GPU [Rumor] Leaked pictures of RTX 3080

[Valantar]

yeah there won't be airflow (or good airflow at least) from the primary fan directly above the GPU. the channels are flushed off

Wow, that is ... weird. What do they benefit from closing them off? Ease of manufacturing I guess, but ... there's no airflow there, so about 1/4 of the fin stack is entirely passive? Why?

Also, that means the flow from the primary fan goes partly out the back (having passed over a tiny amount of fins on the way) and partly out through an extremely long, crooked and restrictive channel (some of it will do a ~135-degree turn and reverse out, losing pressure massively and creating tons of turbulence in the cooler, the rest will pass through a <1cm wide channel that's long) on the other side, with possibly even less fin area covered. This baffles me. I would be seriously interested in seeing some testing done with that fan disconnected to see how much of the cooling is done by the inner fan blowing through the stack.

 

[tinyitx]

It looks like there are 4 heatpipes extending from the GPU chipset area to the end of the card.
From a traditional design point of view, the most critical area to receive cooling is the end region of those heatpipes, where condensation happens.

So, as far as the middle region (i.e. above and below the silver X) having no direct (or little) airflow is concerned, this should not be a big problem.

I see one potential airflow challenge though. In a traditional case layout (take M1 as an example), the 2 bottom case fans will be set up as intake, thus feeding fresh air to the fan (right above the GPU chipset). But, the other fan (near the card's end) is pushing air down through the fins. So, there is airflow 'collison' right there with air going up from bottom case fans.

 

[Valantar]

It looks like there are 4 heatpipes extending from the GPU chipset area to the end of the card.
From a traditional design point of view, the most critical area to receive cooling is the end region of those heatpipes, where condensation happens.

So, as far as the middle region (i.e. above and below the silver X) having no direct (or little) airflow is concerned, this should not be a big problem.

I see one potential airflow challenge though. In a traditional case layout (take M1 as an example), the 2 bottom case fans will be set up as intake, thus feeding fresh air to the fan (right above the GPU chipset). But, the other fan (near the card's end) is pushing air down through the fins. So, there is airflow 'collison' right there with air going up from bottom case fans.

Yeah, the obvious fan configuration here would be with any fans next to the GPU as exhausts, which would fight the primary fan for air, but help the secondary one and prevent recirculation of hot air to a certain extent. Or, I guess, you could have one as intake and one as exhaust, though that sounds like a recipe for recirculation of hot air if I ever heard of one.

Also, while that is indeed how heatpipes work, that is just for spreading heat rapidly, not cooling in and of itself. Cooling happens by passing cool air over the hot fin stack, and heat pipes just alleviate the fact that the GPU is the hottest part on the card, expanding where the fin stack gets hot so to speak - so cooling is beneficial anywhere, not just around the ends of the heat pipes. Cooling around the GPU is still the most effective (at identical flow and fin area), as even with heat pipes that is still the hottest area of the card, so where the temperature delta between the air and fin stack is the largest, increasing thermal transfer.

 

[AlexTSG]

Edit:- another 'leaked' pic of the cooler.

https://static.chiphell.com/forum/202006/10/180235lki7096h3wphz97w.png

Those are some of the biggest heatpipes I've seen used on a graphics card.

If the rumors of an RTX 3090 card with 350W TDP are true, then I'm sure this cooling design has been well thought out. That's a huge amount of heat to dissipate, and I doubt they're going to be aiming for noise levels more than 45dB or so.

Even the RTX 3080 cards could be 320W TDP according to this info at Igor's Lab:

Exclusive info about NVIDIA’s Ampere: 3 models, memory size, PCBs, an extremely expensive cooler for the FE and the search for the leak | igor´sLAB

Recently I had already posted some information about the new graphics card generation from NVIDIA and also processed it in the video, but I was still a little bit reserved concerning the currently…

www.igorslab.de

 

[AlexTSG]

GPU waterblock manufacturers must be rubbing their hands together in glee if we're looking at 300W + graphics cards for the next generation.

 

[VegetableStu]

"hello, 3M? i'd like 50 gallons of novec...."

 

[REVOCCASES]

perfect cooling design for my RCC-BIG1 case, guess Mr. Huang was following ? ?

 

[Mackan]

There was a rumor that Nvidia was a bit scared of "Big Navi", and decided to go all in on their new flagship, to really secure the performance crown. But over 300W? At 7nm they should be able to still win over AMD at 200W, I think. So I am not sure I get this... Interesting to follow, though.

 

[Valantar]

Those are some of the biggest heatpipes I've seen used on a graphics card.

If the rumors of an RTX 3090 card with 350W TDP are true, then I'm sure this cooling design has been well thought out. That's a huge amount of heat to dissipate, and I doubt they're going to be aiming for noise levels more than 45dB or so.

Even the RTX 3080 cards could be 320W TDP according to this info at Igor's Lab:

Exclusive info about NVIDIA’s Ampere: 3 models, memory size, PCBs, an extremely expensive cooler for the FE and the search for the leak | igor´sLAB

Recently I had already posted some information about the new graphics card generation from NVIDIA and also processed it in the video, but I was still a little bit reserved concerning the currently…

www.igorslab.de

The heatpipes are flattened, so smaller than they look.

 

[AlexTSG]

The heatpipes are flattened, so smaller than they look.

I was looking at the area where they travel into the far end of the heatsink. I'm guessing they're 8mm heatpipes, and I'm just used to seeing the smaller 6mm ones.

 

[tinyitx]

I was looking at the area where they travel into the far end of the heatsink. I'm guessing they're 8mm heatpipes, and I'm just used to seeing the smaller 6mm ones.

Those do look like 8mm vs the usual 6mm to me as well. One even speculates that there is a vapour chamber heatsink for the GPU chipset.
Costwise, someone claims it is $150 US just for the heatsink alone (special design + small quantity production run). So, some people are hoping (in vain, I think) that a model without the heatsink can be sold to save them some money as they will watercool the card regardless.
Nvidia's Founder's Editions are interesting in the past few gen. 1080 FE has vapour chamber+ window. 2080 FE forsook centrifugal fan to use dual axial fans. Now, this 3080 has a completely new design never seen before. Innovate just for the sake of innovation is not good. But, I think Nvidia really innovates this time to solve a thermal problem rather than to have a gimmick. It will be interesting to see any new design from AIBs like Asus and MSI. 2 brands that I expect to have 'new' design are Galax and Colorful.

BTW, here is a clearer and higher resolution pic of the heatsink.

https://file1.hkepc.net/2020/06/source/1022085838465456908.jpg

 

[AlexTSG]

I'm wondering if, given the cost of this cooler, and what should be a large improvement in performance over the current 20 series GeForce cards, we'll see pricing creep up another $100 or so across the range. I think the best chance we have to see great performance at competitive prices is for AMD's "Big Navi" GPU to destroy Nvidia's current offerings.

I've never bought a high end graphics card before (I normally buy something in the $200-$300 range), and I'm considering one of these new RTX 3080 cards, specifically to enable CUDA acceleration for rendering. Although, it would be nice to be able to crank up the detail levels in upcoming games like Cyberpunk 2077 too!

I'm hoping we see some price wars and "jebaiting" in the coming months.

 

[tinyitx]

Nvidia must have smelled that Big Navi is going to be powerful. This is probably why they seem to going to release 3080/3080(Super/Ti)/3090 instead of 3070/3080, if the 'leaked' spec list is of any indication.
My bet is, Nvidia will still trump AMD in terms of raw performance, but unfortunately, they will trump in terms of price too. Performance and price are most certainly going to increase simultaneously. No escape from this.

 

[danny.nguyen]

the design would be good if it needs some change on blower-style.....

 

[ParallaxStax]

Spoiler: Old (incorrectly sized) photo

It looks like the reference card is triple slot:

If this if true this could be bad news for a lot of cases.

EDIT: This photo is a combination of two photos. See here for the correctly sized photo. Size estimates: height and length. It looks like the fans are 120mm.

 

[Notional]

That's the 3090 card though. The 3080 might still be the original 2 slot card. I'm sure aftermarket cards of both 3080 and 3090 will be more than 2 slots.

 

[riba2233]

Luckily it should fit in P-ATX V2 no problem, and also have good airflow.

But still, I'm a bit surprised that they basically maxed out in all three dimensions. Even some of the highest end custom rtx2080ti cards are not that big, especially in x, y and z. I can think of only two cards that do that, msi trio and galax hof. Other top models are at least somewhat slimmer or lower or shorter.

 

[max31092]

I somehow believe the proportions don't match...
If I compare the slot height with the with of the PCIe contacts I get different ratios?

Could be me at well past midnight, but maybe someone can check it? https://ibb.co/vwdgdZx


edit: could really be the perspectives of the different photos...

 

[ParallaxStax]

I somehow believe the proportions don't match...
If I compare the slot height with the with of the PCIe contacts I get different ratios?

Could be me at well past midnight, but maybe someone can check it? https://ibb.co/vwdgdZx


edit: could really be the perspectives of the different photos...

Apologies, this is the correctly sized photo:

Also, yes, this is the 3090 card.

 

[Desertf0x9]

Anyone have an estimate for the length of this beast. Pretty certain that this won't fit my case. My only hope is AIB cards.