Recently, some supposed renders of NVIDIA’s (Ada Lovelace) next-generation GPUs, the GeForces, have come to light. RTX 4090Ti and RTXshowing the model’s huge redesigned heatsink Founders Edition… so huge that anyone who wants to buy one of these new graphics cards had better have a big PC case, and not only because of the length of the graphics card but also because it will take up 3 PCI slots wide.
For weeks, leaks about NVIDIA’s next flagship graphics card, the RTX 4090 Ti, have been leaking. In some of these leaks we could already see its heatsink, but really with unconvincing images that showed a design exactly the same as the Founders Edition of previous editions. They were unconvincing just because with these heatsinks it would be difficult to handle the heat generated by the huge TDP these GPUs will pack.
Could it be the RTX 4090 Ti heatsink?
This new leak shows us a set of renders for these graphics with AD102 chip from different angles, which allowed us to see and get an idea of the enormous dimensions that this graphics card will have. Supposedly, these renders were made using information gathered from different sources, so you should “take it with a grain of salt” as they are nothing official yet.
As you will have understood, the thickness of this supposed RTX 4090 Ti is colossal and would occupy a little more than 3 PCI sockets, becoming in all likelihood the largest consumer graphics card in history. According to the source, these heatsinks are designed to handle GPUs with a TDP of 450 to 600W without problems, which is precisely what we will encounter in the next generation of NVIDIA graphics cards.
On the other hand, and according to previous leaks that we saw some time ago, the GeForce RTX 40 series will use heatsinks similar to those used by the existing RTX 30 series but with some internal changes. In theory, the RTX 4090 Ti and RTX 4090 Founders Edition cooler will be between 3 and 3.5 PCI slots thick and have more fins and more surface area to improve its thermal efficiency, but will that be enough to keep temperature under control? of the next generation of Ada Lovelace GPUs?
At least they designed a three-fan cooler for the AD102 reference board. https://t.co/vQb2KnpE4y
– kopite7kimi (@kopite7kimi) June 9, 2022
If we take into account that the current RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti share the same heatsink despite the fact that the latter’s TGP is 30% higher (450W against 350W) and despite this, the RTX 3090 Ti are maintained at acceptable temperature, we can say that the current design can support up to 450W. For this reason, it’s not unreasonable to think that this much larger updated version will easily handle up to 600W.
Only the biggest PC cases will be able to handle NVIDIA’s top end
The next generation of graphics cards (and here it’s not just NVIDIA, but also AMD) seem to be the most powerful ever, but at the cost of brute force; By this we mean that yes, the new graphics cards will raise performance levels to unsuspected limits, but at the cost of having high consumption and generating much more heat, so much so that the design of the graphics cards has had to be modified sinks in order to maintain them properly.
We have already seen before that this meant that users were going to have to update the power supply of the PC if they wanted to have one of the next GPUs of the brand, since we are already talking about figures of 1200W to have a good operation. On the other hand, and given the size of the heatsinks that these graphics cards are supposed to use, it will also be necessary to prepare a high-end case with plenty of interior space to accommodate them, and not only because of their length but also because of its thickness.
Another fact that few media seem to have taken notice of is that with the size and weight of these graphics, there will also be a risk of the PCI-Express socket bending or breaking. This means that it would be more than advisable to have a motherboard with reinforced PCIe sockets, as well as to use a bracket to place on the back of the graphics card and thus force it to stay in position and not bend due to weight.
