Zotac’s custom model is currently the thickest graphics card in the world.
Modern graphics cards are becoming more and more powerful. However, they tend to need more energy for this, which requires better cooling. Especially with the high-end models, the cooling solution makes up a large part of the entire graphics card.
The graphics card manufacturer Zotac is currently showing this his custom model the Nvidia Geforce RTX 3090 Ti (Zotac Geforce RTX 3090 Ti PGF OC). Where many other graphics cards, such as the Founders Edition of the RTX 3070 Ti, have a thickness of two slots, this model needs twice the height in the case, i.e. four slots.
Four slots instead of three and a half as from other manufacturers
The 3090 Ti needs powerful coolers because of its high power consumption of 450 watts TDP. But we have never seen such a thick graphics card before. Other manufacturers install the flagship graphics card in a 3.5 or 3.75 slot design. When you look at the side view of the Zotac model, you can clearly see that the cooler on top takes up almost as much space as the slot cover:
The cooler is as wide as the plate. Source: Zotac
It is also noticeable that although the card is four slots wide, the panel with the connections itself only takes up two slots.
From the front we can see that the cooler consists of a total of three fans, with a slightly larger one on the right and left and a slightly smaller one in the middle. On the back of the RTX 3090 Ti is a round air vent and some cut-out triangles that also let the air through.
The space design comes with three fans. Source: Zotac
All in all, Zotac relies on a rather unusual design with purple LED lighting. According to the manufacturer, the huge custom model only needs 450 watts TDP, just like the reference model from Nvidia itself. However, the thick Zotac variant should be large enough to cool the card efficiently, which is why higher power consumption would certainly be conceivable here. You can find out exactly how to overclock your graphics card as safely as possible in our guide:
Overclock graphics card
How to get more performance out of your graphics card
The thick RTX 3090 Ti is probably only available in China for the time being
If you have already eagerly made room in your case, we unfortunately have to disappoint you. The 4-slot graphics card is probably only available in China for the time being. At least we haven’t been able to find them in Europe or European shops so far.
But in this country you will also find some models of the RTX 3090 Ti. The graphics card is currently the strongest on the market and relies on one high power consumption to get as much performance out of the chip as possible.
Are four slots too much for a graphics card? Or do you still have plenty of space left in the case anyway? Should cards perhaps even become thicker in general to make cooling performance more efficient? Your opinion is in demand.
