The newest and most expensive graphics card from Nvidia, the RTX 3090 Ti, has been out for almost a week. Some juicy secrets about the next generation of RTX graphics may have been revealed by the internals of the mysterious GPU that PC enthusiasts have taken apart.
There are spaces on the RTX 3090 Ti's board for more power delivery after close inspection of the printed circuit board and the engineering beneath. They noted that some AIB cards have room for a second 12VHPWR, the Intel name for the PCIe 5.0 port that can power 600 watt. Why? It may be used as a bridge between the current generation and the next.
If AD102 and GA102 are pin-compatible and AIBs reuse RTX 3090 Ti PCB designs for AD102 cards, I think we can guess why so many of them have spots for extra power delivery components pic.twitter.com/WCsiG9PvK8
— Charlie (@ghost_motley) April 2, 2022
It would make it easier for board partners to build cards for the Lovelace GPUs if the AD102 matches the power pin layout used in Ampere cards.
Some graphics cards have an unpopulated ATX 3.0 connection that could theoretically give it access to over 1,200W of power.
In February, Wallossek wrote on his website that the RTX 3090 Ti could be a learning object for board partners to create power-hungry graphics cards. The GA101 and AD101 sharing pin layout would allow partners to reuse current cards without having to completely redesign cooling solutions.
The recent Nvidia hack gave some juicy information about the possible capabilities of the RTX 4000-series. The current version of the RTX 3090 is said to be twice as powerful as the RTX 4090. One could see 1000W and over requirements for the RTX 4090, given the 750W power requirements.
The king of the performance hill is expensive and heavy. If you plan on picking this up for some reason, you're likely to upgrade your power supply anyway. It's an investment in the future if the Lovelace GPUs are ever to see the light of day.
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