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New RTX 4090 leak teases the design and the launch timeline

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A new leak shows us more details about the upcoming Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090. The card may feature a 16-pin power connector, but it doesn’t seem to have USB Type-C display outputs.

The rumors also suggest that, given the predicted launch date of the next-gen RTX 40-series GPUs, Nvidia’s board partners may have limited time to get ready to launch their custom cards.

Nvidia Ada Lovelace PCB teaser.
Igor's Lab

The information comes from Igor’s Lab. Igor published an alleged picture of the PCB design of the upcoming AD102 GPU. Although Igor wasn’t allowed to publish the real PCB due to keeping his sources anonymous, the picture he posted still gives us some insight into the GPU. Nvidia itself hasn’t said much about its Ada Lovelace graphics cards just yet, so even little details from various sources add something to the pool of predictions we’ve heard so far.

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The rumored RTX 4000 PCB looks a lot like the current generation of cards. As previously predicted, the AD102 PCB is similar to the GA102. The GA102 is used in Nvidia’s current-gen flagship cards, ranging from the RTX 3080 to the RTX 3090 Ti, and to that end, this checks out — the PCB is almost identical to the one found in the RTX 3090 Ti.

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Next-gen Nvidia PCBs come in two different variants, divided by board numbers: PG139 and PG136. The PG139 is V-shaped and will likely find its way into Founders Edition models as well as custom designs. However, it’s the PG136 that we see pictured by Igor’s Lab, and it will likely be used in non-Ti graphics cards.

On the leaked PCB, we can see that the GPU will feature up to four display connectors, three of which are DisplayPort and one HDMI. The card also features NVLink, which is Nvidia’s tech that helps connect two GPUs to utilize them in a single system. Lastly, the GPU comes with a single 16-pin power connector.

Nvidia's development schedule.
Igor's Lab

The power requirements of the RTX 4090 are something we’ve already covered in the past, as they have been the subject of much speculation. With some sources reporting that the RTX 4090 and RTX 4090 Ti may require an up to 1,200-watt power supply unit (PSU), it’s clear that the GPUs will be exceptionally power-hungry. It’s very likely that we may see a 600-watt TDP in this generation of GPUs.

Igor also talks about the processes Nvidia still has to go through before the launch of the next-gen GPUs, which is currently rumored to be around September. There are still plenty of things to be done. According to a leaked image that shows the rumored development schedule of Nvidia Ada Lovelace, no working samples have been sent out to Nvidia’s board partners just yet.

While mass production is supposed to start around August, which doesn’t jeopardize the predicted September release, it’s hard to imagine how custom designs are going to fit into that timeline. Igor’s Lab cites its own sources as it says that the board partners are still designing their GPUs based on the GA102 GPU. It seems that it might be a tight race to get the GPUs released on time to compete against AMD’s next-gen RDNA 3 graphics cards.

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Monica J. White
Monica J. White
Computing Writer
Monica is a UK-based freelance writer and self-proclaimed geek. A firm believer in the "PC building is just like expensive…
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