NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 could be the new Titan with 384-bit 24 GB GDDR6X VRAM and 350 W TGP; GA102 Founders Editions cards with an expensive cooling system to be based on the PG133 board

We've reported about alleged pictures of the upcoming NVIDIA RTX 3080 cards that showed a unique cooling design with fans placed on opposite sides of the card. Those pictures showed an irregular PCB with the fan now being placed closer to the actual GPU. While it was initially not clear if the pictures were real or fake, NVIDIA has apparently launched an internal investigation with a focus on contract manufacturers Foxconn and Build Your Dreams (BYD) who were tasked with making the Founders Edition card. This means that those pictures could indeed be real. 

While it is possible that NVIDIA may make some changes before the official unveil later this year, Igor's Lab has learned that all three GeForce Ampere Founders Edition cards that will launch will be based on the PG133 circuit board with the main differentiators being VRAM and board power. While the Founders Edition cards will have an additional cutout for the new cooling setup, a PG132 board without the cutout is being offered to add-in board (AiB) partners for possibly custom cooling solutions. Igor's Lab cites sources that claim that the Founders Edition's construction and the cooler put together alone costs US$150.

A newly leaked heatsink design of the RTX 3080 (see image below) without the shroud indicates that this could actually be a clever design. Since there are now two fans, one each at the front and back of the card, the fins in the middle could actually help the fans push air more efficiently over the heatsinks. It remains to be seen how well this design actually translates into real-world cooling efficiency. We also see that there are at least four heatpipes that arise from the huge cooling block.

According to Igor's Lab, we may see an RTX 3090 with a 350 W TBP as the flagship card. The RTX 3090 could, in fact, be a rebranded Titan. Or, NVIDIA may introduce it under the Titan moniker itself with a new marketing name. That part is still unconfirmed for now. Igor's Lab also says that we may see both an RTX 3080 with 10 GB of 320-bit GDDR6X and an RTX 3080 Ti with 11 GB of 352-bit GDDR66X RAM.

Both these cards seem are so near in specs, so it is very well possible that NVIDIA would introduce some differentiation between them if at all both these cards see the light of the day at once. Also, we haven't heard about other implementations of GDDR6X yet so the memory type still should be taken with a pinch of salt. 

Considering his source's information that GA102 on the PG132 reference board will have a total graphics power (TGP) of 350 W, Igor's Lab managed to deduce that the GPU power alone would be approximately 230 W taking into account power consumed by the 24 GB GDDR6X VRAM, MOSFETs for GPU voltage, framebuffer voltage, AUX, fans, and PCB loss. 

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