As recent reports point to a potential July debut for Nvidia's new GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards, one such GPU is leaked in full display amid a now-deleted thread on a Chinese tech forum called Chiphell Forums. The leaked photographs offer only a tiny glimpse into what PC enthusiasts can expect with Nvidia's next-gen Ada Lovelace GPUs, specifically spotlighting the RTX 4090 Ti specs and its outer shell in full detail.
While it remains uncertain if the images provided are indeed the RTX 4090 Ti, the leaker in question does provide some proof in the form of a sideways peek at the baseplate, which aptly carries the 4090 Ti ensignia on its encasing. While this would be cause for alleviated doubt, the previous cards carried the logo on the right side. Thus, it should be noted these remain based on rumor, as fakes do exist, so keep that in mind before getting too excited.
The leaker in question provides four photos, two of which showcase the outer shell. The other two give better peaks inside the 4090 Ti's internals, including its heatsink, fan setup, and overall airflow. From initial looks, the Founders Edition 4090 Ti is looking much beefier than its 30 Series counterpart, which comes as no surprise, given the monstrous 450-600 Watt output potential in baseline specs.
From the look of its internals, the 4090 Ti vs. 3090 is going to be quite proportional, as the photos suggest Nvidia is layering a larger baseplate and heatsink on its forthcoming GPUs. The current RTX 3090 and 3090 Ti FE cards rely on thermal pads to alleviate heat buildup from memory dies to the heatsink, whereas Nvidia's 4090 Ti will seemingly have a far larger baseplate intended to cover not only the GPU but also even at least 12 of its internal GDDR6X memory chips.
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These higher-spec memory chips will no doubt require much beefier cooling for proper functionality and intense workflows on the 4090 Ti, making future benchmarks and teardowns utterly exciting. Nvidia seems to have also upgraded the card's fins from 23 to 24, as seen via its side heatsinks. The leaker also gives us a good look at the aluminum heat spreader and two thermal pads, the former intended for the VRMs and the latter for various internal components.
It seems that Nvidia is sticking to its already-existing heatsink dissipation engineering design, as showcased via the heatsink's heat pipes leading off to the secondary heatsink on the back of the card, a similar airflow existing in current 30 series Founders Edition cards. However, while the 3909 Ti takes up a total of three slots, the 4090 Ti appears to be three or even four slots. Thus it's much larger and may even require some additional support due to this additional size and weight.
Much akin to the 30 series card debut, Nvidia will most likely release its 4090 GPU first and later release the 4090 Ti. Alternative options will probably drop at the same time as the base 4090, with the 4070 and 4080 probably being the most optimal choice for customers. With the downward spiraling of the cryptocurrency market making headway, it may even be easier for enthusiasts to get their hands on cards amidst the frenzy of release, though demand will surely be high for those first several Founders Edition cards.
So far, 4090 specs sit at a 50% increase in core count from its predecessor at 16,128 CUDA cores and a whopping 450 Watt power consumption. It will also boast 24 GB of GDDR6X memory at a 21 Gbps clocking throughout a 384-bit bus interface. The beefier 4090 Ti, on the other hand, is rumored to sit at a 71% overall increase, carrying within 18,432 CUDA cores and 114 SMs. The 4090 Ti is also expected to have 96 MB of L2 cache.
If all rumors are to be true, PC enthusiasts and Nvidia fanboys will realize the full potential of the 40 series card lineup come mid-July. If specs of both the 4090 and 4090 Ti are to be believed, as well as the aforementioned images, it's safe to assume Nvidia's smaller variants, like the 4080 and 4070, are primed to be instant sellers.
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