PC hardware enthusiast, harukaze5719, has stumbled upon a very understated looking custom GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card. MSI has produced a two-unit wide blower-type cooling system for the current flagship NVIDIA 40-series GPU, with Chinese PC hardware retailer—3DStor.com—being the only semi-official source of information. MSI's own web presences have not been updated to include their new GeForce RTX 4090 Aero S 24G model. The e-retailer does not provide any pricing information, but several examples (more than ten) are available to purchase via mujitech3's Ebay store. The Ningbo-based seller is charging a cool $3065 per card, plus an additional $80.00 for international shipping.

According to 3dstor's listing, the relatively compact custom design sticks to NVIDIA's recommended reference specifications (boost clock reaching 2520 MHz), but a 350 W TGP looks to be a bit iffy (coupled with the board's 16-pin 12VHPWR connector)—Tom's Hardware observed that this: "is 100 W lower when compared to regular RTX 4090 AIBs. We must assume that this is a typo and that its TGP is the same as other RTX 4090 graphics cards, which are currently the best graphics cards for gaming. Meanwhile, when the board peaks at 450 W, its blower-based cooling system likely gets extremely loud." The low-key monolithic shroud design suggests that MSI is likely targeting professional types with its Aero S 24G model, although gamers eyeing a compact build will be well catered to...if they can spare the expense.

PNY unveiled a China-exclusive GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card featuring a lateral cooling solution. The card is strictly 2 slots thick, and has some clearance behind the region with the blower, so there's breathing room for the next card. Graphics cards with lateral blowers are meant for workstations that use multiple graphics cards with implicit multi-GPU for certain productivity applications. The card uses an aluminium channel-type heatsink, with a base-plate that's either a slab of copper, or a vapor-chamber; with the channel heatsink soldered on top. A lateral blower guides air through the channels, and exhausts out the back. The card draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector located at the top, and ticks at reference speeds of 2475 MHz boost.

There has been no shortage of various SSD coolers to date, but none seems to have implemented a blower fan as yet. Well, Akasa decided that it was a product that was needed in the market and was showing off its Gecko Turbo Cooler at Computex. The heatsink part of the cooler is dwarfed by the blower fan that sits on top of it, making for a rather amusing looking device. As to the noise level, we can only guess, as it wasn't plugged in, but blower fans don't tend to be the quietest fans around. That said, it's likely to bring the best airflow of any M.2 SSD cooler to date, even though it might be a tad excessive, even for PCIe 5.0 SSDs.

A Chinese graphics card manufacturer unveiled what is likely the only 2-slot, air-cooled GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card in existence. Most gaming-segment RTX 4090 graphics cards tend to be 3-4 slots thick, and the only 2-slot ones are liquid-cooled ones. This is due to the 450 W stock typical graphics power rating of the RTX 4090, which can go as high as 600 W for certain custom-design cards. This product is aimed at the niche that wants a bunch of RTX 4090 cards in a space-constrained workstation chassis.

The card appears to be around 30-32 cm in length, and its height is strictly what constitutes "full-height" (11.5 cm). The cooler is in fact 1-2 mm thinner than what constitutes 2-slot; and probably uses a vapor-chamber plate welded to a stack of aluminium or copper channels that dissipate heat to airflow from a lateral-blower. The heatsink may look underpowered for a GPU like the RTX 4090, but probably over-relies on the blower operating at a very high RPM at all times—same principal as server cooling, where an array of 40 mm fans at nearly max-RPM push air through thin channel-type heatsinks cooling large 250 W TDP server processors. The card lacks a backplate to make it easier for the adjacent card to breathe in air. Power is drawn from a 16-pin ATX 12VHPWR connector located at the tail-end of the card, rather than on its top. The card reportedly has its power limits locked to 450 W (probably through power-connector signal keying). The card was briefly available on Alibaba-owned peer-to-peer trading platform Goofish, where it was priced at RMB ¥15,000 (about USD $2,150).

EMTEK has only graced our news feed once before, mostly due to it being a behind-the-scenes board partner for NVIDIA. More than release their in-house designs, the South Korean company usually provides them for other AIBs, such as Palit. However, the company has recently been moving their graphics cards towards the consumer market as well, and the latest in the batch is a custom-designed GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card, marketed under the "Blower Edition" product SKU.

The "Blower Edition" RTX 3090 from EMTEK features a more mainstream dual-8-pin power delivery connector with a twist: the company adapted NVIDIA's PCB design and added a daughter card, which extends the original PCB so as to allow the connectors to be placed in the more practical manner of generations past. The RTX 3090 "Blower Edition" otherwise offers the usual 3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI connectors, and features a bronze design with a bronze backplate as well; a somewhat subdued design language is used, though the color choice would be a hard one to integrate into most hobbyists' systems.

ASUS looks to one-up GIGABYTE by pairing a 350-Watt GeForce RTX 3090 with a classic lateral blower cooling solution, by introducing its new RTX 3090 Turbo OC graphics card (model: TURBO-RTX3090-24G). ASUS claims that the card is designed for "environments with restricted airflow." The card is strictly 2 slots thick, and just about qualifies for "full height" (measures 26.8 cm in length and 11.3 cm in height). It uses two 8-pin PCIe power inputs, which are located at the tail end of the card, instead of the top. These connectors are right next to mounts for extenders for workstation cases.

The ASUS RTX 3090 Turbo OC uses an 80 mm lateral blower with a double ball-bearing; which guides air through a copper-channel heatsink that uses a vapor-chamber plate to pull heat from the GPU and memory. An aluminium secondary base-plate pulls heat from the various VRM components and conveys it to the vapor-chamber plate. The card also offers a mild software-activated OC mode, which dials up the GPU Boost frequency to 1725 MHz (up from 1695 MHz reference). The memory is untouched at 19.5 Gbps (GDDR6X-effective). Display outputs include one HDMI 2.1, and three DisplayPort 1.4a. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Perhaps the most unique GeForce RTX 3090 offerings from GIGABYTE has to be the Turbo Edition. Possibly its most cost-effective card based on the $1,500 GPU, the Turbo Edition features a classic lateral-blower based cooling solution that guides all its air through an aluminium channel-type heatsink, and out of the rear bracket, with none of it exhausted into the case. This is a bold choice for a cooler given the feisty 350 W typical board power for the RTX 3090. The card is exactly 2 slots thick, and just 26.6 cm long, making it possibly the shortest air-cooled RTX 3090. It's a little over 11 cm tall (standard full-height). An interesting design choice by GIGABYTE is to locate the card's two 8-pin PCIe power connectors at the tail end of the card. GIGABYTE didn't reveal whether the card features factory-overclocked speeds, but we expect it to stick to reference speeds. Display outputs include two each of HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4a connectors.

EVGA has gone and revealed their entire RTX 20-series lineup, adding to the already showcased XC and FTW3 air-cooled SKUs. EVGA is following the SKU alignment of their previous series, with two hydro copper models being prepared: the Hydro Copper FTW3, the higher-performance part which features a wider watercooling waterblock; and the Hydro Copper XC, which trades some of that extra performance for a smaller, leaner footprint on your system case of choice.