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That Rumor About an RTX 4090 Ti Just Won't Die
Published: 07-12-2023

Ever since the first Ada GPUs were spotted on retail shelves back in October 2022, there's been an unremitting buzz about the rumored NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Ti. The tech community can't seem to shake off the fascinating speculation around this mammoth graphics card, which may be a next-gen Titan Ada offering.

Our first glimpse into this powerful beast came in the form of an unusual cooling solution—a cooler at least four slots tall, reportedly capable of a staggering 900W of cooling capacity. This design was anything but ordinary. Rather than being positioned under the heatsink, the PCB was situated on the side, making for a vertical installation—a first in GeForce consumer graphics card history.


Leaked Specs

Fast forward to January 2023, when we were treated to a sneak peek at a more finalized product bearing the PG137 SKU naming, a detail initially revealed by Kopite7kimi. This mysterious card was later be rumored to boast an impressive 48 GB VRAM and a 384-bit wide bus interface.


More Leaks

More recently, Twitter user @ExperteVallah published new photos of what could potentially be the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Ti or the Titan Ada GPU. Placed next to either a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 3080 FE, this prototype was visibly larger, taking up at least four slots and requiring a single 16-pin connector. The TDP, however, is capped at 600W—contradicting earlier claims of 900W.

Strikingly, the PCB appeared to be missing, with empty display outputs. This unit seemed to only house a heatsink, shroud, backplate, and wiring for the 16-pin connector. This connector isn't directly wired to the PCB like the rest of the RTX 40 series cards, but rather employs a wired extender snaking through the heatsink and out the other side of the card.


The Question of Identity

The waters get murkier when it comes to its identity. Despite speculation that this could be the rumored Titan RTX (Ada) graphics card, the presence of a clear "GeForce RTX" logo on the card casts doubt on this theory, given that Titan cards do not use that branding.

The card's faceplate is clearly marked "RTX 4090", suggesting the original 4090 or a prototype may have utilized the same cooler before NVIDIA opted for a more conventional Founders Edition design.




Rounding Up the Rumors

While some say the Titan Ada project has been shelved, rumors persist that the RTX 4090 Ti, equipped with a PG136/139 PCB and an AD102 GPU boasting 18,176 cores (an 11% increase over the RTX 4090), will step in. It's also said to have a 96 MB L2 cache—33% more than the RTX 4090—and 24 GB of GDDR6X memory.

As for the bandwidth, we can expect a substantial boost—if the speculation holds true. But given NVIDIA's propensity for making significant changes during the planning phase, we must tread carefully with our expectations. The fact is, the photos of this beastly card are most likely nothing more than a test board that’s over-engineered to handle anything engineers throw into it, rather than an actual product that will ever be sold.


MSI's Preparations

One thing seems certain, though—preparation for the RTX 4090 Ti. They've revealed a behemoth 4.5-slot cooling design that could be a glimpse into what we might see when NVIDIA finally unveils the 4090 Ti.

In conclusion, while we can only imagine the monstrous performance (and potential price tag) of this hypothetical behemoth, the tech community is eagerly awaiting any solid news. Will the beast prove to be the RTX 4090 Ti, or are we looking at something else entirely? For now, we're left with questions and speculation—but isn't that half the fun?