Nvidia Ampere: PCB GeForce RTX 3090 photographed

Nvidia Ampere PCB GeForce RTX 3090

Nvidia will announce a "GeForce RTX 3000 series" at a GeForce Special Event on September 1. It is not surprising that more and more leaks are flushing information into the network.

On the picture you can see the back of a PCB, which is not Nvidia’s Founders Edition, but probably a custom design by Colorful. Much of the PCB is intentionally pixelated to hide the origin as far as it goes, yet some peculiarities can be recognized. The memory expansion and the power connections immediately catch the eye.

On display are 11 GDDR6 memory modules, which would speak for 22 GB of memory - because 11 modules on the back mean 11 more on the front. However, the known leaker kopite7kimi is sure that the twelfth memory module has been pixelated. And with 24 blocks respectively 24 GB it should be the board of a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 3090 (the exact name is still unclear).

PCB of the GeForce RTX 3090 More power connections than Turing

The power connections also catch the eye. At least the custom PCB uses three 8-pin power connectors, which would be one more than the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. Whether this will apply in general or only to the custom PCB of Colorful is also unclear. In any case, this would be in line with the speculation that the power consumption of the ampere generation is significantly higher than that of the Turing offshoots.

The photo also shows the new NVLink connector, which is visually different from the NVLink derivative on Turing. It also looks like this on the professional AI accelerator with ampere, the A100. In addition, it is noticeable that the memory is placed unusually close to the GPU and generally close to each other. This also fits with rumors that said weeks ago that this way the higher memory clock rates will be made possible.

Speaking of GPU: The back is not pixelated on the picture, but an Intel CPU was placed on it to disguise the origin.

The GPU showdown in the second half of the year

It is now clear that Nvidia’s gaming amps will appear before AMD’s Navi-2X generation. The performance will take place on 1 September, but with a first availability only with some time offset to expect. AMD is later on, rumored of a performance in October or November - with a tendency to November. AMD should plan with up to 16 GB of memory.