Nvidia could be doing something very different with the RTX 5090 Founders Edition compared to its previous flagship GPU, and the result might just be a thinner graphics card – which would definitely be a good thing, given how bulky high-end models have got these days.
VideoCardz picked up on a couple of pieces of speculation here, the first of which is that the video memory configuration of the 5090 will be very different, as claimed by Panzerlied, a leaker on Chiphell (and we’d sprinkle plenty of seasoning on this).
We’re told the VRAM (rumored to be GDDR7) will be more densely packed to facilitate having more memory – up to 16 chips in fact (rather than 12), hooked up via a 512-bit bus as previously rumored.
Panzerlied further reckons that Nvidia will split the RTX 5090 into three PCBs or printed circuit boards.
Another leaker on X (formerly Twitter), Kopite7kimi chimes in here, backing up this theory, and expanding on it to claim that there’ll be one main board (with the core components, GPU and memory modules), an I/O board (inputs and outputs, display controllers) and a separate board for the PCIe slot. (Mind you, the latter may be tiny – as Kopite7kimi points out, it may not even be considered as a third PCB).
Kopite7kimi also elaborates on the GPU, which will apparently be a monolithic chip, but consisting of two connected GPU clusters. However, there are no real details on exactly how this might work, or if it could have any negative ramifications for PC gaming – if the RTX 5090 has been designed for more heavyweight work, that is (though you’d hope this wouldn’t be the case).
Analysis: Big changes afoot, potentially
As you can see, the design is quite different, if all these rumors pan out. Certainly there’s been quite a bit of chatter already that Nvidia will run with a 512-bit memory bus (and GDDR7) on the RTX 5090, and so the new speculation makes sense in that light.
In theory, with 16 memory modules, if Nvidia sticks to the 2GB size, the RTX 5090 could run with 32GB of VRAM if it has the full complement of chips. Although just because there’s space for 16 modules doesn’t mean Team Green has to populate them all.
As to the new PCB design, that could have major implications for cooling. Panzerlied even hinted that Nvidia could be looking at a dual slot cooling solution for the RTX 5090, and that would be a major change. In short, the Blackwell flagship could be a somewhat trimmer graphics card than the RTX 4090, and that’d be great news for those wanting to fit the next-gen GPU in a more modest PC case.
How the idea of a slimmer RTX 5090 marries with whatever Nvidia’s plans are to ramp up performance, by quite some margin perhaps – and how much wattage the Blackwell top dog might chug down – that we don’t know, but color us intrigued at this latest twist in the thread of rumors.
The obvious worry is the potential cost of the RTX 5090, of course, if it pushes to 32GB of GDDR7 VRAM and comes with a big performance leap as previously rumored – but more eyes may be on the RTX 5080, mind, which may well arrive first anyhow.
The RTX 5090 is expected to deliver a 50-70% performance improvement over the RTX 4090, particularly excelling at 4K resolution. With 4K 240FPS gaming on the horizon, the RTX 5090 will be ideally suited for the most demanding gaming scenarios.
In theory, with 16 memory modules, if Nvidia sticks to the 2GB size, the RTX 5090 could run with 32GB of VRAM if it has the full complement of chips. Although just because there's space for 16 modules doesn't mean Team Green has to populate them all.
What is the price of the GeForce RTX 5090? The RTX 5090 price is estimated to be between $1,599-$1,999, making it a match or more expensive than its predecessor, the RTX 4090. Compared to current offerings, GeForce RTX 50 series prices may be higher owing to higher manufacturing costs imposed by TSMC.
The NVIDIA RTX 5090 is rumored to have memory configurations that could either be 32GB or 48GB, depending on whether each of the 16 memory modules is 2GB or 3GB. Does the RTX 5090 offer increased VRAM compared to previous models?
It is easily the most powerful 4090 out there, clocking at a stable 3120 MHz in Game Rant's in-house testing. The ASUS RTX 4090 Strix OC is currently one of the best GPUs when it comes to performance, build quality, and consumer appeal.
As for 32GB of RAM, it can be considered overkill for gaming alone. However, if you are also running other resource-intensive programs alongside your games, such as streaming or video editing software, having that much RAM can help ensure that your computer can handle the workload without slowing down.
Usually when someone pairs up an RTX 3090, the bare basic RAM they choose to go alongside with this graphic card is around 16GB. I would highly reccomend at least 32GB of fast DDR4 ram to cope with graphics card like this.
I wouldn't even try on anything less than a GTX 10 series despite minimum being a GTX 970. Also I think RAM is very important so 16gb is probably what you need minimum.
Designed to meet the challenges of today's professional workflows, the RTX 6000 provides unprecedented performance for rendering, AI, graphics, and compute workloads. Delivering up to 10X higher performance than the previous generation, the RTX 6000 helps you take your work to new heights.
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but 24gb of vram is a marketing ploy. Consoles this gen only have 16gb total, meaning more than 16gb of vram just isn't likely to be necessary for any games for the next few years. None of the cards today are likely to be all that great 6 or 7 years from now, anyway. 12~16gb for today is about right.
Overloading VRAM leads to a bottleneck. Your system will start to stutter as it swaps data to the slower system RAM. This results in frame rate drops and potential lag, impacting your gaming experience negatively.
5060 to 5070 is what AMD will compete with (on performance) - 5090, 5080, including 5070 Ti if it launches at all, will be faster than anything AMD has. 5080 will beat 4090 and 5070 Ti should deliver 4090 perf or close. I could easily see 5070 Ti at 799-899 dollars if this will be the case. 5080 at 1199 dollars.
Both use GDDR6X memory, an Nvidia exclusive in its partnership with Micron, but the RTX 4080's memory is actually slightly faster at 22.4 Gbps, rather than the 21.2 Gbps of the RTX 4090. However, with a much wider memory bus on the 4090, there's no wonder that the overall bandwidth is far higher on the flagship card.
I was looking at all the benchmarks and although most of the 4xxx series cards are marginal improvements on 3xxx series, the 4090 looks to be anywhere from 50% to 80% performance improvement on the 3090. Thats a huge jump.
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