EVGA’s Axed RTX 4090 FTW3 Gets Shown Off on YouTube
Only YouTuber JayzTwoCents Video published Showcasing what would be EVGA’s RTX 4090 FTW3 graphics card, it featured an early prototype model delivered to him directly from EVGA. The existence of this card prompted EVGA’s sudden decision to pull out of his GPU market, as the engineer was working on his future RTX 4090 model at the very moment EVGA cut ties with his Nvidia. perfectly shows what you have done.
In a nutshell, EVGA exited the GPU market two months ago. It was announced by JayzTwoCents and Gamers Nexus on YouTube. The company reportedly pulled out due to a poor partnership with Nvidia, and the move came abruptly, prompting a number of senior EVGA executives to confirm the news before the news was officially made public through his YouTube channel. Only the leader of the people knew about this decision.
Jay says he and Steve (Gamers Nexus) were actually shown a prototype RTX 4090 similar to the one they have today when talking to EVGA. This was shown to both to demonstrate (again) how serious his EVGA’s truly sudden and momentous decision to exit the GPU market was.
The card itself is a very early prototype model and EVGA has ended its partnership with Nvidia, so the GeForce RTX 4090 badge has been replaced with “next-gen graphics” due to licensing issues if the card goes public. It is
The card shown bears the FTW3 badge, so you know this is one of EVGA’s flagship 4090 variants. The card itself is surprisingly compact for an RTX 4090 partner card, with three massive fans on the front he has an elegant (for a high-end GPU) matte black-on-silver aesthetic.
Compared to the RTX 3090 and 3090 Ti FTW3 models, this prototype FTW3 features a noticeably larger form factor and significantly larger fans. From a visual standpoint, the silver accents on the top and bottom of the shroud are very different from the pure black finish of the previous generation. It’s a little more understated, rather than aggressive game themes.
According to Jay, the card’s structural rigidity is particularly impressive, with the rear I/O backplate screwed directly into the GPU shroud to prevent the GPU from sagging. Jay demonstrated this by putting a GPU into the case. Despite the card’s thickness of about 4 PCIe slot width, the card had zero sag.
The last thing to mention about the card’s design is the 16-pin power connector on the back of the card. This also puts the power cable in the back instead of the front. This design choice makes the card look cleaner when installed compared to other his 4090 models. However, users required additional space on the front of the chassis to accommodate the extra cable length.
To my surprise, the card is working and Jay is demonstrating Unigine Heaven running on his system. However, according to Jay, this is also a very early prototype card, so the card apparently runs his vBIOS, which is “homemade.” As a result, the card does not feature a power limit above 100% in his GPU overclocking software, so GPU core overclocking is limited by the card.
Nevertheless, Jay overclocked the card and was amazed at the quality of the GDDR6X memory reaching a positive offset of 1900MHz. According to Jay, this memory frequency is one of the best he’s ever seen, and is matched only by his RTX 4090 Suprim X AIB partner from MSI’s card. It’s a pity that the power limit is locked. Otherwise, he could have used this card to achieve his incredibly high benchmark scores.
It’s sad to see EVGA exit the GPU market entirely, but at least this card gives us one last chance to see what EVGA has been up to.