The latest rumor about the NVIDIA RTX 5090 Founders Edition is that it will feature a redesign that could see it occupying only PCIe 2 slots. Undeniably, the dimensions of top-tier graphics cards have reached gargantuan dimensions throughout the last few generations thus creating headaches for PC builders wanting the highest level of performance. They have had to endure the challenges of fitting 3, 4, and larger slot cards for some time but it sounds as if there is hope on the horizon for those wanting an air-cooled card that could fit in almost any case. Well-known GPU information leaker Kopite responded to another rumor by replying that NVIDIA’s next flagship GPU is getting a size reduction.
No, RTX 5090 FE has a 2-slot cooler.
— kopite7kimi (@kopite7kimi) May 29, 2024
PCB and Fan design
Just last week, rumors about the internal physical layout of the NVIDIA RTX 5090 Founders Edition suggested that it would feature a 3-PCB design, something that is now being said to be limited to the FE and not on partner reference board designs. Given recent GPU releases it was easy to assume that the RTX 5090 would become even more bloated, something PC builders are not looking forward to. After all, it’s barely been one or two generations since the PC community has come to terms with needing additional support for their cards following decades of never needing to do so as well as how to accommodate such thick cards.
VideoCardz asked Kopite if the new design would still include a dual fan solution, something that NVIDIA surprised the industry with its new cross-flow design introduced on the GeForce RTX 40 series. That card saw TDP above 500 Watts when overclocked and most partners only offered 3-fan cooling solutions. Last week’s rumor also stated 2 fans but it’s beginning to sound like NVIDIA is abandoning the cross-flow design, although that has yet to be confirmed.
Yes.
— kopite7kimi (@kopite7kimi) May 29, 2024
Other rumors and reveal date
Rumors for the highly anticipated RTX 50 series have been accumulating for some time now, including a potential reveal. One such is that NVIDIA might do so at its forthcoming keynote right before Computex, but it is now being reported that this will not happen and that the GPU manufacturer could hold out for a more dedicated announcement event. Here is a breakdown of the rumored specifications for the RTX 5090.
RTX 5090 Rumored Specs
- 512-bit memory bus
- 24 GB or 32 GB (16 memory modules) of GDDR7 (2 GB or 3 GB memory modules), memory bandwidth of 1.53 TB/s
- 128MB L2 Cache
- 3-PCB design for Founders Edition only
- Dual Fan cooling solution
- Two Slot (FE edition)
- Up to 70% faster than RTX 4090
- TDP up to 600 Watts
- Boost Clock up to 2.9 GHz
- 24,576 CUDA cores, 192 RT cores, 768 Tensor Cores
- Possible multichip (MCM) architecture
- Release timeframe in Q4 24 or Q1 25
- Announcement before year’s end