top of it, as it is common novadays. It also seems that they put some extra wick material to the transition of the tubes in the chamber to help the fluid flow.

This seems like a good bit of engineering, I am starting to feel sorry for myself that these FE cards probably will not be sold on our market and that at the moment I should not spend so much money on a thing that I do not really need.

It's just what a regular vapor chamber looks like :

Whether you attach the heat pipes on top or by the side it's the same thing.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

It's just what a regular vapor chamber looks like :
View attachment 378805

Whether you attach the heat pipes on top or by the side it's the same thing.

No, it is not the same thing. The 5090 has the same fluid running in the chamber and in the heatpipes. The heapipes are an extention of the chamber. I even believe that you formally canot call them heatpipes. They are just tubular extentions of the chamber. The whole thing is ONE fluid/vapour system.

The traditional design is a separate chamber with a bunch of heatpipes soldered on top of it. A vapor chamber with 8 heatpipes are total of 9 SEPARATE fluid/vapour systems.

I am looking forward to learn how it performs, it could perform really well.

 

[Vya Domus]

No, it is not the same thing. The 5090 has the same fluid running in the chamber and in the heatpipes. The heapipes are an extention of the chamber.

Whether the vapor chamber spans the entire cooler or if it has heat pipes like that it's more or less the same thing, the chambers aren't separate it's still one continuous vapor chamber, the 2000 series and 7000 series from AMD also used one big vapor chamber as well :

It's the same thing just shaped differently for the air to pass through.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

Whether the vapor chamber spans the entire cooler or if it has heat pipes like that it's more or less the same thing, the chambers aren't separate it's still one continuous vapor chamber, the 2000 series and 7000 series from AMD also used one big vapor chamber as well :

View attachment 378807

It's the same thing just shaped different for the air to pass through.

Wow, I had no idea, this is a huge chamber with fins attached to it!

BTW the design I mentioned: smaller vapour chamber with heatpipes soldered onto it is what is used on most 4090 cards.

 

[rusty caterpillar]

The new 5000 series PCB is smaller but, small can be disadvantageous, proximity heat with all components being more crammed.
The only advantage of small PCB is that the whole PCB can be connected to a cold plate but, than, as we seen before, manufacturers will cheap out and only GPU will have prolly a cold plate while the VRAM and PWR will prolly share another thin silly plate with not enough contact to the radiator.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

The new 5000 series PCB is smaller but, small can be disadvantageous, proximity heat with all components being more crammed.
The only advantage of small PCB is that the whole PCB can be connected to a cold plate but, than, as we seen before, manufacturers will cheap out and only GPU will have prolly a cold plate while the VRAM and PWR will prolly share another thin silly plate with not enough contact to the radiator.

The very small PCB is probably just for FE cards. Normal cards will have larger normal PCBs.

 

[Zyll Goliat]

I don't know I always preferred bigger solid cooler over the vapor chamber....I know that you getting smaller size but also they are not that much reliable they could have micro rupture in transportation or if they fall.....

 

[Godrilla]

Close up video at CES talking about the PCB

also clocks if they weren't already mentioned.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 release date, price, and specs https://search.app/gu9qCaDroSXaawZY8

 

[Chomiq]

CoolerMaster in 2015:

 

[PerfectWave]

in 2026 nvidia will introduce 4d vapor chamber LUL

 

[BoggledBeagle]

CoolerMaster in 2015:
View attachment 379190

If I remember correctly, these were chamber extentions with rectangular crossection, a newly developed extentions after 10 years will surely have at least the same performance?

What is the model of this CPU cooler and what power could it cool?

Nvidia chamber has 10 of these extentions.

 

[Godrilla]

Sorry but some believe Nvidia's claims at face value, I need something more concrete. Can someone explain how this will not throttle in a small form factor case using 575 watts? They haven't mentioned anything about actual thermals or temperature in real world performance. Unless this will use significantly less power and is not rated for 575 watts dissipation.

 

[Zazigalka]

Marketing name

Exactly
There are things that are vapour chambers and there are things that are not vapour chambers. There are no other things. This is a vapour chamber. My dog isn't a vapour chamber.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

Sorry but some believe Nvidia's claims at face value, I need something more concrete. Can someone explain how this will not throttle in a small form factor case using 575 watts? They haven't mentioned anything about actual thermals or temperature in real world performance. Unless this will use significantly less power and is not rated for 575 watts dissipation.

The cooler itself may be capable of cooling 1000W.

Providing good enough airflow to cool 600W is the problem the user needs to deal with.

When the card is small - it is a benefit for the user, it does not mean if forces consumers to put it in small badly ventilated cases.

Frankly I have difficulty to understand what is your problem...

 

[Godrilla]

The cooler itself may be capable of cooling 1000W.

Providing good enough airflow to cool 600W is the problem the user needs to deal with.

When the card is small - it is a benefit for the user, it does not mean if forces consumers to put it in small badly ventilated cases.

Frankly I have difficulty to understand what is your problem...

My concern is it doesn't add up. I guess we'll have to see on January 30th or whenever embargo is lifted.