Recent leaks have unveiled an early prototype of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card, showcasing a design that diverges significantly from the final retail version. This prototype features an intricate printed circuit board (PCB) layout equipped with four 16-pin power connectors, suggesting that NVIDIA was conducting stress tests for extreme power consumption scenarios.
The presence of four 16-pin connectors indicates a theoretical power draw of up to 2,400 watts, a stark contrast to the retail RTX 5090's maximum of 575 watts. Such a configuration implies that NVIDIA was exploring the upper limits of power delivery and thermal management during the development phase. The prototype also includes diagnostic pins and USB ports, typical of engineering samples, and the PCB appears to have been physically cut in half, likely for detailed inspection or component isolation. This design could hint at early development stages for a potential RTX 5090 Ti or a workstation-level RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell model.
The multi-layer PCB design suggests that NVIDIA was experimenting with enhanced thermal and power delivery performance. This aligns with the known attributes of the Blackwell architecture, which focuses on smaller manufacturing nodes and improved efficiency. Previous leaks from January revealed a different RTX 5090 prototype featuring two 16-pin connectors and a rumored 800-watt thermal design power (TDP), reportedly housing more CUDA cores than the final product.
These prototypes provide valuable insights into NVIDIA's design and testing processes for their flagship GPUs, highlighting the company's commitment to pushing the boundaries of performance and power efficiency.
Source: Windows Report Early GeForce RTX 5090 prototype leaked with quad 16-pin power connector setup