RTX 4000: how size matters!

Yesterday was the announcement of NVIDIA RTX 4000, and at the same time a rather cold shower. Between crazy prices and the misleading 12GB RTX 4080, we can also draw a line on compact cards. Indeed, among the many brand announcements, of all the air-cooled cards seen, none is strictly two-slot. To do this, you will have to turn to water-cooled cards.

RTX 4000: Dual slot cards no longer needed?

First, if you have a mini-ITX configuration, or even a fairly standard but relatively compact case, finding a card can be tricky, at least for these XX90 and XX80 series. Indeed, as we suggested during our Lenovo 4090 article , this new generation is made from real cinder blocks. If you choose an air-cooled card, it is possible that you will have to change the case. Whether you’re running Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, etc. the vast majority of cards take up three slots… Unless you’re running four slots on some models (see KFA² Serious Gaming). And this is not to mention the length of more than 30 cm.

Finally, if you (have to) look for a dual-slot model, you’ll have to turn to factory water-cooled cards. For this we find some of them in Colorful, Inno3D and possibly MSI. The latter announced the RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid, but without knowing more, it’s hard to talk about its actual size. However, this means that you will have to deal with a 240mm or even 360mm radiator, so this is not easy in ITX.

Be that as it may, the impressive size of the cards should be compared with the explosion of TDP … And consumption. This phenomenon started with the RTX 3000 series, whose TDP increased from 250W to 320W for the XX80 series. Then from 350W to 450W, going from 3090 to 3090 Ti. However, whoever talks about more consumption/heating also says that the radiator is adapted accordingly.

Moreover, for the past two generations, the consumption of cards has been growing rapidly. Believe that this topic is no longer done … Long gone are the days when consumption became a marketing argument (GTX 600 – GTX 700) – which everyone quoted in the networks / forums – to cut off the competition.