Introduction

The next generation of graphics cards is here, and we have with us the flagship GeForce RTX 5090! We are halfway into the 2020s, and it's only fitting that 2025 sees NVIDIA introduce the GeForce RTX 50-series, what's more fitting is that a confident NVIDIA launches each new generation of GeForce RTX with its flagship product, working its way down into the value segments. Powered by the new GeForce Blackwell graphics architecture, the RTX 5090 is designed to plow through any and all gaming experiences at 4K Ultra HD, or even 8K resolutions. With average framerates in popular online multiplayer titles expected to be well above 60 FPS at 4K, this is the card to get if you want to play not just at 4K, but also high refresh rates. The RTX 50-series introduces several new technologies, and is designed to yield a leap in energy efficiency. What better way to signal this than the sleek new RTX 5090 Founders Edition, which you'll find 50% thinner than the RTX 4090 Founders Edition, despite having a larger GPU and more memory.



Today, we will unbox the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition card for you, and show you in detail what the card looks like physically. You'll have to wait just a little longer for our comprehensive product review of this card, and its various custom design siblings. While you wait, you can check out our last week's GeForce RTX 50-series Technical Deep-Dive article, where we get into the nuts and bolts of the new GeForce Blackwell graphics architecture, what sets it apart from the Blackwell AI GPU architecture that Tech billionaires are gasping for; and what the various RTX 50-series products NVIDIA is launching in Q1 2025 could be like.

The Founders Edition graphics cards by NVIDIA are a first-party custom design line, it's only a de facto reference-design, because none of NVIDIA's add-in card (AIC) partners can sell the card under their own brand like they used to. You should be able to buy this card directly from the NVIDIA website in select markets, or through select retailers. This card is designed by NVIDIA to set a high bar for design and performance standards—something challenging for the AIC board partners to keep up with.


The GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition knocked on our door in a typical cardboard shipping box which expensive international logistics companies use. We cut it open and found another brown paperboard box in place of the velvety black box past generations of Founders Edition cards came in. This was a bit surprising, because it's the kind of box you'd expect a basic laptop to ship in, with grayscale black prints on a bare paper surface, and a barcode and regulatory label on one of the sides. There is a paper tear-strip like the one you find on the boxes of Apple product. You rip this to find the node "Inspired by Gamers. Enhanced by AI. Built by NVIDIA." The "enhanced by AI" bit is a new addition with this generation, and our technical deep-dive article tells you what's behind this.

Do note the Foxconn sticker here.


The previous generation RTX 4090 Founders Edition came in a much larger box that looked big enough to fit a pair of expensive sneakers. NVIDIA says that this box is 100% plastic-free, including the pull tapes, and is part of its effort to eliminate single use plastics.

Unboxing the RTX 5090 Founders Edition

With the paper pull tape out of the way, the box opens up along four sides—top, rear, left-hand, and right hand. The top and rear comes off first, clamshell styled, and then two printed arrows point you to pull the sides apart.


We now get to the inner box. This is made entirely of paperboard, there is nothing printed on it, except a debossed GeForce RTX 5090 logo. This box protects the card inside. There is no anti-static bag, but that's been the case with several past generations of Founders Edition card packaging. The inner box is sealed by a paper lever that clutches the two halves shut. You pull them apart following two debossed arrows, and the box pops open, clamshell style.


Besides the inner box, the main box has another small paperboard box, which contains the power adapter, and a printed Quick Start Guide leaflet.


The Quick Start Guide gives you the most basic pictoral instructions on how to install the card, and a QR code to a website with a more detailed installation guide. It also has product warranty information.


This is NVIDIA's second generation, first-party power adapter, which will be included with all GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards, including the custom design ones. It converts four 8-pin PCIe power connectors to a 16-pin 12V2x6 power connector. It feels MUCH better than the older adapters.


The 12V2x6 connector is physically compatible with the older 12VHPWR, but has deeper female pins for better contact with the receptacle on the card. NVIDIA has also replaced the soft band strain-relief that bunches all the incoming 8-pin cables behind the card; with a hard plastic shroud that channelizes each of the incoming cables, not allowing their movement to loosen the contacts inside. Here's what the new cable looks like next to the previous generation adapter that converts three 8-pin to a 12VHPWR.

Card Exteriors and Cooler Design

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition looks like a piece of jewellery—thanks to its full-metal cover on all sides and the smooth curves. The card measures 30.4 cm x 13.7 cm x 4 cm (LxHxW), and is no more than two slots thick. The card is just as long and tall as the RTX 4090 FE, but 50% thinner. It meets NVIDIA's SFF-ready standard of compact graphics cards that was introduced last year. If you've been through our Architecture Technical Deep Dive article, you'll know what a remarkable piece of engineering this card is.


There are three printed decals on the card, the first one is a debossed NVIDIA logo, the second one is a die-cut RTX 5090 model marker, and the third one is an LED-illuminated GeForce RTX logo on the top. The top and bottom sides have small cutouts for some additional air to flow through, to guide the overall flow of air (we confirmed this with NVIDIA).


The GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition debuts NVIDIA second generation of flow-through cooling solutions, this is called simply the NVIDIA Double Flow Through. The company chronicled the design evolution over the past generations in the slide above. In this new generation, the PCB of the card (the actual card) is located in the center, with separate PCBs connecting it to the display I/O and the PCIe interface. This centralization and compacting of the PCB allows the design to be the way it is—make room for so much airflow.


If you think about it, the cooling solution is functionally similar to a dual fin-stack CPU cooler, except that both fin-stacks are arranged along the plane of the PCB instead of being perpendicular to it. At the center of the cooler is a large unified vapor chamber plate that makes contact with the massive NVIDIA GB202 GPU, the sixteen GDDR7 memory chips that surround it, and the DrMOS components of the card's 27-phase VRM solution. This vapor chamber plate has soldered contact with five 8 mm-thick copper heat pipes, which skewer the two fin-stacks.

In the picture above you can see that the heatsink fins above the fans are slightly curved, this is done to improve pressure drop and optimize airflow.


Since the main PCB is toward the center of the card, it relies on two breakaway components, the first one is a PCIe interface riser, which has the card's PCI-Express 5.0 x16 gold fingers. If you notice the lack of any SMDs above these gold fingers, it's because this breakaway PCB does nothing except turn this PCIe connection to a ribbon cable that goes to the "main" card. This ribbon cable is routed along the edges of the cooler's frame, so it doesn't get in the way of the airflow.


The second breakaway component deals with the display I/O, it is arranged along the rear I/O shield, and has the card's four display outputs. You'll notice here that the connectors are upside down compared to other cards. The connectors provided are three DisplayPort 2.1b, each capable of UHBR20, and one HDMI 2.1b.


The card's 12V2x6 power connector is on the main PCB. It doesn't point directly up, but rather at an angle, and is recessed into the card. This design helps reduce the bending of the cable when connected, and the resulting mechanical strain on the connector and its contacts. It's especially useful when you use high-gauge native 12V2x6 ATX 3.1 cables from some of the newer PSUs.


Compare this design to the previous generation RTX 4090 FE, and you'll see where NVIDIA is coming from—on the older card, the connector is pushed completely to the top, and points straight up, so your power cable has to make a steep bend toward it, which can be problematic on some of the narrower mid-tower cases.


This comparison highlights NVIDIA's success in significantly compacting their 50-series flagship over the RTX 4090 FE.