NVIDIA Unveils Unreleased Graphics Card Prototype
NVIDIA has revealed a groundbreaking graphics card prototype that never made it to production, providing a glimpse into its design process. In a video titled "Designing the Founders Edition | GeForce RTX 5090" on YouTube, NVIDIA presents a design that was never released, which would have taken up four PCIe slots. This design featured a unique "three-thirds flow-through" cooling system with a three-fan stair-step configuration. However, NVIDIA ultimately decided that the quad-slot concept was not practical for most computer systems.
Engineers then refined the cooling system for the RTX 50-series, creating a more streamlined "two-thirds flow-through" design that maintained thermal performance while reducing the card's size to two PCIe slots.
During development, the team faced technical challenges, particularly in connector design. They encountered difficulties in creating a ribbon cable that could support high-bandwidth UHBR20 DisplayPort 2.1b and HDMI 2.1b connections. Their solution involved incorporating glass fibers into the cable, allowing for support of three DisplayPort and one HDMI connector. The engineers also focused on the liquid metal thermal interface material, conducting extensive stress tests to ensure reliability in various orientations and prevent oxidation. Due to the electrically conductive nature of liquid metal, creating an air-tight seal around the GPU die was crucial to prevent potential hardware failures.


