If you’ve ever looked at Team Green graphics cards and thought size is getting out of hand, you’re not alone. Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition alone dominates three slots and some custom models encroach on four. Fortunately, RTX 5090 will reportedly buck the trend by shrinking the cooler back down to a reasonable form factor.
Replying to claims that the cooler could be a four-slot monster based on a rumoured RTX 4090 Ti prototype, renowned leaker Kopite7kimi states it should instead be a slim two-slot card. It’s easy to see why people would assume Nvidia would opt for something bigger, considering the revelation that Founders Edition will use a triple PCB layout connecting three separate boards. Thankfully, Team Green supposedly keeps it lean.
The insider confirms that the slimmer chassis will pack dual fans rather than cramming a third in. It’s unclear whether it’ll use Nvidia’s tried-and-tested Flow Through design, but all signs point to yes. After all, why fix what’s not broken? Ever since the brand introduced the arrangement in RTX 3000 series cards, Founders Edition temperatures have given aftermarket solutions a run for their money.
Nothing’s set in stone and you’ll need to take this rumour with your usual dose of salt. However, if it’s true, this spells wonderful news for RTX 5090. It could potentially mean that the card is more efficient than ever, running relatively cool despite its power.
So far, the GB202 GPU will apparently use a physically monolithic design that logically acts like two GB203 dies. Whispers suggest specs include 192 Streaming Multiprocessors, a 512-bit memory bus, and either 24GB or 32GB of GDDR7 VRAM. Considering RTX 4090 uses 24GB and the three PCBs hold up to 16GB each, 32GB looks most likely.
Generally, it’s too early to speculate about what’s under the hood with any real certainty. Sadly, Nvidia probably won’t address upcoming Blackwell architecture during Computex next week. That said, we’ll surely see plenty of leaks, rumours, claims over the next few months leading up to the supposed release at the end of the year.