These new Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti GPUs are absolutely enormous

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Founders Edition
(Image credit: Nvidia)

The RTX 3090 Ti has finally landed! It's been some time since it was first teased by Nvidia at CES back in January. The Ampere flagship is set to launch at US$1,999, while premium models are expected to sell for much more.

The 3090 Ti comes with the fully enabled GA102 GPU with all of the available 10,752 CUDA Cores unlocked. This compares to the 8,704 of the base RTX 3080, 8,960 of the 12GB 3080 and 10,496 of the 3090. The Founders Edition comes with a 1,860 MHz boost clock, a big jump over the 1,695MHz of the 3090. Pack in 24GB of 21Gbps GDDR6X memory and we're looking at a monster of a card.

The RTX 3090 isn't known for its power thriftiness. At 350W it's already a power hungry and hot running GPU. The 3090 Ti elevates that to a new level. The extra cores and higher clocks necessitate a significant jump. The Founders Edition sports a 450W TDP and we can expect more from custom models, especially the overclocked ones. Many of them come with the brand new 12VHPWR power connector. Some, like the EVGA Kingpin RTX 3090 Ti, come with two. Because 1200W of power on tap is totally normal right?

All of that heat means that RTX 3090 coolers need to be either very large, or come with liquid cooling. Let's have a look at some cards from the big names.

Asus

Asus has two RTX 3090 Ti models to begin with, they are the ROG Strix LC GeForce RTX 3090 Ti and TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. There's no regular Strix for now, though it's likely to come in the future.

The ROG Strix LC GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is a hybrid design that combines a blower style cooler and a 240mm AIO. The TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Ti looks much like  the other premium TUF cards on the market. The TUF cooler is already very large and capable and Asus is obviously comfortable that it can handle the higher TDP 3090 Ti.

Both cards come with the new PCIe 5.0 power connector.

EVGA

EVGA is releasing a range of 3090 Ti models. These include three air cooled FTW variations plus a hybrid cooling version, combining a 360m AIO and a blower cooler. Then there's a Hydro Copper model with a pre fitted water block.

The air cooled cards come with EVGA's iCX3 cooler, which is effectively a four slot cooler. Of course there's plenty of RGB too.

Perhaps the craziest 3090 Ti of all is the Kingpin Hybrid Gaming. Though its not yet ready for release, it comes with a 360mm AIO, an OLED display and no less than 1200W of possible power delivery thanks to not one, but two PCIe 5.0 power connectors.

Gigabyte

Gigabyte is releasing an Xtreme WaterForce 3090 Ti. This card comes with a 360mm AIO. That's the only Aorus card for now. We may see an Aorus Xtreme later.

There's a redesigned cooler for Gigabyte's Gaming 3090 Ti. It's much larger than the cooler Gigabyte equips on its lesser Gaming series cards. It looks great too with its large black shroud and what appears to be a lack of RGB lighting

MSI

MSI is releasing four 3090 Ti models, well, its more like two actually, made up of the Suprim and Gaming, each with an OC version. MSI's cooler appear to be unchanged from those you'd find on its RTX 3080 cards. They are big and powerful coolers.

We haven't seen an MSI Lightning RTX 30 series card. Might we ever see one? A big AIO cooled 3090 Ti Lightning would attract a lot of interest. Well, those with big account balances anyway.

Zotac

Zotac is releasing two Amp Extreme Holo 3090 Ti's. It appears as though the coolers are carried over from the 3080 Ti Holo. It's definitely one for lovers of RGB lighting.

The IceStorm cooler is huge, taking up four slots and its long too. It comes with a PCIe 5.0 power connector like most of the other cards being released. It includes a 3x 8-pin adapter, which almost every user will need until there's wide availability of native ATX 3.0 power supplies.

Best CPU for gamingBest gaming motherboardBest graphics cardBest SSD for gaming


Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first

TOPICS
Chris Szewczyk
Hardware Writer

Chris' gaming experiences go back to the mid-nineties when he conned his parents into buying an 'educational PC' that was conveniently overpowered to play Doom and Tie Fighter. He developed a love of extreme overclocking that destroyed his savings despite the cheaper hardware on offer via his job at a PC store. To afford more LN2 he began moonlighting as a reviewer for VR-Zone before jumping the fence to work for MSI Australia. Since then, he's gone back to journalism, enthusiastically reviewing the latest and greatest components for PC & Tech Authority, PC Powerplay and currently Australian Personal Computer magazine and PC Gamer. Chris still puts far too many hours into Borderlands 3, always striving to become a more efficient killer.

Read more
Three RTX 5090 graphics cards on display at the Asus suite, CES 2025.
The RTX 5090 Founders Edition might be svelte but the Asus ROG Astral cards are absolute chonkers
MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G Special Edition with five fans
The RTX 5090 might make triple-fan cards look light on cooling if these four-fan and five-fan versions from Gigabyte and MSI are anything to go by
Three RTX 5090 graphics cards (from Asus and MSI) on a green and blue background
Where to buy the Nvidia RTX 5090: the top-end GPU just launched and here are all the RTX 5090 retailer listings I can find, though stocks are fast dwindling
Nvidia RTX 5090
RTX 5090 prototype GPU with 24,576 cores reportedly leaks hinting at possible 800 W 5090 Ti or Titan monster
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holding an RTX 50-series card.
Nvidia announces the RTX 50-series, led by the $1,999 RTX 5090 with 'twice the performance of the 4090'
Nvidia RTX 4090 Founders Edition
The TDP of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 have been leaked, suggesting it's a little less power-hungry than we thought, though still massive
Latest in Graphics Cards
A side by side comparison of two Asus Q-Release systems, with the original design on the top and the bottom showing the apparently new design.
Asus appears to have quietly changed the design of its Q-Release PCIe slot after claims of potential GPU pin damage
A Colorful RTX 5080 and its box
Three lucky folks in India can win the dubious honour of buying an RTX 5080 GPU at Nvidia MSRP
Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., speaks while holding the company's new GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards and a Thor Blackwell robotics processor during the 2025 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. Huang announced a raft of new chips, software and services, aiming to stay at the forefront of artificial intelligence computing. Photographer: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Group allegedly trying to smuggle Nvidia Blackwell chips stare down bail set at over $1 million
Nvidia RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card on different backgrounds
AI will be crammed in more of the graphics pipeline as Nvidia and Microsoft are bringing AI shading to a DirectX preview next month
Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics cards alongside an RTX 4090
Nvidia says it's sold twice as many RTX 50-series cards as RTX 40-series in the first 5 weeks. I'd bloody well hope so given there was essentially just the RTX 4090 for competition
AMD Radeon RX 9070/9070 XT graphics cards with artistic renders of reference design cards circled
Looks like a reference design AMD RX 9070 XT card has shown up in China, but let's not get carried away with thoughts of MBA cards just yet
Latest in News
Will Poulter holding a CD ROM
'What are most games about? Killing': Black Mirror Season 7 includes a follow-up to 2018 interactive film Bandersnatch
Casper Van Dien in Starship Troopers
Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games
Resident Evil Village - Lady Dimitrescu
'It really truly changed my life in every possible way': Lady Dimitrescu actor says her Resident Evil Village role was just as transformative for her as it was for roughly half the internet in 2021
Storm trooper hero
Another live service shooter is getting shut down, this time before it even launched on Steam
Possibility Space concept art.
Possibility Space owners sue NetEase for $900 million over allegations it spread 'false and defamatory rumors' of fraud at the studio that ultimately forced it to close