After years of enthusiast forum threads asking why nobody had brought back the turbo button, NVIDIA has reportedly answered the call with the RTX 5090 Ti Founders Edition Ultra, a card that ships with a physical latching rocker switch on the PCB backplate labeled, simply, “TURBO.” Sure, we were convinced as recently as a couple days ago that we wouldn’t be seeing a new release from the green machine for a few years, but here we are.
According to NVIDIA’s product brief, the button does not actually increase GPU clock speeds. Pressing it enables “Turbo Mode,” which plays a short 8-bit sound effect through the card’s onboard piezoelectric buzzer and briefly illuminates the NVIDIA logo in amber instead of green. Performance is unchanged. The GeForce Experience overlay will, however, display the word “TURBO” in all caps for as long as the button remains engaged, which NVIDIA’s announcement refers to as a “meaningful quality-of-life improvement for the competitive gaming segment.”
The RTX 5090 Ti itself features 24,576 CUDA cores across the full GB202 die, 32GB of GDDR7X at 32 Gbps, and a 575W TDP. The Founders Edition Ultra adds a 13th power connector described only as “supplemental confidence.” Pricing is set at $3,499, which is $500 more than the standard 5090 Ti and $500 less than NVIDIA’s next product tier, the RTX 5090 Ti “Super Ultra,” which ships with two turbo buttons and a velvet carrying pouch.
For context, the original IBM PC turbo button (which, famously, actually slowed the CPU down to improve compatibility with older software) has been a nostalgic punchline in enthusiast circles for decades and was even featured in SilverStone’s recent retro case release at Computex. NVIDIA’s implementation is at least spiritually consistent with that legacy. Kyle Bennet of Hard|OCP thought about reviving the long-shuttered rag to cover it, but was, reportedly, at a loss for words. TechPowerUp’s spec sheet entry notes the buzzer under “additional features” without further comment.
Is this a good deal? The 5090 Ti hardware underneath the gimmick is undeniably the fastest single-GPU solution on the market, and if you are spending $3,499 on a graphics card, a turbo button is probably the least concerning line item in your build budget. Whether NVIDIA can continue to charge a premium for what amounts to a nostalgia tax is a question the market will answer, probably by buying all of them in 47 seconds.
The RTX 5090 Ti Founders Edition Ultra goes on sale April 1 at 9 AM PT. Set your alarms, configure your bots, and remember: the turbo button does nothing. That’s the point. Let us know your thoughts in the forums.