Monday, June 26th 2023
More Pictures of NVIDIA's Cinder Block-sized RTX 4090 Ti Cooler Surface
Back in January, we got our first look at the cinder block-like 4-slot cooling solution of NVIDIA's upcoming flagship graphics card (called either the RTX 4090 Ti, or the TITAN (Ada). "ExperteVallah" on Twitter scored additional pictures of the cooler. Its design sees the heat dissipation surface pushed to the entire thickness of the cooler, and ventilated the entire length.
The card's PCB isn't conventional—not perpendicular to the plane of the motherboard like any other add-in card—but is rather along the plane of the motherboard, with additional breakaway daughter cards interfacing with the sole 12VHPWR power connector, and the PCIe slot. This slender, ruler-shaped PCB spans the entire length of the card, without coming in the way of its heat dissipation surfaces. The length is used for the large AD102 ASIC that's probably maxed out (with all its 144 SM enabled), twelve GDDR6X (possibly faster 23 Gbps), and a mammoth VRM that nearly maxes out the 600 W continuous power delivery design limit of the 12VHPWR.
Sources:
ExperteVallah (Twitter), Hassan Mujtaba (Twitter), VideoCardz
The card's PCB isn't conventional—not perpendicular to the plane of the motherboard like any other add-in card—but is rather along the plane of the motherboard, with additional breakaway daughter cards interfacing with the sole 12VHPWR power connector, and the PCIe slot. This slender, ruler-shaped PCB spans the entire length of the card, without coming in the way of its heat dissipation surfaces. The length is used for the large AD102 ASIC that's probably maxed out (with all its 144 SM enabled), twelve GDDR6X (possibly faster 23 Gbps), and a mammoth VRM that nearly maxes out the 600 W continuous power delivery design limit of the 12VHPWR.
145 Comments on More Pictures of NVIDIA's Cinder Block-sized RTX 4090 Ti Cooler Surface
Where I am now, the AC pretty much has to stay on 24/7 during the late spring through summer months due to the miserable humidity. Really hoping the 6800XT I just bought doesn't run crazy hot....
This thing might help as a source of sensible heat if you have AC.
BTW, where have I seen these pictures before?
As much as I hate what Nvidia are doing to the GPU market, I'm sorely tempted by a 4070 just to get the same performance at lower power consumption; Based on what I'm seeing online, the 4070 runs pretty well at 150W.
That cooler *is* the four slots! The coldplate is 'sideways' (coldplate faces mobo).
That means the PCB will have Right Angle PCIe, interesting.
Also, I don't think the PCB would receive any stress from the cooler at all, since the cooler is what's mounted to the chassis.
Not how I'd imagine one would tackle PCB flex and cracking, but it works.
A 450 W card produces more heat than a 320 W one, even if its GPU temperature is lower due to the better heatsink/airflow.
Honestly with these cards (even the previous gen 3090) requiring the power they do, and putting out the heat we are seeing, I would love to see companies try to market dedicated liquid cooling a bit more. I'd never even consider buying one of these with an air cooler on it.
But with 4090 Ti one 120mm fan is replaced by 2x9cm as a questionable tradeoff.
I'd rather have the 8cm PCB standing as usual, 6cm above it and to the right side serving as a pass through area and 2x140cm fans,
I don't like the Apple-like layout and intricacies of the cooler, but I am 'on-board' for smaller PCBs and big coolers (that take the strain, not the PCB.)
In the future, I hope to see 'passive phase-change' coolers. No pump, no tubes; just a fully self-integrated and hermetically sealed, passive heatpump.
There's been quite a bit of work on this concept, but the tech is largely 'stuck' in development. (At least, on the consumer/prosumer side.)
What I'd like to see is cards that don't need a kilowatt power supply and don't take up every expansion slot in your system, but with that said, I don't need 4090 level performance, so I'm good.
I couldn't agree more.
These (current and planned) enormous cards are probably part of the reason so many current-gen boards glaringly lack x1, x4, x8 PCI-e slots:
The boards are expected to be used with 1x phatass GPU, and a couple M.2 drives.
Sorry board-partners, I actually *use* my expansion slots. :laugh:
I know most people want practical, and even value energy efficiency, but...
A literal gas-powered GPU/PC would be the ultimate in ePeen/flex.
(Related: Did you know gas-powered pogo sticks, existed? Yes, it's just as dangerous as it sounds.)
Heck, why not attach a heatpump to it while you're at it? -have the genset provide both power and subzero cooling!
Edit: @Count von Schwalbe I'm aware that On-card AIO water cooling exists.
However, that 2070 has about half the expected power draw vs. the 4090ti.
If you double the size of the cooling solution, we're back to this multi-slot monstrousity.