Nvidia’s RTX 4090 Founders Edition has arrived and is ready for testing and benchmarking. Ready to challenge the best graphics cards and take pole position in the GPU benchmark tier. How fast can Ada Lovelace run and how much does she weigh? Those are not questions you should be asking a woman! Shame on you. (2186g if you really want to know)
The card dimensions are 305x136x61mm, which is almost the same as the previous generation RTX 3090 Founders Edition. For reference, the RTX 3090 Founders Edition was 313x138x54mm (that’s my measurements), so the two designs aren’t exactly alike. Ada is obviously 8mm shorter and 7mm thicker, but the 3-gram difference in weight certainly goes unnoticed.
Besides the slight change in dimensions, the fan base for the RTX 4090 Founders Edition is much bigger. The “rear” fan (the side with the larger RTX 4090 logo) was 115mm in diameter while the same fan in the 3090 FE was 110mm. The “front” fan (the side with all the fins and closest to the video port) also measured a diameter of 115mm on the 4090 compared to 110mm on the 3090 FE. But it’s not just the diameter that has changed. The inner hub is also smaller. The 4090 has a diameter of 38mm and the 3090 has a diameter of 42mm. Overall, the new fans improve airflow by 20%, according to Nvidia.
image 1 of 15
I won’t go into the unboxing process as the embedded video works better if you want more details, but Nvidia clearly hasn’t skimped on the packaging. Suffice it to say, it comes in a new big box with enough padding to ensure the safety of the .
On the surface, it’s easy to conclude that the 4090’s design hasn’t changed in comparison to the 3090. However, the card is bulky and has a slight curvature on the silver sides (mainly the top and back). This should be for aesthetic reasons rather than making the card work cooler.
Interestingly, Nvidia at one point said the 4090 FE would include a triple 8-pin to 16-pin power adapter for those who don’t have an ATX 3.0 power supply with the new 12VHPWR 16-pin connector. was However, open the package and you’ll find a quad 8-pin to 16-pin adapter. One has to wonder if Nvidia was looking to use his 600W TBP and decided to drop the tune, or if the extra connector is to provide overclocking headroom.
Elsewhere, the card still comes with the usual 3 DisplayPort and 1 HDMI video outputs. I’m frankly surprised that Nvidia stuck with DP 1.4a and HDMI 2.1 instead of upgrading to his DisplayPort 2.0. However, as we pointed out in our review of the Intel Arc A770, there’s no DisplayPort 2.0 monitor yet, and the specs are a bit confusing. Intel opted for his UHBR 10 — ultra-high bitrate, 10 Gb/s per lane, up to 40 Gb/s — with DP 2.0 ports, omitting support for both UHBR 13.5 and UHBR 20.
The RTX 4090 and other Ada Lovelace GPUs can still support 8K at 60 Hz or 4K at 165 Hz, but getting there requires DSC (Display Stream Compression) with 4:2:0 or 4:2:2 encoding. ) is required. UHBR 20 allowed up to 8K and 92 Hz with uncompressed signal and 8-bit color, or up to 74 Hz with 10-bit HDR color, and the DSC could push 8K and 120 Hz and beyond. But then again, you need monitors and TVs before it really matters, and that may not happen for another few years.
image 1 of Five
Here’s a gallery of photos comparing the RTX 3090 FE and the RTX 4090 FE. (Never mind the dust on the RTX 3090 card, it’s been very well loved over the last two years!) It’s much more apparent in these shots how the fan and card dimensions have changed.
If you already have an RTX 3090 Founders Edition (or 3090 Ti FE) in your PC, the RTX 4090 FE is probably fine, unless clearance is extremely tight. But if the clearance is tight, it’s not a good idea with a card that can consume more than 350W of power. Basically, it’s recommended to use a roomier ATX case for extreme GPUs like the 3090 or 4090 — leave the mini-ITX ones alone.
image 1 of 16
Would you like anything other than the Founders Edition of Nvidia’s reference design? Anyone spending this much money on an RTX 4090 could want factory overclocks, enhanced cooling, and possibly other extras. We don’t blame you for it.
of MSI RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X (opens in new tab) A 240mm radiator helps keep the cards cool and ticks all those boxes. One of the great things about liquid cooled graphics cards is that the radiator effectively transfers a lot of weight from the PCIe slot to the case. You can also use relatively slim dual-slot graphics cards, albeit with a larger total card and radiator size.
MSI’s specs page doesn’t list GPU clocks yet. I also don’t like TBP (Total Board Power), but it includes a quad 8-pin to 16-pin adapter, so he could actually see a 600W card. We’re also waiting to find out the official price for this liquid cooling monster. Tip: It’s not cheap!
However, we’ll be testing cards and posting reviews next week, so stay tuned.
Additional RTX 4090 graphics cards are expected in the near future from our AIB (add-in board) partners. We will update this article with additional unboxing photos and videos as we look forward to the actual launch date.
Nvidia has already shared some of their own benchmarks, but they are not yet allowed to give any indication of benchmarking or independent performance testing. Ada Lovelace GPU’s big ticket includes support for new DLSS 3 algorithms, 50% more GPU shaders, and other architectural enhancements that could increase performance by more than 2x (according to Nvidia).
The launch date is set for October 12th, with a starting price of $1,599 for the RTX 4090 Founders Edition. I just hope there’s enough supply to keep scalpers from ruining the launch party. If so, it may be time to upgrade. Check back next week for the full review.
