Data theft a NVIDIA it should have already given us a rough idea of the technical specifications of the GeForce RTX 4000 arriving by the end of the year (more details here). From the German site Igor’s Lab comes more information and an interesting theory, namely that the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is nothing more than a great dress rehearsalfor NVIDIA and partners, just in view of the production of the future series of GPUs.
The site shared an image of a PCB which should represent, in a schematic way, what will be the features of a future high-end NVIDIA video card (Founders Edition). They see each other 24 GPU power phasescontrolled by three uP9512 controllers which should handle eight phases each. Four phases, on the other hand, should manage the GDDR6X type memory. In total there are therefore 28 phases.
On the printed circuit, at the top, there are solder points for 12 memory chips. If the board will keep the same design of the RTX 3090 Ti, which foresees welding points only in the upper part, then the solution in question will again have up to 24 GB of memory. In the upper right part you can also see the single PCI Express connector based on the new PCIe 5.0 12VHPWR standard (12 + 4 pin or 16 pin) capable of managing a power of 600 watt.
The most interesting aspect is that the partners would have been informed by NVIDIA that the future top-of-the-range AD102 GPU will be “pin-compatible” with the GA102. This should mean not only that the 384-bit memory interface will remain unchanged, but that manufacturers will be able to create PCBs, VRMs and cooling systems for the RTX 3090 Ti as experimental solutions for future flagships: to do so they shouldn’t other than installing a BIOS capable of extending the TGP up to 600W and running internal tests, waiting for the first RTX 4000 samples. The RTX 3090 Ti should also have the same 16-pin connector, stopping at 450W against the rumored 600W for the next generation.
Another advantage could relate to the time and cost of designing the future series: By allowing partners to test a 600W card already in these months, NVIDIA will allow them to refine the project in order to build GeForce RTX 4000 with good maturity from the start (or at least we hope so).
Speaking of the cooling system, some sources at Igor’s Lab report that NVIDIA is relying on a “triple slot” air solution for the Founders Edition, while partners should opt for designs that can take up 3.5 slots. There will be models with AIO liquid heatsinks and other solutions with pre-installed waterblocks, but according to the source they will not be “primary” solutions in the lineup of the various companies.
| GeForce RTX 3000 (Ampere) | GeForce RTX 4000 (Available) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | SM | L2 cache | Bus | CUDA Core | GPU | SM | L2 cache | Bus | CUDA Core |
| GA102 | 84 | 6 MB | 384 bit | 10752 | AD102 | 144 | 96 MB | 384 bit | 18432 |
| GA103 | 60 | 4 MB | 256 bit | 7680 | AD103 | 84 | 64 MB | 256 bit | 10752 |
| GA104 | 48 | 4 MB | 256 bit | 6144 | AD104 | 60 | 48 MB | 192 bit | 7680 |
| GA106 | 30 | 3 MB | 192 bit | 3840 | AD106 | 36 | 32 MB | 128 bit | 4608 |
| GA107 | 20 | 2 MB | 128 bit | 2560 | AD107 | 24 | 32 MB | 128 bit | 3072 |
Bundled with the cards should be 4 x 8-pin to 16-pin (12 + 4-pin 12VHPWR) cables to allow future GeForces to be installed on PCs with older power supplies as well. For the upcoming GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, however, the bundle would include a 3 x 8-pin to 16-pin cable to ensure the required 450W.