Nvidia has gone tremendous granular with its newest data dump of the upcoming RTX 50-series graphics playing cards. The AI firm’s Blackwell chips have had their die sizes revealed, and whereas we already knew the RTX 5090 die dimension was large, we now know simply how colossal is that this new chip.
Regardless of this step up in chip dimension, although, probably the most outstanding options of Nvidia‘s personal RTX 5090 FE card is that its PCB and cooler are extremely small, making the long run greatest graphics card king the smallest in three generations.
GB202 is the inner identify for the RTX 5090’s GPU, and it is available in at a dimension of 750mm². The final time Nvidia had a die this large was again beneath its Turing structure in 2018. The TU102, which got here to market because the RTX 2080 Ti graphics card, got here in at 754mm². Exterior of that chip, although, it has by no means had a bigger shopper gaming GPU.
Nonetheless, the remainder of the RTX 5000 collection lineup tells a unique story. Taking place the stack, the GB203 (RTX 5080 and 5070 Ti) is available in only a hair smaller than its earlier era counterpart. It’s measured at 378mm² versus the 379mm² GPU of used within the RTX 4080, 4080 Tremendous, and 4070 Ti Tremendous.
GB205, which might be discovered within the RTX 5070, can also be smaller than the earlier era. Measuring 263mm², it’s a good quantity smaller than the RTX 4070 and Ti’s die, which is available in at 295mm². All the things is smaller this era, besides the RTX 5090’s die. That’s regardless of Nvidia sticking with TSMC’s 4nm manufacturing course of.
Nonetheless, regardless of being the largest die within the stack, the RTX 5090 is likely one of the smallest flagship reference playing cards for an Nvidia flagship in a while. At CES 2025, the corporate claimed that its Founders Version might slot in a svelt, small type issue, or mini ITX PC case, due to a intelligent flow-through cooler design and tiny PCB.
Nvidia has put the RTX 5090’s guts on a “high-density PCB”. Primarily this packs all of the core items of the flagship GPU into a good bundle and permits Nvidia to construct a smaller housing for the cardboard.
Few earlier generations haven’t been match into these small, desk-friendly instances earlier than, with Nvidia’s personal RTX 4090 not dwelling as much as its personal SFF-Prepared program’s necessities. On-line, there are many examples of RTX 4090s being crammed inside such instances, however not with out some additional effort. That is Nvidia’s first actual try to cater to that viewers with such a high-end card.
Nvidia launched its SFF Prepared program final yr, with it aiming to introduce a vetting system for small PC builds that will guarantee patrons know if a sure case and card are suitable with one another.
After the CES 2025 reveal of its RTX 5000 collection playing cards, solely Nvidia’s personal Founders Version 5090 is rated for becoming in a small type issue case, with different playing cards from companions comparable to MSI, Palit, PNY, and Asus utilizing coolers which are a lot bigger. As a substitute, compatibility for these producer’s playing cards thus far tops out on the RTX 5080, with a handful of choices utilizing this GPU capable of squeeze into the SFF-Prepared restrictions.
